FRANCE
Livestock industry falters
President Francois Hollande on Saturday called on retailers to give higher prices to livestock producers to help support them. The nation’s cattle, pork and milk sectors are in crisis due to stagnating prices and falling exports, with about 10 percent of the nation’s producers on the brink of bankruptcy, Minister of Agriculture Stephane Le Foll said on Friday. Farmers said a deteriorating international market, marked by a Russian food embargo, slowing Chinese demand and cheaper supply from other EU countries, has exposed long-standing pressures from business costs and retail consolidation in the nation.
AVIATION
Compensation offer rejected
Families of Germans killed in the crash of a Germanwings jet in the French Alps have turned down the airline’s compensation offer, demanding a higher amount of at least 100,000 euros (US$108,300), their lawyer said on Saturday. Lufthansa, the parent company of low-cost carrier Germanwings, announced on June 30 that it would offer compensation of 25,000 euros to the families of each of 72 Germans killed in the disaster in March. In addition, each of the victim’s immediate surviving kin — parents, children, adopted children, spouses and partners — would receive 10,000 euros. After the crash, Lufthansa offered aid of up to 50,000 euros per passenger to their relatives, independent of any eventual compensation payments. In addition, children and teenagers who had lost one or both parents are to receive support toward their education from a special fund of up to 7.8 million euros.
SOVEREIGN DEBT
Germans pan Greek bailout
More than half of Germans think the planned deal with Greece is bad and many would have preferred that the crisis-stricken country left the eurozone rather than getting the chance for further aid, according to an opinion poll. Lawmakers in Germany, the biggest contributor to eurozone bailouts, on Friday gave their go-ahead for the currency bloc to negotiate a third bailout for Greece that could total 86 billion euros (US$93.14 billion) over three years. In the YouGov survey seen by German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, 56 percent of respondents said they thought the plan for such a deal with Greece was bad, with just over one fifth of those saying it was very bad. Only 2 percent deemed it to be positive while another 27 percent said they thought it was somewhat positive. The poll of 1,380 Germans showed there was a lack of enthusiasm in Europe’s largest economy about the result of Friday’s vote, Welt am Sonntag said on Sunday, adding that the poll showed 48 percent of Germans would have liked to see Greece quit the eurozone.
APPS
Suit against Uber proceeds
Uber Technologies Inc lost a bid to dismiss a lawsuit over its claims to being safer than taxis. US District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco on Friday allowed the case to proceed, finding that the app-based ride-hailing service has advertised itself as “objectively and measurably safer” than competitors. Yellow Cab Co and 18 other taxi services that operate in Californian metropolitan areas including San Francisco and Los Angeles sued Uber in March, alleging it misleads customers about its background checks for drivers and driver safety. While letting the case move forward under a federal false advertising law, Tigar tossed the taxi companies’ unfair competition allegations and their demand for restitution under state law.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
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