■ ECONOMY
World Bank pessimistic
The global economy has yet to fully absorb the shock of the US subprime mortgage crisis, leaving unclear the overall effect that financial problems will have on growth, World Bank president Robert Zoellick said on Tuesday. "There are still more shakeouts in financial markets," he said. "It's not clear how the financial market adjustment process will still affect the real economies. But I think this is a period of some uncertainty of economic growth." Zoellick spoke at the headquarters of the WTO for a two-day meeting aimed at improving the commercial potential of poorer nations. He said the completion of difficult global trade talks could provide an important boost for the global economy.
■ TRADE
ITC drops Chinese case
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) said yesterday that it was canceling anti-dumping duties on Chinese paper in a closely watched case that prompted Beijing to file a WTO complaint. The ITC said it concluded that the US industry was not threatened by imports of Chinese coated paper. "No anti-dumping or countervailing duties will be imposed on imports of this product," the agency said on its Web site. It said the ruling applied to similar imports from South Korea and Indonesia. In May, the US government imposed preliminary tariffs ranging from 23.19 percent to 99.54 percent on imports of glossy Chinese paper used in art books, textbooks and magazines.
■ OIL
NOC, ExxonMobil ink deal
Libya's National Oil Corp (NOC) said on Tuesday that it struck a deal on Tuesday with ExxonMobil of the US to explore for oil offshore in the Gulf of Sirte. The agreement covers Bloc 21, a 10,000km2 area 172km off the Libyan coast lying in waters up to 2,000m deep, NOC said. ExxonMobil will be able to explore the area for five years, NOC said. Libya's current output is 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) and it has estimated reserves of 42 billion barrels. It aims to reach a production level of three million bpd in 2010.
■ HONG KONG
SFC okays Islamic fund
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has cleared the way for the territory's first Islamic fund, as it tries to compete with Singapore and Malaysia as a hub for Muslim investment. The commission said it authorized the first retail fund after Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權) said last month that the government would push to develop products that comply with Islamic law. Islamic finance fuses principles of Shariah or Islamic law and modern banking. Funds are banned from investing in companies associated with tobacco, alcohol or gambling or earning interest.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Hyundai to cut production
Hyundai Motor Co said it will stop producing small cars in South Korea by 2012 due to low profit margins. "Sales of vehicles with 1 liter engines and smaller in Korea do not make high profits," Hyundai Motor spokesman Jake Jang said yesterday. Small car models will continue to be produced in its plant in Chennai, India, which has an annual capacity of 600,000 vehicles, he said. Hyundai Motor sold 240,953 vehicles last month, up 15 percent from 209,047 vehicles a year ago. Strong sales of the Santa Fe and Veracruz SUVs in the US and the i30 hatchback in Europe helped the numbers.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
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