World Business Quick Take

■ Trade
China gets 14% of lawsuits
China 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 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.