
China slaps anti-dumping duties on plastics from U.S., EU, Japan and Taiwan
The Chinese commerce ministry's findings conclude a probe launched in May 2024, shortly after the U.S. sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports.
POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc and have various applications including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the ministry has said.
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In January the ministry said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary anti-dumping measures in the form of a deposit starting from Jan. 24.
According to Sunday's announcement, the highest anti-dumping rates of 74.9% were levied on imports from the U.S., while European shipments will face 34.5% duties.
China slapped 35.5% duties on Japanese imports, except for Asahi Kasei, which received a company-specific rate of 24.5%.
General duties of 32.6% were placed on imports from Taiwan, while Formosa Plastics received a 4% tariff and Polyplastics Taiwan 3.8%.
Hopes have risen that the U.S.-China trade war is easing after the two sides said on May 12 they had agreed to slash reciprocal tariffs in a 90-day truce, a deal that state mouthpiece the Global Times said on Friday should be extended.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group of nations warned of "fundamental challenges" facing the global trading system in a communique on Friday after a meeting in South Korea.
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Japan Times
5 hours ago
- Japan Times
Banking's ailing climate coalition loses ground in Europe
Inside the world's largest climate coalition for banks, there's speculation that an exodus led by Wall Street could be about to spread to the European Union. The Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), an organization dedicated to decarbonizing global finance, may be facing defections by some large EU banks with sizeable U.S. exposures, according to a person close to the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. The risk of being accused in the U.S. of having an anti-oil bias appears to be a key concern among the banks, the person said. EU exits from NZBA would mark a painful milestone for the group. In the U.S., where President Donald Trump's re-election has brought with it intensified political attacks on net-zero policies, banks have had to navigate a landscape in which NZBA commitments have come with the risk of lawsuits and Republican blacklists. In the EU, meanwhile, net zero has been enshrined in law and the bloc's banks stand out as some of the world's most climate conscious. A spokesperson for NZBA said the alliance is committed to supporting its remaining members, without commenting on possible EU defections. This moment calls for "long-term work that requires courage, consistency and true leadership to stay on track, even when faced with barriers to action,' the person said. BNP Paribas, the EU's biggest bank by assets, was questioning the value of continued NZBA membership as recently as June, according to another person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private conversations. The bank is reluctant to create headlines by leaving, however, and back in June discussed postponing a formal decision until around the end of the year, the person said. A spokesperson for BNP declined to comment. Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest lender, is "monitoring current developments and will assess them,' according to a spokesperson, who added that the bank's own sustainability and net-zero targets remain unchanged. A spokesperson for Spain's Banco Santander said it's still committed to net zero but declined to say whether that includes remaining an NZBA member. A UniCredit spokesperson reiterated comments it made last month in connection with its earnings release, when the bank noted that it's an NZBA member with a net-zero transition plan to support clients in their low-carbon transition. Commerzbank closely monitors "market trends, regulatory developments and jurisdictions to ensure we can act appropriately if necessary,' Beate Schlosser, a spokeswoman for the bank said by email. Commerzbank's 2050 net-zero goal still holds, she said. Among reasons EU bank executives have given in the past for staying in NZBA was the access it gave them to other banks. But as defections continue, that access is no longer a selling point. Barclays, which left earlier this month not long after U.K. peer HSBC Holdings, said the string of walkouts means NZBA "no longer has the membership to support our transition.' Barclays' exit was promptly followed by UBS Group of Switzerland. Those departures, though all by banks in non-EU countries, have added to speculation that EU banks will be next, the person familiar with discussion inside NZBA said. The value of climate alliances such as NZBA remains a topic of debate. Lisa Sachs, head of Columbia University's Center on Sustainable Investment, said that a key weakness of frameworks like NZBA is the assumption that the finance industry can have a material impact on the low-carbon transition simply through setting targets to reduce emissions and committing to nudging portfolio companies to decarbonize. "Financial institutions are not the right institutions to fix market flaws or deliver societal transitions because their mandates are to maximize returns within existing market conditions,' she said. "And their assessments of risk are based on those parameters rather than on long-term societal risks.' NZBA still has 125 members across the globe representing a combined $41 trillion in assets, according to its website. Banks in Northern Europe are among the most outspoken in their support, with ING Groep and ABN Amro Bank in the Netherlands, Swedbank and SEB in Sweden and Danske Bank in Denmark all underscoring their backing via spokespeople. The alliance was created to encourage banks to throw their weight behind the net-zero transition. It initially required members to align their financing operations with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. But after being virtually wiped off the North American map earlier this year, NZBA dropped that requirement and recast itself in more of a support role. It's a dramatic loss of stature for the alliance, which was created back in 2021 and feted by global bank executives at the COP26 climate summit in Scotland. Back then, when interest rates were at crisis lows and a global pandemic had created room for a green energy boom, net-zero finance looked like a reliable path to commercial success. That narrative was reinforced when U.S. President Joe Biden a year later signed the Inflation Reduction Act — the biggest piece of green legislation in U.S. history. Ironically, NZBA is hemorrhaging members just as fossil-fuel finance appears to be in decline on Wall Street. Policies designed to push up supply and drive down prices have pummeled the oil sector, and analysts at JPMorgan Chase have said this moment may mark the first decline in global upstream oil and gas development spending since 2020. In all, financing provided to oil, gas and coal projects by Wall Street's top six banks fell 25% to $73 billion this year through Aug. 1 from the same period in 2024, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. "A fundamental truth is that financial institutions follow markets — they don't create them,' Sachs of Columbia University said. Banks that have left NZBA in the U.K. have faced some pushback from clients and investors. HSBC lost a string of green customers, and the Church of England Pensions Board says it's now "engaging' with Barclays and HSBC on their NZBA exits. "As a shareholder we want to see banks to be genuinely committed to acting to address very real quantifiable financial risks like climate change,' says Laura Hillis, director of responsible investment at the pensions board. "It is very clear that some banks simply are not prepared to stay the course on their own commitments long term, which points to governance issues.' At the same time, banks leaving NZBA have said they'll continue to help clients decarbonize their businesses. UBS said on Aug. 7 its "commitment to sustainability remains unchanged and we recognize the importance of an orderly transition to a low-carbon economy.' Departing banks are also sticking with their sustainable finance goals. HSBC, for example, says it did $54.1 billion in deals it categorized as sustainable finance in the first half of 2025, which is up 19% from the same period a year ago. The bottom line remains that the decisions made by financial institutions "are driven by whether a specific investment is financeable today, given current market conditions, policies, and risk-return profiles,'' Columbia's Sachs said.

Japan Times
5 hours ago
- Japan Times
Japan to accelerate development of logistics network in Africa
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Japan Times
8 hours ago
- Japan Times
Taiwan foreign minister's visit puts damper on Japan-China relations
Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-Lung's latest trip to Japan has put a damper on Sino-Japanese ties, with Beijing canceling at the last minute a bilateral meeting of agriculture ministers. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi avoided going into detail during a news conference Friday, stating only: "We understand that (the ministerial meeting) was not held due to scheduling conflicts of both sides." Chinese agriculture minister Han Jun was set to visit Japan to hold a meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Shinjiro Koizumi, on Tuesday, after a trilateral agriculture ministers' meeting involving the two nations plus South Korea held in Incheon near South Korea's capital, Seoul, on Monday. Many within the Japanese government consider Lin's Japan visit in late July to be the reason for the cancellation. The Taiwanese side has said that the foreign chief had made a personal visit to Japan. During the trip, however, he held talks with Keiji Furuya of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, who heads a suprapartisan group of Japanese lawmakers aiming for stronger Tokyo-Taipei relations, and other Japanese officials. In light of heightened tensions between China and the United States, Beijing has been pushing for improved ties with Japan. In autumn last year, China resumed its visa exemption for short-term stays by Japanese nationals. It announced in June this year the restart of imports of Japanese fishery products. The Chinese government has been especially sensitive about the Japanese government's historical perceptions and Taiwan issues due to it marking the 80th anniversary this year of its victory in the past war against Japan. A senior official at the Japanese Foreign Ministry said, "China had to take a strong response based on moves by Taiwan." Lin's trip may also impact Japan-China high-level talks expected to be held on the sidelines of a series of summits related to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Malaysia in October.