■ TRADE
US wants to revise FTA
The US wants to revise a free-trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea to reflect new US trade policy guidelines, Seoul's foreign ministry said yesterday. The US Trade Representative office on Saturday presented a revised pact which had April's original agreement partly modified, added or deleted, the ministry said in a statement. US trade negotiator Wendy Cutler will visit Seoul on Thursday and Friday to explain those changes, it said. "The government will decide on how to respond after scrutinizing the US proposal and consulting with relevant ministries and agencies," it said. The US measure has been expected since last month when Congress and the White House agreed to a bipartisan deal that sets social and environmental standards for FTAs.
■ TRADE
WTO boss in China for talks
WTO Director General Pascal Lamy arrived in China yesterday for a four-day visit aimed at helping to revive momentum in the Doha round of trade talks. Lamy is to meet senior commerce, finance and agricultural officials, Xinhua news agency reported. "At present, the Doha global trade negotiations have entered a crucial stage, and under these circumstances, he hopes to discuss with Chinese officials how to achieve progress in the negotiations," Xinhua reported, citing an interview with Lamy. This week top trade officials from the US, EU, Brazil and India are due to meet in Potsdam, Germany, seeking progress in the talks.
■ BANKING
Resona nears agreement
Resona Holdings Inc, Japan's fourth-largest banking group, and Dai-Ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co, the nation's No. 2 life insurance company, are close to agreement on a tie-up, reports said yesterday. The two firms have entered final negotiations for concluding a capital and operational tie-up, which will be the first time for a major bank and an insurance firm to forge an alliance, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported, without clarifying sources. Under the proposed deal, Dai-Ichi Mutual would acquire preferred shares amounting to around ?300 billion (US$2.48 billion) to be issued by Resona, the paper said. The companies are also eyeing a tie-up in the sale of insurance policies at bank counters, the paper said.
■ INVESTMENT
Indian interest in US grows
Indian companies invested more than US$2 billion in the US last year and this year and completed 48 deals with US firms, a joint study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and professional services' firm Ernst & Young said. Information technology and IT-enabled services' industries accounted for 48 percent of the deals, which included large contracts in other sectors such as pharmaceuticals, hospitality, agricultural products and the automotive industry, the study said. The report also noted that Indian outbound deals crossed US$15 billion last year, and projections suggested this year's value could surpass US$35 billion.
■ REAL ESTATE
Prices `not sustainable'
A sharp surge in property prices is not sustainable in the long-run, Singaporean Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan (馬寶山) said yesterday. Home prices in Singapore surged by 10 percent last year on the back of a robust economy and are expected to increase this year. Rents in the wealthy city-state have also doubled this year.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
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