■ Tourism
Passenger figures fall
Inbound and outbound passenger numbers for last year were down significantly, largely due to the impact of the SARS outbreak earlier in the year, according to tallies released recently by the Tourism Bureau under the Transportation and Communications Ministry. The number of arrivals in Taiwan for last year dropped 24.5 percent over the previous year to 2.24 million, according to the bureau's statistics. The number of arrivals dipped to 40,000 in May, during the peak of the outbreak, far below the average of 250,000 arrivals per month prior to the appearance of SARS. The sharpest drops were seen in the number of arrivals from Japan, Hong Kong and Macao, and the US, in that order. Meanwhile, the number of outbound passengers for last year dropped by 19.8 percent over the previous year to 5.92 million, with Hong Kong, Japan, the US, Europe and Oceania bearing the brunt of the drop.
■ Trade
US, China in furniture spat
A federal trade panel in the US voted Friday to investigate allegations that Chinese companies are dumping millions of dollars worth of wooden bedroom furniture into the US market at artificially low prices. With little discussion, the US International Trade Commission gave a victory to the 30 American furniture manufacturers that filed a petition seeking the investigation. Manufacturers say China's practices are costing US jobs, but US retailers say high tariffs on Chinese furniture will cost retail jobs. "We have cleared a major hurdle with today's vote," said John Bassett, president and CEO of Virginia-based Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co. A group of furniture retailers that includes JC Penney and Crate & Barrel vowed to fight efforts to impose taxes on Chinese imports. Furniture manufacturers are seeking duties of around 250 percent.
■ Tolerance
Airlines offer limited menus
A former New Zealand Jewish community leader has complained that Dubai-based Emirates Airlines will not serve kosher food on its flights, a newspaper reported yesterday. Bruce Hill, who now lives in Melbourne, Australia, said he had asked for a kosher meal when he booked a flight to New Zealand at Christmas, no objection was raised and it was noted in his travel details, Wellington's Dominion Post reported. But on the plane he was told that kosher food was not served, even though the airline served special foods for people of many religions, even the small Indian Jain sect. Hill said that when he complained to Emirates' New Zealand office, he was told that Emirates was an Arab airline and did not expect Jews to use it. The paper said that a spokeswoman for Israel's El Al airline said it did not serve Moslem halal food on its flights.
■ Trade
US urges Argentina to pay
US President George W. Bush will urge Argentina at next week's Summit of the Americas to "take the difficult decisions that it needs to take" to tackle its debt problem, his national security adviser said Friday. Bush will deliver that message when he meets with Argentine President Nestor Kirchner Jan. 13 on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas in Monterrey, Mexico, Condoleezza Rice told reporters in a pre-trip briefing. "There have to be some difficult decisions and some difficult steps taken by Argentina," she said. "We are in constant discussion with Argentina about the need to be very careful to meet the terms that it had signed on" with the IMF, said Rice.
EXTRATERRITORIAL REACH: China extended its legal jurisdiction to ban some dual-use goods of Chinese origin from being sold to the US, even by third countries Beijing has set out to extend its domestic laws across international borders with a ban on selling some goods to the US that applies to companies both inside and outside China. The new export control rules are China’s first attempt to replicate the extraterritorial reach of US and European sanctions by covering Chinese products or goods with Chinese parts in them. In an announcement this week, China declared it is banning the sale of dual-use items to the US military and also the export to the US of materials such as gallium and germanium. Companies and people overseas would be subject to
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
TENSE TIMES: Formosa Plastics sees uncertainty surrounding the incoming Trump administration in the US, geopolitical tensions and China’s faltering economy Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), Taiwan’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday posted overall revenue of NT$118.61 billion (US$3.66 billion) for last month, marking a 7.2 percent rise from October, but a 2.5 percent fall from one year earlier. The group has mixed views about its business outlook for the current quarter and beyond, as uncertainty builds over the US power transition and geopolitical tensions. Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠), a vertically integrated supplier of plastic resins and petrochemicals, reported a monthly uptick of 15.3 percent in its revenue to NT$18.15 billion, as Typhoon Kong-rey postponed partial shipments slated for October and last month, it said. The
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