■FRANCE
Angry workers hold 3M boss
Angry workers were yesterday holding the boss of their factory hostage to try to make their US employers improve their redundancy package, police and union officials said. The detention came less than two weeks after workers held the boss of Sony France hostage overnight before freeing him after he agreed to reopen talks on their pay-off when the factory closed. The latest case was in the central town of Pithiviers, where employees of the US industrial conglomerate 3M detained their boss late on Tuesday to force him to renegotiate pay-offs and compensations for workers moved to other plants. “This action [hostage-taking] is our only currency. But there is no aggression,” union representative Jean-Francois Caparros said. “Talks were held overnight but they led nowhere.”
■FOOTWEAR
Nike stops orders
Sportswear producer Nike said yesterday it would stop orders with three footwear factories in China and one in Vietnam as the global downturn forces the company to trim output. It will also terminate shipments from a number of apparel contract plants, Nike said in an e-mailed statement. The locations of the apparel factories were not revealed. “This is part of a long-term consolidation of our supply chain that we began in mid-2007,” said Erin Dobson, the company’s spokeswoman in Beaverton, Oregon. “We are not immune to the current global economic situation and because of this we have accelerated our process.”
■FAST FOOD
Yum buys Chinese hot pot
US fast food giant Yum Brands Inc will pay more than US$60 million for a stake of up to 20 percent in Chinese hot pot chain Little Sheep, the Chinese company said yesterday. Yum Brands Inc, the parent of fast food chain KFC, will buy 143 million shares, or 13.9 percent, of Little Sheep at HK$2.4 (US$0.31) per share via a subsidiary, the Chinese firm said in a statement filed with the Hong Kong bourse. It has also agreed to acquire another 62 million shares of the Chinese restaurant at the same price after the first transaction is completed, bringing the total investment to US$63.7 million, the statement said.
■ENTERTAINMENT
Blockbuster downloads
Blockbuster Inc plans to let TiVo Inc subscribers download movies to their home TVs from its online movie library, in the latest deal aimed at broadening the brand to computers and other gadgets. Under the deal announced yesterday, most TiVo users with high-speed Internet service will be able to view movies offered by Blockbuster’s On Demand system. Blockbuster joins rival Netflix and Amazon.com, which also provide online video straight to TiVo users’ TVs. The agreement also calls for Blockbuster’s brick-and-mortar stores and online shop to sell TiVo’s digital video recorders, potentially exposing both companies’ customers to the other’s services.
■FINANCE
Mitsubishi creates brokerage
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc plans to take a 60 percent stake in a new brokerage that it will create with US investment bank Morgan Stanley, local media reported yesterday. The two firms have already agreed to merge their brokerage units next spring, with Mitsubishi UFJ taking control of the joint entity, the Nikkei financial daily said. Mitsubishi UFJ, Japan’s biggest banking group, said in a statement that no decisions had been made regarding potential business ventures with Morgan Stanley.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
ACTION PLAN: Taiwan would expand procurement from the US and encourage more companies to invest in the US to deepen bilateral cooperation, Lai said The government would not impose reciprocal tariffs in retaliation against US levies, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, as he announced five strategies to address the issue, including pledging to increase Taiwanese companies’ investments in the US. Lai has in the past few days met with administrative and national security officials, as well as representatives from various industries, to explore countermeasures after US President Donald Trump on Wednesday last week announced a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese imports. In a video released yesterday evening, Lai said that Taiwan would not retaliate against the US with higher tariffs and Taiwanese companies’ commitments to
‘SPECIAL CHANNEL’: Taipei’s most important tasks are to stabilize industries affected by Trump’s trade tariffs and keep negotiations with Washington open, a source said National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) arrived in the US for talks with US President Donald Trump’s administration, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday. Wu was leading a delegation for a meeting known as the “special channel,” the Financial Times reported earlier. It marked Trump’s first use of the channel since returning to the White House on Jan. 20. Citing a source familiar with the matter, the Financial Times reported that Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) was also a part of the delegation. The visit came days after China concluded war games around Taiwan and amid Trump’s
CHIP EXCEPTION: An official said that an exception for Taiwanese semiconductors would have a limited effect, as most are packaged in third nations before being sold The Executive Yuan yesterday decried US President Donald Trump’s 32 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods announced hours earlier as “unfair,” saying it would lodge a representation with Washington. The Cabinet in a statement described the pledged US tariffs, expected to take effect on Wednesday next week, as “deeply unreasonable” and “highly regrettable.” Cabinet spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said that the government would “lodge a solemn representation” with the US Trade Representative and continue negotiating with Washington to “ensure the interests of our nation and industries.” Trump at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday announced a 10 percent baseline tariff on most goods
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