US soy meal export hub damage disrupts trade
US soy meal export hub damage disrupts tradeBloombergShipments from a US west coast terminal that handles almost 20 percent of the nation’s soybean meal exports have been curbed while damage from a crane collapse earlier this month is repaired, marking the latest setback to global trade flows. Photo: ReutersOmaha, Nebraska-based Ag Processing declined to comment. The terminal in Grays Harbor handles the bulk of the US’ soy meal shipped to Asia from the west coast. “This will dramatically impede US soybean meal exports.”Soybean meal futures in Chicago have fallen 1.9 percent this month. “People hate to store meal,” O’Neil said.
Source:Taipei Times
September 25, 2021 15:56 UTC
European stocks slip as investors show hesitancy
European stocks slip as investors show hesitancyReutersEuropean stocks fell on Friday, as worries about troubled property developer China Evergrande Group (恆大集團) and weak German business confidence data prompted investors to book some profits after a mid-week rally. However, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said in an interview aired on CNBC that many of the drivers of a recent spike in eurozone inflation are temporary and could fade in the next year. London’s FTSE 100 ended lower as concerns about a slowdown in global economic growth outweighed gains in healthcare and energy stocks. The FTSE 100 has gained nearly 9.5 percent so far this year on higher energy prices and accommodative central bank policies. However, it has significantly underperformed a 17 percent rise among its European peers.
Source:Taipei Times
September 25, 2021 15:56 UTC
DPP eyeing CPTPP legal reforms: source
DPP eyeing CPTPP legal reforms: sourceBy Lee Hsin-fang and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe Executive Yuan is ready to propose amendments to the country’s patent, trademark and copyright laws to compete with China in the race to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a source said yesterday. Officials are considering amendments to the Patent Act that would allow a pharmaceutical company to sue for infringements during the evaluation and approval period for a new drug, the source said. Efforts to amend the law were stalled during the previous legislative session after DPP lawmakers expressed misgivings about the draft amendments, they said. Trademark laws would be changed to make counterfeiting trademarks on packaging material a crime, the source said. The source said that Cabinet officials feel more confident of being able to pass these amendments with Taiwan having applied for CPTPP membership.
Source:Taipei Times
September 25, 2021 15:56 UTC
Asian shares mixed on China developer, virus worries
Asian shares mixed on China developer, virus worriesAP, TOKYOAsian shares were mixed on Friday amid concerns over troubled Chinese real-estate developer China Evergrande Group (恆大集團) and the COVID-19 pandemic. For the week, the index lost 0.1 percent. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index surged 2.06 percent to 30,248.81 as investors returned from a midweek break, but was down 0.25 percent from a week earlier. South Korea’s KOSPI inched up 0.07 percent to 3,125.24, declining 0.49 percent from a week earlier, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.37 percent to 7,342.6, down 0.83 percent on the week. India’s SENSEX rose 0.27 percent to 60,048.47, up 1.75 percent from a week earlier.
Source:Taipei Times
September 25, 2021 15:56 UTC
Eric Chu wins race for KMT leadership
Eric Chu wins race for KMT leadership‘FIGHT FOR VICTORY’: Eric Chu said his election victory would be the beginning of the DPP’s worries and that he would open all channels of communication with ChinaBy Shih Hsiao-kuang and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writerFormer New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) was yesterday elected Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman in a four-way race that included outgoing chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣). Newly elected Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Eric Chu poses with supporters following his election in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Sam Yeh, AFPIn his victory speech yesterday, Chu said his election would be the start of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) worries. Outgoing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang, left, yesterday in Taipei announces arrangements for handing the party’s reins over to his successor Eric Chu. Although Chu won the election, the KMT would come under increasing pressure from unification supporters, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
September 25, 2021 15:56 UTC
China sets Canadians free after Meng settles with US
Protesters holding pictures of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig call for their release outside the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver, Canada, on March 6, 2019. About an hour after Meng’s plane left Canada for China, Trudeau revealed that Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were also on their way home. The men were arrested in China in December 2018, shortly after Canada arrested Meng on a US extradition request. “Michael Kovrig is free. To the inimitable, indefatigable and inspiring Michael Kovrig, welcome home!” Ero said in a statement.
Source:Taipei Times
September 25, 2021 15:56 UTC
Biden seeks ‘free and open’ Pacific in first meet with Australia, India, Japan
“Free and open” has become code for expressing worry about swelling Chinese economic, diplomatic and military presence — including threats to vital international sea lanes. Biden, who often talks about democracies needing to prove their capability in an age of powerful autocracies in Russia and China, sought to show that the Quad was about action. India said it would export 8 million one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines by the end of next month. On another key priority for Biden, the Quad leaders said the four nations would all make “ambitious” announcements at the upcoming Glasgow climate summit with an aim of bringing the warming planet to net-zero emissions by 2050. US officials said they did not see the Quad as a military alliance even as they sought to broaden cooperation.
Source:Taipei Times
September 25, 2021 15:56 UTC
NGO grows medical cannabis despite strict Brazil rules
NGO grows medical cannabis despite strict Brazil rulesBy Eugenia Logiuratto / AFP, RIO DE JANEIROSurrounded by barbed wire and an electric fence, marijuana plants flourish under the bright sun on a farm in a mountainous area outside Rio de Janeiro. It belongs to a pioneering Brazilian nongovernmental organization (NGO) engaged in the production of medical cannabis to help people with seizures. Margarete Brito, a lawyer by training, first started growing cannabis several years ago to relieve the seizures of her daughter, Sofia, now 12, who has epilepsy. Cannabis plants grow at the Medical Cannabis Research and Patient Support Association production farm in Paty dos Alferes, Brazil, on Sept. 9. The police eventually realized the farm was a medical cannabis plantation, apologized and left, Brito said.
Source:Taipei Times
September 25, 2021 15:56 UTC
Police make arrests after Ligue 1 rocked by violence
Police make arrests after Ligue 1 rocked by violenceAFP, PARISFrench police made arrests on Thursday and soccer authorities held an emergency meeting after a series of violent incidents involving supporters during midweek Ligue 1 matches. Another match on Wednesday between Angers SCO and Olympique de Marseille at Angers’ Stade Raymond Kopa was interrupted when supporters invaded the pitch and threw flares. At the final whistle of the 0-0 draw, a group of Marseille supporters left the area of the stadium reserved for visiting fans and tried to confront their Angers counterparts before stadium security staff regained control. Two Marseille supporters were arrested for their role in those incidents, prosecutors said. French Minister of National Education Jean-Michel Blanquer, who also has overall responsibility for sports, described the incidents as the result of “unacceptable hooliganism” and called for tough action from Ligue 1.
Source:Taipei Times
September 24, 2021 15:56 UTC
Keep the flame alive
US could block Beijing’s CPTPP entry bid: officialBY OTHER MEANS: China could see CPTPP membership as a means of circumventing trade restrictions imposed by the US, amid an ongoing trade dispute between them The US could invoke a clause in its trade agreement with Canada and Mexico to block China’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a government official said yesterday. Under Article 32.10 of the Exceptions and General Provisions of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), if either Canada or Mexico enter a free-trade agreement with a nonmarket economy — such as China — the US could withdraw from the agreement. “If that clause applies to multilateral free-trade agreements such as the CPTPP — which Mexico and Canada are members of — that might be cause for the twoBy Lee Hsin-fang and William Hetherington
Source:Taipei Times
September 24, 2021 15:56 UTC
Vaccines just one factor in alert level
Medical workers administer COVID-19 vaccines in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Geroge Tsorng, Taipei TimesThe nationwide COVID-19 alert was on July 27 lowered from level 3 to level 2 and has been extended four times. Chen’s comment came in response to Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), who had suggested lowering the alert, citing low case numbers in the past few weeks. To confirm the positive result, she was given a traditional PCR test, and the result was negative, the center added. Meanwhile, CECC data showed that 87,708 young Taiwanese on Thursday received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
Source:Taipei Times
September 24, 2021 15:56 UTC
Defense among priorities for premier
Defense among priorities for premierLIVELIHOODS, DEVELOPMENT: Su Tseng-chang wrote that the defense budget is to reach a record, while families and admission to the CPTPP are other key itemsBy Chien Hui-ju / Staff reporterAn increased defense budget, improving people’s livelihoods and pushing for sustainable development were among the items Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) presented in a written report to the Legislative Yuan yesterday. Frequent Chinese military incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone have destabilized regional security, Su wrote in the report. “Only if we help ourselves will other countries come to our aid in a time of need.”The defense budget for next year is a record NT$470 billion (US$16.95 billion), it said. Taiwan’s fleet of 141 US-made F-16A/B fighters are being upgraded to F-16Vs, with Taiwan’s first F-16V wing to be commissioned in November to bolster the nation’s strategic air defense, the report said. Taiwan has filed an application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the report said.
Source:Taipei Times
September 24, 2021 15:56 UTC
KMT hopefuls assess odds for chairperson election
KMT hopefuls assess odds for chairperson electionBy Shih Hsiao-kuang and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe four camps of the candidates in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairperson election yesterday gave assessments of their prospects in today’s vote. Chu spokesman Ling Tao (凌濤) said that Chu’s campaign message is clear — the KMT must prosper in next year’s general elections and win the 2024 presidential election. Chang spokesman Ho Chi-sheng (何啟聖) said that Chang’s campaign was confident about the support it has generated, but is not certain how many votes it would receive. Cho spokesman Wu Ming-sheng (吳明聖) said that Cho sought to rally the support of all 370,000 KMT members. The KMT National Congress today is to hold elections for party delegates alongside the chairperson vote.
Source:Taipei Times
September 24, 2021 15:56 UTC
China likely to ban more fruit, DPP lawmaker says
China likely to ban more fruit, DPP lawmaker saysBy Chien Hui-ju and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe government should prepare contingency plans for a possible Chinese ban on oranges from Taiwan, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lai Hui-yuan (賴惠員) said yesterday. Beijing on Monday suspended imports of custard apples and wax apples from Taiwan, citing mealybug infestations in shipments on “multiple occasions” this year. Photo: Taipei Times fileMore restrictions by China would hurt Tainan growers, who are already suffering from the effects of water shortages this year, she said. Beijing’s announcement on Sunday of the ban was the second time this year that China has suspended imports of fruits from Taiwan. In February, China banned imports of pineapples from Taiwan, citing “harmful creatures” that could arrive with the fruit.
Source:Taipei Times
September 24, 2021 15:56 UTC
Exports post best August performance
Exports post best August performanceMADE IN TAIWAN: The share of export orders for products made overseas versus those made in local factories decreased by 4.4 percent year-on-year to 49.3 percentBy Angelica Oung / Staff reporterTaiwan’s export orders expanded 17.6 percent year-on-year to US$53.5 billion last month, the best August performance ever, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. On a monthly basis, export orders dropped 3.2 percent from US$55.3 billion. The ministry expects export orders to rise again this month, with growth coming from information and communications technology (ICT) and electronic products. “We predict demand driven by the global recovery and strong commodity prices will keep supporting strong export orders,” Huang said. While the 18-month winning streak for Taiwanese export orders might seem impressive, it is far from record breaking, she added.
Source:Taipei Times
September 24, 2021 15:56 UTC