Parliament’s failure to agree on Brexit is holding back investment, British Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Greg Clark said after Nissan Motor Co abandoned plans to expand production in the UK.
Clark said while the company’s decision to produce its X-Trail model in Japan instead of Sunderland, northeast England, was “made on broader business grounds,” there is “damaging uncertainty” about the terms of Britain’s departure from the EU.
Nissan, which has already received ￡2.6 million (US$3.4 million) of a nine-year, ￡61 million program of government support, will have to reapply for the grants “in the light of the changed investments that they’re making,’’ Clark told the House of Commons on Monday.
Across the industry “there are investments poised to be made if we can settle this question of the terms of our exit and future relationship,” Clark said, before warning that a no-deal divorce from the EU would be “ruinous for our prospects.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May started a two-day visit to Northern Ireland yesterday as she seeks support for her divorce deal with the EU. The embattled premier has until next week to secure changes that will satisfy anti-EU members of her Conservative Party and win her a majority in Parliament.
British Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, who said the Nissan decision had more to do with the market for diesel vehicles than Brexit, called on the EU to compromise and said the March 29 deadline for leaving the bloc will not be delayed.
“We want to work with the EU to reach a deal, but if they are not prepared to do that they will have to take responsibility that we are heading towards a no-deal exit,” Grayling said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph. “I’ve been in every Cabinet meeting, and there’s been no conversation about delaying post-March 29. We are not delaying Article 50.”
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
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