■ INFLATION
Beijing orders faster food
China's government has issued a wide-reaching order to speed up food shipments to markets as the bad winter lashing much of the country hampers efforts to rein in persisting inflation. The order, issued late on Friday and published in state media yesterday, calls on police, railway bureaus and even gas stations to do all they can to ensure timely delivery of food supplies after snow and ice storms clogged roads, cut electricity and delayed deliveries. Under the measure, food trucks will be exempt from paying road tolls. Potential shortages in food and energy would add to inflationary pressures.
■ BANKING
Crisis followed FSA 'failure'
The Northern Rock crisis has revealed systemic failures at Britain's financial regulator after it failed to spot the reckless behavior of the bank's directors, British lawmakers said in a report published yesterday. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) failed to properly supervise Northern Rock, Britain's fifth-largest mortgage lender, the Treasury select committee said. The report recommended the FSA improve its communications procedures to prevent panic in the future as well as an expanded role for the central bank's deputy governor, who would advise the Treasury chief on potential crises. The FSA said it was studying the report and would release the conclusions of an internal review in March.
■ AVIATION
China to build 100 airports
China yesterday announced plans to build nearly 100 new airports by 2020 to cater for soaring demand. The proposals will mean eight out of every 10 residents will live within 100km of an airport within 12 years, the General Administration of Civil Aviation said. It put the cost of building the 97 new airports at 450 billion yuan (US$61.6 billion). Air traffic volume rose 16 percent to 185 million passengers last year, official figures show. The General Administration predicts passenger traffic will grow by 11.4 percent a year between now and 2020, and freight traffic by 14 percent.
■ FOOD
Dunkin' to enter Shanghai
Dunkin' Brands Inc, the owner of the Dunkin' Donuts chain, will open up its first shop in Shanghai this year and plans to have 100 stores in China in the next decade. The first store might open in May, Michelle King, a spokeswoman for the Canton, Massachusetts-based firm, said on Friday. Dunkin' Brands recently granted franchisee rights for Dunkin' Donuts for Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to Mercuries & Associates Ltd (三商行), which is the company's partner in Taiwan. Dunkin' Donuts opened its first outlet in Taiwan last January.
■ WTO
Green light for Ukraine
The WTO agreed on Friday to accept Ukraine as a member, giving President Viktor Yushchenko a powerful new sales pitch as he made the case here for greater foreign investment. WTO membership also will require the former Soviet republic to continue reforms aimed at bringing Ukraine closer to the EU, which it has aims of ultimately joining. Yushchenko said joining the body could also improve Ukraine's troubled trade relations with Russia, which also aspires to WTO membership but still has numerous issues to resolve. The WTO's 151-member general council will formally invite Ukraine to join on Feb. 5, after which the country still must sign the accession treaty.
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
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