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Hong Kong property developer New World Development said on Friday that Eric Ma will step down as chief executive officer after having spent just two months on the job.The sprawling business empire, run by Hong Kong’s third-richest family, reported an annual loss of over US$2.5 billion in late September. Former Hong Kong development minister Ma took over as CEO from Adrian Cheng, a grandson of the founder, when the losses were announced. But in a Friday stock exchange filing, New World said Ma had “tendered his resignation as an Executive Director and the chief executive officer of the Company in order to pursue his other personal commitments”.Company executive director Huang Shaomei, also known as Echo Huang, has been appointed CEO effective on Friday for a term of three years, New World said.Patriarch Henry Cheng said in a statement that he was “very pleased to have found a more suitable candidate”, saying Huang had extensive experience in real estate and corporate management.Cheng said that reviewing the firm’s development direction showed that “timely phased changes need to be made, and the role of the CEO also requires to be adjusted”.New World’s share price fell by around six percent before trading was halted shortly after Friday lunchtime.The company said trading will resume on Monday.The property arm is the largest unit of New World, whose interests also span jewellery, department stores and logistics.That has left it vulnerable as Hong Kong suffers the longest property market downturn since the SARS outbreak in 2003.Once a blue-chip stock, New World will be removed from Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index starting next month, a sign of its declining value in recent years.Morningstar analyst Jeff Zhang told Bloomberg News that Ma’s departure will not have a significant impact on New World’s operations.”The company will continue to promote residential sales and asset divestment in the future to accelerate deleveraging,” Zhang said.The developer on Thursday sold its stake in Hong Kong’s largest sports complex, Kai Tak sports park, to an investment vehicle owned by the family. 

Japan’s unpopular minority government approved on Friday an extra budget to help pay for a massive stimulus package after the ruling coalition’s worst election result in 15 years.The hoped-for lift to the economy is also aimed at boosting Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s popularity after a gaffe-riddled start including an embarrassing video of him eating.The extra budget approved by the cabinet is worth 13.9 trillion yen ($92 billion) and is expected to be approved in parliament by the end of the year.It will be partly funded by issuing bonds worth over 6.6 trillion yen.It includes 1.5 trillion yen to boost Japan’s chip and AI sectors, part of a 10-trillion-yen push over the coming years previously announced.Last week Ishiba’s cabinet approved a 21.9-trillion-yen stimulus drive, with the overall impact expected to be worth 39 trillion yen.It includes handouts of around 30,000 yen for low-income households, fuel and energy subsidies, and assistance to small businesses.Ishiba, 67, took office on October 1 following the resignation of unpopular predecessor Fumio Kishida, and called snap elections soon afterwards.But the move backfired, with voters angry over corruption within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) — which has governed almost non-stop for decades — and price rises.The ruling coalition of the LDP and the smaller Komeito party were deprived of a majority in the lower house of parliament for the first time since 2009.Ishiba has promised to revitalise depressed rural regions and to address the “quiet emergency” of Japan’s shrinking population, the world’s second-oldest.A poll in the Mainichi Shimbun daily on Sunday put the cabinet’s approval rating at 31 percent, down 15 points from early October. The disapproval score was 50 percent.Ishiba drew ridicule after being snapped apparently napping in parliament this month, and for failing to stand up to greet other world leaders at a gathering in South America.Worse was a video that emerged of Ishiba eating an onigiri rice ball — a popular snack — whole and munching on it without closing his mouth.”He eats like a three-year-old,” one user said on X. “How could he have risen to the top with these manners?” asked another.

The yen rallied Friday after forecast-busting inflation data out of Tokyo boosted talk of another Japanese interest rate cut next month, while equity markets were mixed as traders weigh the economic outlook during a second Trump administration.With Wall Street closed for the Thanksgiving break, there were few catalysts to drive business heading into the weekend and at the end of a rollercoaster month dominated by uncertainty in the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory.Traders are tracking developments surrounding the tycoon as he builds a hawkish cabinet and outlines his plans, including a threat to hammer China, Canada and Mexico with hefty tariffs on his first day.Eyes were also on Japan, where figures showed consumer prices in Tokyo — seen as a bellwether for the country — jumped to 2.6 percent in November, well up from October and much more than expected.The news ignited speculation the central bank will hike rates for a third time this year.Expectations for an increase in borrowing costs have picked up pace in recent weeks after Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda said officials would have to tighten policy if the economy continued to perform in line with forecasts.Friday’s price data came as separate figures showed the jobs market remained tight. Bets on a rate increase have risen to more than 60 percent, according to Bloomberg News.The yen rallied Friday, hitting less than 150 per dollar for the first time in a month.The currency was also supported by forecasts that the Federal Reserve will lower US rates at its December meeting — narrowing the yield differential and making the Japanese unit more attractive to investors.The report “will probably strengthen the BoJ’s conviction that inflation momentum is building, with its two percent target looking (increasingly) secure”, said Taro Kimura, an economist with Bloomberg Economics.The BoJ hiked rates in March for the first time in 17 years as it looked to move away from a long-running ultra-loose monetary policy.However, a second surprise lift at the end of July sparked turmoil on markets and led to a major unwind of the so-called “yen carry trade” in which investors used the cheaper currency to purchase higher-yielding assets.The stronger yen weighed Japanese exporters and pushed Tokyo stocks lower on Friday.Other Asian markets fluctuated, with Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Manila, Jakarta and Taipei in the red, while Wellington, Mumbai and Bangkok were slightly higher.Hong Kong and Shanghai gained after Chinese authorities held a meeting to discuss plans to boost stunted consumption, a key goal for Beijing as they look to kickstart the world’s number two economy.London was barely moved at the open while Frankfurt and Paris retreated.The euro edged up but remained under pressure owing to uncertainty over budget cuts to reduce France’s huge deficit, and as Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government struggles amid tough opposition from the right and left.Economic weakness in Germany in particular has also dampened enthusiasm in Europe. Oil prices slipped after the OPEC+ alliance postponed a weekend meeting to December 5, with analysts saying there were signs of disagreement among the group over plans to increase output.Bitcoin was sitting at about $96,500, having suffered a big drop at the start of the week following its worst run since Trump’s electoral success.Still, it is widely tipped to top $100,000 on expectations the new president will ease restrictions on the digital currency market.- Key figures around 0810 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.4 percent at 38,208.03 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.3 percent at 19,423.61 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.9 percent at 3,326.46 (close)London – FTSE 100: FLAT at 8,280.84Dollar/yen: DOWN at 159.99 yen from 151.51 yen on ThursdayEuro/dollar: UP at $1.0577 from $1.0552 Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2724 from $1.2687Euro/pound: DOWN at 83.13 pence from 83.18 pence West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.3 percent at $68.52 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.7 percent at $72.75 per barrel

World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is expected to be reappointed Friday for a second term, in the shadow of the coming return of Donald Trump and his disdain for international trade rules.Okonjo-Iweala, the first woman and the first African to head the WTO, is the only candidate in the race, paving the way for the body’s 166 members to re-elect the 70-year-old Nigerian at a closed-door meeting.”It’s not so much that everyone loves Ngozi,” a source close to the discussions told AFP.Rather, members were “worried that if she doesn’t get reinstated, then it’s possible that the administration in Washington would slow things (or) block other contenders”, leaving a void at the top, the source said.”The alternative of no one leading the organisation is unacceptable to them.”Directors-general are typically chosen by consensus.This made it possible in 2020 for Trump to block Okonjo-Iweala’s appointment for months, forcing her to wait to take the reins until after President Joe Biden entered the White House in early 2021. Her term ends in August 2025, and the appointment process expected to lead to her next term had initially been scheduled to take months.But once it became clear that Okonjo-Iweala was the sole candidate, the discussions chair determined there was backing for a proposal by African states to bring forward the appointment.- Tensions – The unstated objective is to “accelerate the process, because they did not want Trump’s team to come in and veto her as they did four years ago”, said Keith Rockwell, a senior research fellow at the Hinrich Foundation.Rockwell, a former WTO spokesman, said that speeding up Okonjo-Iweala’s reappointment “creates tensions in the relationship with the United States, for sure — tensions which would probably have been there under any circumstances, but now this raises the stakes”. During Trump’s first term, the WTO also faced relentless attacks from his administration, which crippled the organisation’s dispute settlement appeal system, and threatened to pull the United States out of the organisation altogether.Trump has already signalled he is preparing to launch all-out trade wars, threatening to unleash a flurry of tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico on his first day in office on January 20.”The festival of tariffs announced to date shows that he has no intention of following any rules,” said Elvire Fabry, a researcher at the Institut Jacques Delors think-tank.”The United States would not even need to withdraw from the WTO,” she told AFP. “They are freeing themselves from the WTO rules”. In this context, the WTO chief will have “a firefighter role”, she said. – ‘Very difficult’ -It will be a question of “saving what can be saved, and making the case that there is no real alternative to the WTO rules”, said another source close to the discussions on speeding up Okonjo-Iweala’s reappointment.”It will be a very difficult mandate, with little certainty about what will happen.” Rockwell noted that the WTO’s problems were not solely linked to Washington.”It is a time right now in which application of the WTO rules has deteriorated,” he said.”You can’t blame all of this on the United States. That’s true of many other members as well.”Dmitry Grozoubinski, author of the book “Why Politicians Lie about Trade”, agreed.”Governments are increasingly turning to trade measures to address issues like national security, environmental competition, and re-industrialisation, and policymakers aren’t as moved as they once were by arguments that their ideas violate the letter or spirit of WTO commitments,” he told AFP. “If president-elect Trump makes destroying the WTO a priority,” he said, the organisation’s “options will be limited as the institution is not built to withstand overt demolition from within its membership”.Since taking the WTO reins, Okonjo-Iweala has tried to breathe new life into the fragile organisation, pushing for fresh focus on areas like climate change and health. But pressure is growing for WTO reform, in particular of the moribund appeals portion of its dispute settlement system, which collapsed during the first Trump presidency as Washington blocked the appointment of judges. 

Japanese electronics giant Sony is set to celebrate 30 years since it launched the PlayStation console, the little grey box that catapulted the firm into the gaming big league.PlayStation was Sony’s first foray into the world of video games and when it hit the shelves in Japan on December 3, 1994, the company needed to sell one million units to cover its costs.In the end, the gadget became a legend, selling more than 102 million units, helping to launch many of the industry’s best-loved franchises and positioning Sony as a heavyweight in a hugely lucrative sector.”PlayStation changed the history of video games,” said Hiroyuki Maeda, a Japanese specialist in video game history.”It truly transformed everything: hardware, software, distribution and marketing.”One of the keys to its success was broadening the appeal of a pastime that had often been dismissed as a hobby for children. From the off, the firm was clear that it wanted to trash this image.In part this stems from Sony’s rivalry with Nintendo, which was already a dominant player in the sector by the mid-1990s, but whose games skewed young.- Sony ‘humiliated’ -The original PlayStation can trace its history to a falling out between the two great Japanese firms.They had partnered in the late 1980s to develop a version of the Super Nintendo console with an in-built CD player.But Nintendo suspected Sony were using the project as a way to muscle into the gaming sector and abruptly cancelled the partnership in 1991.”Sony found itself in a humiliating position,” said Maeda, so pushed ahead with the project by itself.The hardware proved to be revolutionary, CD-ROMs being cheaper and storing much more data than the cartridges used by Nintendo and other consoles.And to further distinguish itself from Nintendo, Sony courted a young adult audience with fighting games like “Tekken”, out-and-out horror with “Resident Evil” and “Silent Hill”, and military titles like “Metal Gear Solid”.Its advertising also followed a more grown-up path.Hollywood auteur David Lynch was drafted in to direct ads for the PS2 launched in 2000 — conjuring a nightmare vision of floating heads and talking ducks certainly not meant for younger audiences.”The older audience obviously had better purchasing power than children,” said Philippe Dubois, founder of M05, a French association that aims to preserve digital heritage.The PS2 is still the most successful console in history, having sold more than 160 million units.- ‘New sensations’ -Over the past 30 years, the competition has intensified and the technology has been honed.While Sega and other rivals have fallen by the wayside, Microsoft has entered the fray with its Xbox, and Nintendo is still on the scene with its Switch console.But the industry is enduring tough times.A surge in popularity and investment during the pandemic has subsided and Sony’s PlayStation division recently laid off hundreds of workers.Plenty of analysts are also predicting that cloud gaming will soon render consoles obsolete.Sony appears undaunted though, recently launching an upgraded version of its PS5 with a marketing push that highlighted new AI features.Bloomberg has reported that the Japanese firm is also planning a new hand-held version of the PlayStation, which would once again pit it against old rival Nintendo, undisputed king of portable devices.However, for the purists, few innovations were as great as the original console’s ability to handle 3D graphics.The technology was instrumental for the appeal of classic games such as “Tomb Raider” and “Final Fantasy VII”.”We discovered sensations, emotions that we hadn’t experienced with earlier consoles,” said French YouTuber and PlayStation enthusiast Cyril 2.0.He said he had collected almost every title released for the PlayStation in Europe — some 1,400 — and insisted the formula for success was not complicated.”For consoles, games are still the most important thing,” he said.

Since 1994, PlayStation’s five consoles have changed video game history. From the development of the controller to scuffles at stores to Saddam Hussein’s military, here are five interesting things to know:- Grey or bust -The original PlayStation, launched in Japan on December 3, 1994 was grey — inspired by the “workstation” computers of the era, according to gaming history expert Hiroyuki Maeda.”The heads of Sony’s US division would have preferred black, which they felt was more elegant, but the Japanese side categorically refused,” Maeda told AFP.They eventually relented, however. Apart from colourful limited edition versions, the PlayStation 2, 3 and 4 were black. The PlayStation 5, released in 2020, is white.- Joystick juggling -When Sony built the first PlayStation, it was inexperienced in making consoles, so “the creation of the controller was one of the biggest challenges”, Maeda said.”It’s said they made more than 200 prototypes,” he said.Sony’s CEO at the time, Norio Ohga — an experienced pilot — pushed for a more sculpted design for the controller, which with its signature triangle, circle, cross and square buttons, has changed little over the years.In Japan, a circle is a sign of approval, and so for years, it was the controller button for “OK”, with the cross button meaning cancel. The feature was inverted on PlayStation models sold in the West.But Sony, conscious of the US market’s importance, abandoned this Japanese peculiarity in its most recent console, the PlayStation 5.- Game library -PlayStation owes much of its success to its roster of games.Sony’s choice to use CDs instead of cartridges reduced manufacturing costs and production times, encouraging more game makers to create titles for its consoles.”Ridge Racer” brought the 3D racing genre out of arcades and showed off the console’s technical abilities, while early stealth game “Metal Gear Solid” bridged the gap between games and cinema.”Final Fantasy VII” — the first 3D instalment in the cult series, and the first not made for Nintendo consoles — also introduced Japanese role-playing games to many Western players.Other titles with a place in video game history are survival-horror classic “Resident Evil” and the global media franchise “Tomb Raider”.- Store success -The PlayStation 2 is the top-selling console in the history of video games, with more than 160 million units sold.One reason for its success is that it can also play DVDs — allowing customers to kill two birds with one stone.The limited supply of the PS2 and its huge demand led to fights when it was launched, including at the Virgin Megastore on the Champs-Elysées in Paris.- War machine? -In late 2000, US media network NBC reported that Saddam Hussein’s Iraqhad acquired 1,400 PlayStation 2 consoles to use their powerful microprocessors in missile guidance systems.The same year, the machine was reportedly placed on a list of sensitive items by the Japanese government because of its advanced graphics processing capabilities, raising fears of potential military use.

The PlayStation has been a colossal consumer hit, but three decades ago, its creator Ken Kutaragi struggled to convince both game-makers and his bosses at Sony that his console would be a winner.”Everyone told us we would fail,” Kutaragi told AFP in a rare interview.With revolutionary 3D graphics and grown-up titles like “Tomb Raider” and “Metal Gear Solid”, the device first hit shelves on December 3, 1994.Before that, Nintendo’s NES console and similar gaming machines were considered “children’s toys”, the 74-year-old Kutaragi said.Popular games like “Super Mario Bros” were two-dimensional, and computer-generated imagery (CGI) was a rarity even in Hollywood.”Most of the executives (at Sony) were fiercely opposed,” fearing for the Japanese giant’s reputation as a producer of high-end electronics, Kutaragi said.Japanese game-makers gave a “frosty response” too, as creating 3D games in real time seemed “unthinkable” at the time.Films with CGI took one or two years to make in those days, with budgets of tens of millions of dollars, he said.But Kutaragi, then a Sony employee, was not deterred.”We wanted to make the most of technological progress to create a new form of entertainment,” the engineer said, his eyes gleaming.His ambition paid off: the console — now in its fifth generation — became a household name. The PlayStation 2 was the world’s top-selling games console with 160 million units sold.- Nintendo drama -Sony and fellow Japanese game giant Nintendo are industry rivals, but more than three decades ago they worked together to make a CD-ROM reader compatible with the Super Nintendo console, which could only take game cartridges.With Nintendo’s permission, Sony was also developing a machine capable of reading both CDs and cartridges, with the working title “Play Station” — the first time the famous name was used.But the pair’s bonhomie ended dramatically.Hours after Sony unveiled its new project at a 1991 Las Vegas trade show, Nintendo, spooked by Sony’s rights over the games, announced it would team up with Dutch firm Philips instead.The episode was seen as a betrayal and humiliation for Sony, and all of these burgeoning projects failed to materialise.”Newspapers said it was bad for us,” Kutaragi said. But “it was inevitable that we and Nintendo would follow our own paths, because our approaches were totally different”.For Nintendo, “video games were toys that had nothing to do with technology,” he said.And without the snub, the PlayStation as we know it “would never have seen the light of day”.- AI predictions -When Sony launched its PlayStation and CD games in Japan in 1994, and in Western countries some months later, Nintendo had a stranglehold on console sales.So Sony used its experience in the music industry to develop a new distribution model, selling the gadgets at electronics stores instead of toy stores and creating new supply chains adapted to local markets.Kutaragi eventually became vice president of Sony but left the conglomerate in 2007 after the launch of the PlayStation 3, which initially struggled commercially.Now the future of the console market is less rosy as “cloud gaming” grows in popularity, something that Kutaragi also predicted — along with mobile gaming years in advance.”I’d often reflect on the future of technology, over 10 or 20 years, to predict new trends,” although “many people found that hard to understand”, he said.The engineer now runs a start-up focused on robotics and artificial intelligence and teaches at a Japanese university.”We are entering a world where everything can be calculated” by a computer with the help of AI, Kutaragi said.For example, generative AI chatbot ChatGPT “exists because language has become computable”, and similar technology is being used in sectors as diverse as medicine, music and visual art.”Imagine if time and space were also computable,” he said.”For the moment, this is a possibility limited to the world of video games,” but “imagine that we could move instantly to any place”, Kutaragi said.”What was once science fiction could become reality.”

President Joe Biden on Thursday warned against damaging relations with Canada and Mexico, after Donald Trump threatened to slap tariffs on both US neighbors when he takes office in January.”I think it’s a counterproductive thing to do,” Biden told reporters when asked about his successor’s plan.”The last thing we need to do is begin to screw up those relationships. I think we got them in a good place,” he said during a visit to a fire department in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he is spending his last Thanksgiving holiday as president.Trump sent jitters through global markets on Monday when he announced on social media that one of his first presidential actions would be to impose 25-percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada — which share a free trade pact with the United States — and add a 10-percent tariff on China.Pledging that tariffs would only be removed from the US neighbors when illegal immigration and drug trafficking stop, he reaffirmed his intent to use trade as a cudgel against allies and rivals alike.After expressing opposition to Trump’s threats in a letter, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke by phone with the Republican president-elect on Wednesday.Both leaders described the call positively, though there was disagreement in what had actually been discussed.Trump claimed that Sheinbaum had agreed to “stop migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.”The Mexican president quickly pointed out that she had only explained Mexico’s current “comprehensive strategy” on migration.”Thanks to this, migrants and caravans are attended to before they reach the border,” she said on X.”We reiterate that Mexico’s position is not to close borders but to build bridges between government and peoples,” she added.When asked about the dispute at her daily press conference on Thursday, Sheinbaum said: “I can assure you… that we would never — we would not be capable — of proposing that we were going to close the border.”The Mexican government had warned that Trump’s tariffs would be met with retaliation, potentially endangering American jobs, with Sheinbaum’s economy minister saying it would be “a shot in the foot.”Sheinbaum said Thursday that after her talks with Trump, “there is not going to be a potential tariff war.””The important thing was to address the approach he made,” she said, adding that she believed dialogue with Trump would be constructive.Biden on Thursday also talked about the importance of maintaining a working relationship with China.”We’ve set up a hotline between President Xi and myself, as well as our military, a direct line,” Biden said, adding he was “confident” that his Chinese counterpart “doesn’t want to make a mistake.””I’m not saying that he is our best buddy, but he understands what’s at stake.”

Eurozone stock markets rebounded Thursday as France’s political stand-off showed signs of easing, while Chinese equities fell despite reports the United States may be less stringent than feared with its curb on tech equipment to China. Wall Street had ended lower Wednesday as traders booked profits ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, with US markets closed on Thursday.The profit-taking was spurred by US inflation that edged up, cementing expectations that the Federal Reserve would still cut interest rates in December but make fewer reductions than thought next year. With New York markets quiet, “the focus is on where the dollar will go next, whether or not the stock market rally will broaden out to Europe in 2025, and if global interest rates will continue to fall in the coming months,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.In Europe, investors remained focused on France, where the technocratic government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier gave ground to the far right in a bid to have its 2025 budget passed in parliament.Uncertainty over the budget cuts to reduce France’s huge deficit — and the chances for Barnier’s government surviving a no-confidence vote by opposition on both the right and left — have also kept investors wary.Economic weakness in Germany in particular has also dampened enthusiasm in Europe, even as inflation remains above the European Central Bank’s target of two percent. The ECB has “every reason” to cut its benchmark interest rate at its next meeting on December 12, Governing Council member Francois Villeroy de Galhau of France said Thursday.”The European economy is achieving a soft landing, but a take-off is not yet in sight,” he added.”If growth remains weak, then we think there could be further rate cuts to 1.5 percent, as the ECB may have to take an accommodative stance in order to boost the economy,” Brooks said in a research note.European stock markets recovered from the previous day’s losses caused also by concerns that Europe could be the next target for tariffs by US president-elect Donald Trump.ECB chief Christine Lagarde said the European Union must cooperate with Trump to avoid a trade war.”This is a better scenario than a pure retaliation strategy, which can lead to a tit-for-tat process where no one is really a winner,” she said in an interview with The Financial Times.Rising tariff fears have weighed on Asian markets after Trump flagged they would target China and appointed several hawks to his cabinet.Hong Kong and Shanghai retreated as Bloomberg reported that Washington was considering escalating its crackdown on tech supplies to China by putting fresh sanctions on sales of semiconductor equipment and AI chips to the country. Oil prices retreated from early gains as the OPEC+ alliance postponed a weekend meeting to December 5 in what analysts said were signs of disagreement among the group over plans to increase output.The 22-member OPEC+ group led by Saudi Arabia and Russia was due to decide on its 2025 output policy at a ministerial meeting originally scheduled for Sunday.In the crypto sphere, bitcoin was hovering around $95,100, having bounced back from just below $90,300 earlier in the week following its worst run since Trump’s electoral success.Still, it is widely tipped to top $100,000 on expectations the new president will ease restrictions on the digital currency market.- Key figures around 1645 GMT -London – FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 8,281.22 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.5 percent at 7,179.25 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.9 percent at 19,425.73 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.6 percent at 38,349.06 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.2 percent at 19,366.96 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.4 percent at 3,295.70 (close)New York – ClosedEuro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0552 from $1.0565 on WednesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.2687 from $1.2678Dollar/yen: UP at 151.51 yen from 151.17 yenEuro/pound: FLAT at 83.18 pence Brent North Sea Crude: FLAT at $72.30 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.01 percent at $68.64 per barrel

Hundreds of employees of French cognac maker Hennessy on Thursday staged a protest over potential measures to circumvent Chinese tariffs imposed in a spat with the European Union.Staff in the town of Cognac in southwestern France, from which the iconic brandy takes its name, earlier this month went on strike to protest a plan to export the drink in vats, rather than bottles.Bottles will be subject to additional taxes estimated at 35 percent from China, Cognac’s second-largest export market after the United States.Hennessy management announced Monday that they would put the plan on ice and the strike had come to an end. But concern remains strong that Hennessy, part of the LVMH luxury group, and other leading brands will bow to pressure and export their brandies in bulk for bottling in China. “This idea of relocating bottling is opening a Pandora’s box that could be disastrous,” said Tommy Dupuis, who has worked in the Hennessy factory for 13 years.The protesters are demanding in particular an extension of France’s controlled designation of origin (AOC) labelling system — which aims to protect locally produced products — to include rules protecting local bottling, along the lines of the fizzy drink champagne. “Today, the AOC does not protect local bottling, this needs to change,” said Matthieu Devers of the CGT union, urging support from the BNIC association of cognac producers.”If the BNIC makes this decision, we will be able to protect our AOC from A to Z,” said Dupuis.”Cognac is here and it must stay here,” said Gladys Decou, an employee on the bottling line.Others fear disastrous economic consequences for the region. “If the production lines are moved, I will lose my job, the others too, and Cognac will become a ghost town. We must not let this happen,” said Alex Barbin, a driver at Hennessy for 15 years.Since October 11, China has required importers of European brandies — of which cognac represents 95 percent of the total — to submit a deposit or a bank guarantee letter with Chinese customs authorities.The measure is part of what Beijing describes as an anti-dumping investigation. But the move is widely seen as retaliation for the EU imposition of tariffs on electric cars imported from China.Under the plan, materials including glassware, labels, corks and boxes would be shipped to China, where brandy would then be bottled. Hennessy had said it was “suspending” — but not cancelling — the plan to follow the “evolution of the political and diplomatic situation”, with Prime Minister Michel Barnier announcing plans to visit China. The cognac industry, which is heavily dependent on exports, also fears it will be targeted in the United States, its biggest market, following the election of Donald Trump, who plans to step up customs duties across the board.