CHINA
US trade deal to be signed
A trade delegation plans to sign the first phase of a trade deal with the US in Washington on Wednesday next week, according to people familiar with the matter. The plan is still to send the country’s top negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He (劉鶴), to ink the deal, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the private plans. The team will be in Washington from Monday to Wednesday next week, one of the people said. The South China Morning Post earlier reported the dates. The group had originally aimed to travel earlier in the month, but had to alter its plans after US President Donald Trump sent a tweet saying the deal would be signed on Wednesday next week at the White House, the newspaper said.
VIETNAM
Five energy deals signed
Electricity firm EVN has signed five new deals to buy electricity from Laos starting next year, the state-run company said. The southeast Asian nation faces severe power shortages from 2021, as demand outpaces construction of new plants, with demand expected to exceed supply by 6.6 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2021, and 15 billion kWh in 2023. Pacts signed in Hanoi over the weekend with Laos’ Phongsubthavy and Chealun Sekong groups provide for EVN to buy electricity from five hydropower plants, beginning in 2021 and 2022, EVN said. The plants have combined capacity of 363 megawatts, it added, but gave no details.
FRANCE
Growth to remain stable
The economy is to grow 1.3 percent this year, the same pace as last year, as long as a compromise is reached quickly with labor unions that are on strike over pension reform, Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire said in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche. “The economic outlook for France is good and solid,” Le Maire told the newspaper. The economy has created more than 500,000 jobs since 2017, and unemployment should drop to 7 percent by the end of President Emmanuel Macron’s term in 2022, he said. The jobless rate was 8.3 percent in the third quarter of last year.
ARGENTINA
FX rules to stay in place
The country’s “strict” foreign-exchange regulations are to remain in force as the government seeks to stabilize the economy, the Pagina/12 newspaper reported on Saturday, citing Minister of Production Matias Kulfas. Lawmakers last month handed President Alberto Fernandez extraordinary powers to renegotiate debt terms with creditors and increase taxes, marking a victory on his first legislation since taking office last month. “In the current context, strict exchange rate regulations are inevitable,” Kulfas, a former central bank official with unorthodox views and close ties to the president, said in an interview with the newspaper.
BANKING
BNP might launch platform
BNP Paribas SA is planning to join JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc by setting up an electronic currency trading and pricing platform in Singapore. The facility would support electronic trading of 50 currencies in spot, forward, swaps, non-deliverable forwards and options, a statement said. It would also allow trading of precious and base metals. Singapore’s currency market saw average trading volumes of US$633 billion a day in April last month, according to the latest data available from the Bank for International Settlements.
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
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such
SENSOR BUSINESS: The Taiwanese company said that a public tender offer would begin on May 7 through its wholly owned subsidiary Yageo Electronics Japan Yageo Corp (國巨), one of the world’s top three suppliers of passive components, yesterday said it is to launch a tender offer to fully acquire Japan’s Shibaura Electronics Co for up to ¥65.57 billion (US$429.37 million), with an aim to expand its sensor business. The tender offer would be a crucial step for the company to expand its sensor business, Yageo said. Shibaura Electronics is the world’s largest supplier of thermistors, with a market share of 13 percent, research conducted in 2022 by the Japanese firm showed. If a deal goes ahead, it would be the second acquisition of a sensor business since