■TRADE
Exports to China drop
Although Taiwan remained China’s third-largest source of imports last year, its share declined as Chinese purchases of Taiwanese goods contracted 17.1 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) reported yesterday. The ministry, citing data from Chinese customs, said that Taiwanese products accounted for 8.5 percent of Chinese imports last year, down from 9.1 percent in 2008. Japan remained China’s top source of imports with a 13 percent share last year, slightly down from 13.3 percent in 2008, while South Korea was second with a market share of 10.2 percent, up from the 9.9 percent of the previous year.
■MEXICO
Economy shrinks 6.8%
The country’s economy shrank 6.8 percent last year, the worst result in at least 30 years, the Treasury Department said on Friday. The decline in full-year gross domestic product outpaced the 6.2 percent fall during the currency and debt crisis in 1995. A bright spot was a 1.2 percent expansion in the fourth quarter of last year from the third quarter, the report said. Still, it was the second consecutive quarter of GDP growth. The economy expanded 2.9 percent in the third quarter. The Treasury Department said it expects GDP to grow about 3 percent for all of this year.
■BANKS
Icesave talks go nowhere
Talks between Icelandic, British and Dutch officials ended on Friday with no immediate solution to a dispute over compensation for funds lost when Iceland’s banking system collapsed. Iceland is seeking a way to avoid a potentially damaging referendum over repaying the US$5.7 billion that Britain and the Netherlands spent to compensate their citizens’ depositors in Icesave, an Internet bank that collapsed with its parent Landsbanki in October 2008. In a joint statement, the trio of countries said their ministers “exchanged views,” but declined to elaborate further on Friday’s discussions in The Hague.
■INSURANCE
IMF chief touts premium
The head of the IMF said on Friday that he would propose an “insurance premium” for the financial system to cover any eventual new crisis. “What we are trying get across [to help limit the damage of any future crisis] is that the financial system is a risk system,” Dominique Strauss-Kahn told France 24 television. “What we must avoid is the profits going only to the private sector while any losses have to be taken by society as a whole,” Strauss-Kahn said. The financial sector should pay an insurance premium to provide for the times when the system fails to work, he said.
■WORK
Young Europeans struggling
Youth unemployment across Europe has risen as inadequate training and the widespread use of short-term contracts make young workers one of the main victims of the economic downturn, EU officials said on Friday. The unemployment rate among those under the age of 25 across the 27-nation bloc hit 21.4 percent last month, up from 16.9 percent during the same period a year earlier and more than double the rate of 9.6 percent for the general population, EU statistics office Eurostat said on Friday. The jobless rate among youths last month varied greatly across the EU, from a low of 7.6 percent in the Netherlands to a high of 44.5 percent in Spain.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy
Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes do not work. Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into a sport utility vehicle and a sedan, and crashing into a large concrete barrier. Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla Inc sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the vehicles brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than US$23,000 in
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday held its first board of directors meeting in the US, at which it did not unveil any new US investments despite mounting tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Trump has threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, prompting market speculation that TSMC might consider boosting its chip capacity in the US or ramping up production of advanced chips such as those using a 2-nanometer technology process at its Arizona fabs ahead of schedule. Speculation also swirled that the chipmaker might consider building its own advanced packaging capacity in the US as part