■ Trade
China gets 14% of lawsuits
China is facing 14 percent of the world's total anti-dumping suits, or more than any other nation, Xinhua news agency said, citing Wang Qinhua, an official in the Ministry of Commerce. Other countries had filed 500 anti-dumping suits against China as of the end of last year, costing China "dozens of billions" in lost export revenue, Xinhua said. Last year, foreign countries filed 47 anti-dumping suits against Chinese manufacturers and 55 in 2001. China has filed 24 anti-dumping suits against overseas manufacturers since 1997, when China issued anti-dumping regulations. Half of those cases were filed after China joined the WTO in 2001.
■ Agriculture
Nigeria to become rice hub
Thai companies may grow rice in Nigeria and export some of the grain to other West African countries, the Nation reported, citing Thai Commerce Minister Adisai Bodharamik. Thailand will also ask its rice millers to invest in Nigeria, the report said. The two nations negotiated the trade agreement during the WTOs talks being held in Cancun, Mexico, it said. Thailand, the world's biggest rice exporter, sold 1 percent, or 4 million tonnes, more rice overseas in the first seven months of this year than in the same period last year, the Krungthep Thurakit reported last month. The value of the nation's rice exports rose 22 percent to US$935 million. Food exports accounted for about 14 percent of Thailand's overseas sales of 2.95 trillion baht (US$72 billion) last year, according to the Bank of Thailand.
■ Macroeconomics
Koizumi pledges 2% growth
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, seeking reelection as head of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), reiterated that he expects to achieve economic growth of 2 percent for Japan by the fiscal year ending March 2007. "I am determined to push forth with structural reforms. Economic growth of 2 percent by 2006 is something we're aiming for," Koizumi said yesterday on television, repeating his Sept. 8 statement that nominal GDP should expand by 2 percent in the year to March 31, 2007 as a result of his policies. Koizumi, who became prime minister in April 2001 with a pledge to pull the world's second-largest economy out of a 10-year slump by curbing government spending, reforming the banking system, easing regulations and selling off state-owned corporations, is betting the same platform will keep him in power.
■ Airlines
Virgin, Emirates `no threat'
Qantas Airways Ltd's bid to form an alliance with Air New Zealand Ltd would only be allowed if the carriers could show "overwhelming public benefits," Australia's antitrust regulator said. A proposal by Qantas, Australia's largest airline, to buy a NZ$550 million (US$320 million) stake in Air New Zealand was blocked last week by Australia's Competition & Consumer Commission, which said an alliance would drive up fares. "It's necessary to demonstrate that there are overwhelming public benefits that will compensate for the anti-competitive detriments," ACCC Chairman Graeme Samuel said in a TV interview. Samuel, who took up his post in July, has said he doesn't agree that newcomers such as Richard Branson's Virgin Blue Pty and Emirates are a threat, because Qantas and Air New Zealand control 91 percent of routes between Australia and New Zealand.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2