■ 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.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
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