■ SOUTH KOREA
US beef imports jump
Just three months after going back on sale despite massive protests, US beef imports last month accounted for nearly half of the total value of the meat brought in, a report said yesterday. The Agro-Fisheries Trade Corporation statistics, issued by Yonhap news agency, said South Korea imported US$43.98 million of US beef, 43 percent of the total value of beef imports last month. In terms of tonnage, US beef accounted for 35 percent of the total last month, with 7,030 tonnes shipped to South Korea, the figures said. The country was once the world’s third-largest market for US beef, with imported US$850 million of it per year until imports were suspended in 2003 after a US case of mad cow disease.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Daimler suspends production
German carmaker Daimler, hit by falling demand amid the global financial crisis, plans to suspend production for a month beginning in December, a newspaper said in report to be published yesterday. The break in production would begin on Dec. 11 and last until Jan. 12, Frankfurter Sonntagszeitung reported, citing a company spokesman. Daimler, the first luxury car maker to present its quarterly results, unveiled big drops in profits on Thursday and issued a new profit warning owing to the global banking crisis. “The financial crisis is turning into an economic crisis,” Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche told a telephone news conference. It provoked “in recent weeks a dramatic slump on our major markets,” he said. “The situation is very challenging,” Zetsche said. “We are living in extraordinary times.”
■ TELECOMS
Saudi Telecom profit drops
Saudi Telecom Co, the kingdom’s largest telecommunications company, said third quarter profit fell 4.1 percent on expansion costs. Net income declined to 3.01 billion riyals (US$804 million) from 3.14 billion riyals a year earlier, the company said in a statement to the Saudi bourse yesterday. Nine-month earnings per share rose to 4.94 riyals from 4.48 riyals. Saudi Telecom will pay a dividend of 2 billion riyals, or 1 riyal a share, for the third-quarter, the company said.
■ FINANCE
Kuwait to guarantee deposits
The Kuwaiti government will move urgently to guarantee deposits in local banks in a bid to strengthen confidence in the financial system, the central bank said yesterday. “The government will urgently submit a draft law [to parliament] to guarantee deposits in local banks,” said a statement by the central bank posted on the Kuwait Stock Exchange Web site.
■ TEXTILES
China exports ‘stable’
China will keep textile exports “stable and sustainable” next year as it ends controls on shipments to the US and Europe, and WTO restrictions end. The Ministry of Commerce will maintain “dialogue and communication” with relevant countries as limits imposed on China’s textile exports by the WTO expire on Dec. 31, the ministry said in a statement published on its Web site. China aims to boost next year’s textile exports while avoiding any unwanted expansion of output after the restrictions end. The nation wants to minimize trade friction next year as textile agreements signed with the US and Europe also run out next year. “Local ministry of commerce offices should continue to do their job in helping enterprises to change growth models and adjust product structures,” the ministry said.
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
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