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Global stock markets were a sea of red Monday and investors fled to gold ahead of a wave of US tariffs this week that have fuelled recession fears.Tokyo plunged more than four percent, leading losses across Asian and European markets, as markets extended uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s latest tariff announcements due on his “Liberation Day” on Wednesday. Adding to fears, Trump said Sunday that tariffs would include “all countries”, not just those with the largest trade imbalances with the United States.”Trump continues to be the key reason why markets are having a bad day,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould. “He has now threatened to target all countries importing goods into the US with tariffs, further clouding economic prospects around the world,” he added.Automakers were hit particularly hard in the wake of Trump’s announcement that he would also impose 25 percent duties on imports of all vehicles and parts.In Europe, Porsche, Volkswagen and Stellantis, which owns several brands including Jeep, Peugeot and Fiat, all dropped around three percent.Toyota, the world’s biggest carmarker, plunged over three percent, along with Nissan and Mazda. “Within the Asia-Pacific region, the car levies will hit Japan and South Korea the hardest,” Moody’s Analytics economists wrote.”Such a sizeable tariff hike will undermine confidence, hit production and reduce orders. Given the long and complex supply chains in car manufacturing, the impact will ripple through these countries’ economies.”Gold, seen as a safe haven asset in times of uncertainty, hit a record high over $3,100 an ounce.Adding to the dour mood, Wall Street sank on Friday after data showed the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of inflation rose more than expected last month, further denting hopes for interest rate cuts. In company news, Zensho Holdings, which owns several Japanese restaurant franchises, plunged 3.9 percent after its beef bowl chain Sukiya said it would temporarily shut nearly all of its roughly 2,000 branches after a rat was found in a miso soup and a bug in another meal.Hong Kong suffered another big selloff, with conglomerate CK Hutchison shedding 3.1 percent following reports billionaire Li Ka-shing might delay signing a multi-billion-dollar deal to offload its ports operations, including those in the Panama Canal.The firm has faced criticism from China since it agreed to offload the business to a US-led consortium after pressure from Trump.Beijing confirmed on Friday antitrust regulators will review the deal, likely preventing the parties from signing it as planned on Wednesday.Bangkok dropped more than one percent as trade got back under way after being suspended on Friday following the deadly quake that hit the Thai capital. The stock market was already under pressure, having dived more than 15 percent since the turn of the year on worries about the Thai economy.- Key figures around 1030 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 4.1 percent at 35,617.56 points (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 1.2 percent at 8,554.98Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 1.8 percent at 7,776.09Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 1.9 percent at 22,040.75 Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.3 percent at 23,119.58 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 3,335.75 (close)New York – Dow: DOWN 1.7 percent at 41,583.90 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0818 from $1.0838 on FridayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2929 from $1.2947Dollar/yen: DOWN at 149.31 yen from 149.72 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 83.65 pence from 83.68 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.2 percent at $69.49 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.2 percent at $72.91 per barrel

Chinese smartphone maker giant Huawei said Monday that profits fell 28 percent last year as it faced international economic uncertainty and weak consumption at home.The Shenzhen-based company has been at the centre of an intense standoff between China and the United States after Washington warned its equipment could be used for espionage by the Chinese government, an allegation Huawei denies.Sanctions since 2019 have cut the firm’s access to US-made components and technologies, forcing it to diversify its growth strategy.The company announced Monday that it made a net profit of 62.6 billion yuan ($8.6 billion) last year, down from 87 billion yuan in 2023.In a statement, a Huawei spokesperson said profits slipped last year because it “continued to increase… future-oriented investment and there were no gains from the sale of businesses”.Revenue rose 22 percent on-year — marking a third successive increase after a sharp drop in 2021 during the pandemic.Its 862.1 billion yuan in revenue was the highest since the figure surpassed 890 billion yuan in 2020.Most of that came from its ICT infrastructure business and consumer products, followed by cloud computing.The results were “in line with forecast”, the company’s rotating chairwoman Sabrina Meng said in a statement.Employees “banded together to tackle a wide range of external challenges”, Meng said, adding that the company was “firmly committed to its quality goals and will keep honing quality as a competitive edge”.US sanctions have since 2019 cut Huawei off from global supply chains for technology and US-made components, a move that initially hammered its production of smartphones.Last year, the company unveiled its first smartphone equipped with a fully homegrown operating system, a test of its ability to challenge the dominance of Western juggernauts.It also released the world’s first triple-folding phone, launched hours after its US rival Apple lifted the curtain on its newest iPhone.Apple remains popular among Chinese consumers but has ceded ground to domestic players such as Huawei in recent years.Huawei remains one of the world’s leading equipment manufacturers for 5G, the fifth generation of mobile internet, and has been involved in infrastructure projects in numerous countries.The United States has sought to convince its allies to ban Huawei from their 5G networks, arguing that Beijing could use the group’s products to monitor communications and data traffic.The firm is also facing heightened scrutiny in Europe over a new cash-for-influence probe in the EU parliament.Offices were sealed and five people were charged this month over suspicions that members of parliament were bribed to sway sensitive EU policies in favour of the tech giant.Lawmakers are to confront the Huawei allegations at a debate Monday on “transparency and anticorruption policies in the EU”, which is expected to see calls for tougher action.

President Donald Trump said Sunday he was confident of reaching a deal on TikTok ahead of the April 5 deadline for its Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the popular short video app or see it banned in the United States.”We have a lot of potential buyers. There’s tremendous interest in TikTok,” Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One.”We have a lot of people that want to buy TikTok. We’re dealing with China also on it, because they may have something to do with it,” he said, adding “I’d like to see TikTok remain alive.”China on Thursday had rebuffed a suggestion from Trump that he might offer to reduce tariffs to get Beijing’s approval for the sale of TikTok to a non-Chinese firm.Trump said this month the United States was in talks with four groups interested in acquiring the platform, which has 170 million American users.A US law has ordered TikTok to divest from ByteDance or be banned in the United States, enacted over concerns that Beijing could exploit the app to spy on Americans or covertly influence US public opinion.The law took effect on January 19, a day before Trump’s inauguration, but he quickly announced a delay that has allowed it to continue to operate.That delay is set to expire on April 5.”There’ll be a deal with TikTok, I’m pretty certain,” Trump said when asked if he would extend the deadline if there was no deal.Trump attempted to ban TikTok in the United States because of national security concerns during his first stint in the White House but has warmed up to it.”Selfishly speaking, I won the young vote by 36 points. Republicans generally don’t do very well with the young crowd, and I think a lot of it could have been TikTok,” he said.

Tokyo led another plunge across Asian and European markets on Monday while gold hit a record high as investors steel themselves for a wave of US tariffs this week that has fuelled recession fears.Equities across the planet have been hammered in recent weeks ahead of Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” on Wednesday, when his administration will unveil a series of levies against friend and foe alike, citing what he says are unfair trading practices.His announcement last week that he would also impose 25 percent duties on imports of all vehicles and parts ramped up the fear factor on trading floors, hammering car giants including Japan’s Toyota, the world’s biggest.Governments around the world have pushed back against Trump’s tariffs, and could announce more countermeasures, while Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told Trump on Friday that he will implement retaliatory tariffs to protect his country’s workers and economy.Adding to the dour mood was data showing the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of inflation rose more than expected last month over worries Trump’s tariffs will fan price rises and further dent hopes for interest rate cuts.Markets fell across the board on Monday, with firms in all sectors feeling the pain. Data showing Chinese factory activity grew at the quickest pace in a year in March provided a little optimism over the world’s number two economy. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index plunged more than four percent, extending last week’s slide, as automakers Toyota, Nissan and Mazda shed between three and four percent, while tech investment titan SoftBank tanked more than five percent. The index’s drop put it in a correction, having fallen more than 10 percent from its peak in December.Zensho Holdings, which owns several Japanese restaurant franchises, plunged 3.9 percent after its beef bowl chain Sukiya said it would temporarily shut nearly all of its roughly 2,000 branches after a rat was found in a miso soup and a bug in another meal.Seoul was also sharply lower.”Within the Asia-Pacific region, the car levies will hit Japan and South Korea the hardest. About six percent of Japan’s total exports are cars shipped to the US. In South Korea’s case, it’s four percent,” Moody’s Analytics economists wrote.”Such a sizeable tariff hike will undermine confidence, hit production and reduce orders. Given the long and complex supply chains in car manufacturing, the impact will ripple through these countries’ economies. “Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest the action could shave 0.2 to 0.5 percentage points from growth in each.”There were also losses in Sydney, Shanghai, Wellington and Taipei.Hong Kong suffered another big selloff, with conglomerate CK Hutchison shedding 3.1 percent following reports billionaire Li Ka-shing might delay signing a multi-billion-dollar deal to offload its ports operations, including those in the Panama Canal.The firm has faced criticism from China since it agreed to offload the business to a US-led consortium after pressure from Trump. Beijing confirmed on Friday antitrust regulators will review the deal, likely preventing the parties from signing it as planned on Wednesday.Bangkok dropped more than one percent as trade got back under way after being suspended on Friday following the deadly quake that hit the Thai capital. The stock market was already under pressure, having dived more than 15 percent since the turn of the year on worries about the Thai economy.London, Paris and Frankfurt fell in early trade.Gold, a safe haven in times of uncertainty and turmoil, hit a record high of $3,127.92.”Investors have a severe case of nerves ahead of Trump’s tariff Liberation Day,” said Neil Wilson, an analyst at TipRanks. “The only thing holding up sentiment today is data showing China’s factory activity at a one-year high as stimulus measures seem to be having an impact.”The selling followed a hefty selloff on Wall Street, where the Dow tumbled 1.7 percent, the S&P 500 lost 2.0 percent and the Nasdaq dived 2.7 percent.US investors were jolted by figures showing the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index came in above forecasts in February.Analysts said that while the reading was not a blowout, its timing amid a period of uncertainty added to the sense of gloom when traders had been hoping for a little reassurance.”Markets will now be fully at the mercy of an impending deluge of tariff-related headlines, while highly reactive to any US economic data that accelerates the thematic of slower economic activity and higher expected inflation,” said Chris Weston at Pepperstone. – Key figures around 0810 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 4.1 percent at 35,617.56 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.3 percent at 23,119.58 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 3,335.75 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.9 percent at 8,579.60 Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0829 from $1.0838 on FridayPound/dollar: UP at $1.2955 from $1.2947Dollar/yen: DOWN at 149.10 yen from 149.72 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 83.58 pence from 83.68 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.6 percent at $69.76 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.6 percent at $74.08 per barrelNew York – Dow: DOWN 1.7 percent at 41,583.90 (close)

Japan wants to become a hydrogen fuel leader to meet its net-zero goals, but one blockbuster project is hanging in the balance over questions about its climate credentials.The Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) is billed as a billion-dollar attempt to ship liquid hydrogen from Australia to Japan.However, cold feet about the project in Australia means HESC will source hydrogen from Japan to meet a 2030 deadline for its demonstration phase.Hydrogen sounds promising on paper: while fossil fuels emit planet-warming greenhouse gases, burning hydrogen creates only water vapour.But it has not yet lived up to its promise, with several much-hyped projects globally struggling to overcome high costs and engineering challenges.Hydrogen’s climate credentials also depend on how it is produced.”Green hydrogen” uses renewable energy, while “blue hydrogen” relies on fossil fuels such as coal and gas, with carbon-capture technology to reduce emissions.”Brown hydrogen” is produced by fossil fuels without any carbon capture.The HESC project aims to produce blue hydrogen in the Australian state of Victoria, harnessing abundant local supplies of lignite coal.With the world’s first liquid hydrogen tanker and an imposing storage site near Kobe in Japan, HESC had been touted as a flagship experiment showcasing Japan’s ambitions for the fuel.HESC says it aims to eventually produce enough hydrogen to “reduce about 1.8 million tonnes per annum of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere”.Japan’s energy sector emitted 974 million tonnes of CO2 from fuel combustion in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).- ‘Strong opposition’ -Japan’s government pledged 220 billion yen (now $1.4 billion) to HESC’s current “commercial demonstration” phase, which has a completion deadline of 2030.But to meet this deadline, the project will now source hydrogen in Japan.That has been blamed on cold feet among Australian officials concerned about the project’s environmental payoff.A spokesman for Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries, one of the companies behind HESC, said the decision to shift production to Japan was taken “chiefly because of delay in procedures on the Australian side”.The Victoria government did not respond to repeated requests for comment, though Australian officials have told local media that the move was a Japanese “commercial decision”.Australia’s cooling interest in the project is due to “strong opposition” from environmental activists and energy experts opposed to carbon capture and storage, said Daisuke Akimoto of Tokyo University of Information Sciences.”The main problem the project faces is the lack of approval of the blue hydrogen project by the Victorian government,” Akimoto said.Kawasaki said it has not yet decided what type of hydrogen it will procure in Japan and downplayed the project’s challenges.”We are very positive” about HESC and “there is no change” to the goal of building a new supply chain, the spokesman said, declining to be named.- ‘Evidence gap’ -However, sourcing the hydrogen locally leaves “a critical evidence gap at the middle of the project” — proving carbon capture and storage work — explained David Cebon, an engineering professor at the University of Cambridge.That is “difficult and challenging and not being done successfully anywhere”, Cebon said.Kawasaki has said it will continue “feasibility studies” for the HESC project, but Cebon believes it will “quietly die”, partly because of the cost of shipping hydrogen to Japan.To be transported by sea as a liquid, hydrogen needs to be cooled to -253 degrees Celsius (-423.4 Fahrenheit) — an expensive, energy-intensive process.”I think wiser heads in the government just realised how crazy it is,” said Mark Ogge from the Australia Institute think-tank.Japanese energy company Kansai Electric has separately withdrawn from a different project to produce “green” hydrogen in Australia.A company spokesman declined to comment on reports that the decision was due to ballooning costs.- ‘It will take decades’ -Resource-poor Japan is the world’s fifth largest single-country emitter of carbon dioxide.It already produces some hydrogen domestically, mostly using natural gas and oil or nuclear power, although this is limited and expensive.Some experts are sanguine about HESC’s challenges. Noe van Hulst, a hydrogen advisor to the IEA, said it was important to take the long view.”Pilot projects are undertaken to test innovations in practice: learning-by-doing,” he told AFP. “Yes, it is hard to develop a low-carbon hydrogen market and it will take decades,” as with wind and solar energy, van Hulst said.Solar in particular has seen costs plummet and uptake soar far beyond initial expectations and at greater speed.And for now, “there isn’t really an alternative (to) decarbonise these hard-to-electrify sectors like steel, cement, ships and planes”, van Hulst added.

China’s manufacturing activity grew in March for the highest rate in a year, official data showed Monday, a rare bright spot as the world’s second-largest economy struggles to climb out of a prolonged slump.Authorities have looked in recent months to revive confidence in the Chinese economy, grappling with a prolonged property sector crisis and now under increasing pressure from fresh trade tensions with the United States.The Purchasing Managers’ Index — a key measure of industrial output — came in at 50.5 in March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), above the 50-point mark that separates growth and contraction.The reading for March was up from February’s 50.2, and the highest in twelve months.Manufacturing was boosted by workers’ return to work after the traditional Spring Festival travel period in February and the fact that “enterprises’ production and operating activities accelerated,” NBS statistician Zhao Qinghe said in a statement.The non-manufacturing PMI, which measures activity in the services sector, came in at 50.8, up from February’s 50.4.China has in recent years battled stuttering youth unemployment, stubbornly low consumer demand and a persistent property sector debt crisis.Higher US tariffs on Chinese exports are also expected to hit domestic manufacturers in the coming months.”The manufacturing sector faces downside risk in Q2 as the external demand weakens, driven by the tariffs and the economic slowdown in the US,” Zhiwei Zhang, President and Chief Economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said in a note.”The big question is how much export growth will decline, and how quickly the fiscal spending will pick up to offset weaker exports,” he added.Authorities announced a raft of stimulus measures last year including rate cuts and the easing of some home purchasing restrictions.And leaders at a key political meeting this month vowed to create 12 million new urban jobs in 2025.They also said they were aiming for total growth this year of five percent — the same as 2024 and a goal considered ambitious by many economists.

Tokyo led another plunge across Asian markets Monday while gold hit a record high as investors steel themselves for a wave of US tariffs this week that has fuelled recession fears.Equities across the planet have been hammered in recent weeks ahead of Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” on April 2, when his administration will unveil a series of levies against friend and foe alike, citing what he says are unfair trading practices.His announcement last week that he would also impose 25 percent duties on imports of all vehicles and parts ramped up the fear factor on trading floors, hammering car giants including Japan’s Toyota, the world’s biggest.Governments around the world have pushed back on Trump’s tariffs, and could announce more countermeasures, while Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told Trump on Friday that he will implement retaliatory tariffs to protect his country’s workers and economy.Adding to the dour mood was data showing the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of inflation rose more than expected last month amid worries Trump’s tariffs will fan price rises and further dent hopes for interest rate cuts.Japan’s Nikkei 225 index plunged more than four percent at one point, extending last week’s slide, as Toyota, Nissan and Mazda shed more around three percent, while tech investment titan SoftBank tanked more than five percent. Zensho Holdings, which owns several Japanese restaurant franchises, plunged five percent after its beef bowl chain Sukiya said it would temporarily shut nearly all of its roughly 2,000 branches after a rat was found in a miso soup and a bug in another meal.Seoul was also sharply lower.”Within the Asia-Pacific region, the car levies will hit Japan and South Korea the hardest. About six percent of Japan’s total exports are cars shipped to the US. In South Korea’s case, it’s four percent,” Moody’s Analytics economists wrote. “Such a sizeable tariff hike will undermine confidence, hit production and reduce orders. Given the long and complex supply chains in car manufacturing, the impact will ripple through these countries’ economies. “Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest the action could shave 0.2 to 0.5 percentage points from growth in each.”There were also losses in Hong Kong, Sydney, Shanghai, Wellington, Taipei and Manila.Gold, a safe haven in times of uncertainty and turmoil, hit a record high of $3,106.79.The selling followed a hefty selloff on Wall Street, where the Dow tumbled 1.7 percent, the S&P 500 lost 2.0 percent and the Nasdaq dived 2.7 percent.US investors were jolted by figures showing the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index came in above forecasts in February.Analysts said that while the reading was not a blowout, its timing amid a period of uncertainty added to the sense of gloom, when traders had been hoping for a little reassurance.”Markets will now be fully at the mercy of an impending deluge of tariff-related headlines, while highly reactive to any US economic data that accelerates the thematic of slower economic activity and higher expected inflation,” said Chris Weston at Pepperstone. – Key figures around 0230 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 3.9 percent at 35,691.52 (break)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.6 percent at 23,278.18Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,349.68Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0833 from $1.0838 on FridayPound/dollar: UP at $1.2958 from $1.2947Dollar/yen: DOWN at 149.05 yen from 149.72 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 83.60 pence from 83.68 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.4 percent at $69.08 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.3 percent at $73.42 per barrelNew York – Dow: DOWN 1.7 percent at 41,583.90 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 8,658.85 (close)

China, South Korea and Japan agreed Sunday to strengthen free trade in the face of a raft of new tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.The agreement came at a meeting of top trade officials — the first at that level in five years — days ahead of the start of tariffs on a huge range of US imports, including cars, trucks, and auto parts.South Korea and Japan are major auto exporters, while China has also been hit hard by the US tariffs. The meeting was attended by South Korea’s industry minister Ahn Duk-geun, his Japanese counterpart Yoji Muto, and China’s Wang Wentao.The three countries called for their negotiations for a comprehensive trilateral free-trade agreement to be speeded up, and agreed to create “a predictable trade and investment environment”, a statement said. South Korea’s Ahn said the three countries must respond “jointly” to shared global challenges.”Today’s economic and trade environment is marked by increasing fragmentation of the global economy,” he said.”The international environment surrounding us is constantly changing, and uncertainties are increasing,” Japanese trade official Yasuji Komiyama said in a press briefing.Chinese official Wang Liping said “unilateralism and protectionism are spreading” and the three countries must assume responsibility to safeguard the multilateral trading system.The three countries account for 20 percent of the world’s population, 24 percent of the global economy, and 19 percent of global merchandise trade, he said.Trump has promised tariffs tailored to each trading partner from April 2 to remedy practices he deems unfair.But he also told reporters last week that there would be “flexibility”, and markets appeared to react with some relief at the end of last week.

China’s fury at the sale of Panama Canal ports to a US-led consortium reflects how container hubs have become prized currency as Beijing and Washington vie for global influence, analysts say.Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison this month sold 43 ports in 23 countries — including operations in the vital Central American canal — to a group led by giant asset manager BlackRock for $19 billion in cash.After two weeks of rhetoric, Beijing hardened its response on Friday and confirmed that antitrust regulators will review the deal, likely preventing the parties from signing an agreement on April 2 as planned.Speaking before the review was announced, experts told AFP that the deal allowed US President Donald Trump to claim credit for “taking back” the canal as part of his “America First” agenda.”The US (created) a political issue at China’s expense and then has been able to declare victory,” said Kurt Tong, managing partner at The Asia Group and a former top US diplomat to Hong Kong.”That doesn’t feel good in Beijing.”Some of the ports being sold are in nations that participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) — a global development framework championed by Chinese President Xi Jinping.Ports are crucial to that network and China “has been notably successful in this area”, said Henry Gao, a trade law expert at the Singapore Management University.Last month, Panama formally exited the BRI following a visit from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.”There is indeed a growing trend of ‘weaponising’ ports and trade infrastructure as tools of geopolitical leverage,” Gao said.- ‘Nightmare’ scenario? -On March 4, CK Hutchison sent shockwaves through China’s shipping industry by announcing a deal of “unprecedented scale”, according to Xie Wenqing, a port development researcher at the Shanghai International Shipping Institute.Chinese shipping firms questioned whether they could ensure neutral passage once the ports changed hands, he told AFP.”There are concerns about additional costs for Chinese ships or discriminatory treatment in terms of queuing orders,” he added, highlighting the long-arm jurisdiction of US authorities.The deal — coupled with recent US tariff hikes — could undermine China’s manufacturing dominance, argued Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at the Renmin University of China.”Increased inspections and additional docking costs would erode China’s competitive edge and disrupt global supply chains,” he noted.The United States has used various justifications to target key infrastructure projects under the Belt and Road Initiative “to strip away these assets and weaken China’s position as the world’s factory”, Wang added.John Bradford, executive director of the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies, said the deal would not serve China’s interests but said some concerns were “overblown”.Port operators such as CK Hutchison are commercial entities constrained by law and cannot decide matters of national sovereignty, for example whether a ship could visit a port or not.”If (operators) were to blatantly favour one company over another, that would generally speaking… be illegal,” Bradford said. “Most countries have laws which say you have to treat different customers similarly, so the nightmare scenarios are not particularly realistic.”- Hong Kong’s role -Beijing’s next steps in scrutinising CK Hutchison may also have far-reaching implications on Hong Kong and its role as China’s business gateway to the world, according to analysts.”This whole Panama ports issue has refocused attention on the question (of) whether Hong Kong is a good place to put assets or to do business,” said Tong, the former diplomat.”Certainly the foreign business community operating in Hong Kong is watching this issue very closely.”CK Hutchison is registered in the Cayman Islands and the assets being sold are all outside China.That did not stop the State Administration for Market Regulation from announcing the antitrust review on Friday.Jet Deng, a senior partner at the Beijing office of law firm Dentons, said China’s antitrust laws can be applicable outside its borders, similar to those of the United States and the European Union.Once a deal meets China’s reportability threshold, a declaration is required even if the transaction takes place abroad, as long as the parties involved had substantial operations in mainland China, he said.Firms that fail to declare may be fined for up to 10 percent of their operating income from the preceding year, Deng added.Hung Ho-fung, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University, said Beijing risks spooking “cautious” foreign firms that have already lowered their business exposure in Hong Kong.If the deal crumbles under Chinese pressure, people may believe that Hong Kong is converging with mainland China where “national security considerations are of utmost importance in any business deal”, Hung said.

Sky-high tobacco prices in Australia have created a lucrative black market, analysts say, sparking a violent “tobacco war” and syphoning away billions in potential tax revenue.Faced with a pack of 25 cigarettes costing up to Aus$50 (US$32) or more — including Aus$1.40 in tax on each stick — many smokers have instead turned to readily available illicit tobacco.At the same time, authorities have cracked down on vapes, restricting legal sales to pharmacies and opening up another illegal market for people in search of affordable nicotine.In March, the government cut its budget forecast for tobacco tax revenue in the period to 2029 by Aus$6.9 billion.”We’ve got a challenge here and too many people are avoiding the excise,” Treasurer Jim Chalmers conceded after revealing the figures.He announced an extra Aus$157 million for a multi-agency force battling organised crime groups involved in the market and a string of “tobacco war” fire-bombings.The situation was a “total disaster”, said James Martin, criminology course director at Deakin University in Melbourne.”We have taken a public health issue, smoking, and our tobacco control policies have transformed it into a multi-fronted crisis,” he told AFP.”It is a fiscal crisis, so we are losing billions and billions of dollars in tobacco tax excise but also, more concerning for me as a criminologist, it has turned into a major crime problem.”Since the start of 2023, there had been more than 220 arson attacks targeting either black-market retailers or store owners who refuse to stock illicit tobacco products, Martin said.- Extortion and intimidation -“This is really serious organised crime, extortion and intimidation of otherwise law-abiding citizens.”Alleged crime figures named in local media as big players include convicted heroin trafficker Kazem Hamad, who was deported to Iraq in 2023, and an infamous Melbourne crime family. Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission chief Heather Cook said criminals fighting over the “lucrative” illegal market were associated with “violence and dangerous behaviour”.”This is impacting communities,” she told Melbourne’s Herald Sun in February.Law enforcement alone could not solve the problem, Martin said. “If we just keep making nicotine harder to get to, people are going to turn to the black market.”Australia had made two mistakes, he said: pricing legal cigarettes so high that a pack-a-day habit cost about Aus$15,000 a year and at the same time heavily restricting sales of vapes, which were predominantly sold on the black market.”The government needs to lower the tobacco tax excise to stop the bleed to the black market, and they need to legalise consumer vaping products.”New Zealand was the only country that had successfully introduced a similar tobacco taxation policy to Australia’s, Martin said.”But they did it by legalising vaping back in 2020,” he added.”So, New Zealand used to have a higher smoking rate than we did back just four years ago. It’s now substantially lower than Australia’s.”Illicit cigarettes are flowing into Australia from China and the Middle East, with vapes predominantly being sourced from Shenzhen in China, the criminologist said.- ‘War on nicotine’ -And the black market still thrives despite the Australian Border Force saying it detected huge volumes of illicit tobacco in the year to June 30, 2024 — 1.8 billion cigarettes and more than 436 tonnes of loose leaf tobacco.Daily tobacco smoking in Australia has fallen sharply over the past decades: from 24 percent of those aged over 14 in 1991 to 8.3 percent by 2023, according to a national household survey.But monitoring of nicotine in Australian wastewater — whether from cigarettes, vapes, or nicotine replacement products — showed consumption per person had remained “relatively stable” since 2016, according to the government’s health and welfare institute.Edward Jegasothy, senior lecturer in public health at the University of Sydney, said smoking rates in Australia fell just as fast during periods of sharp price increases as they did when prices were stable.The black market had undermined government policy by providing a cheaper alternative, he told AFP.To address the problem, authorities would probably need to lower taxes on tobacco and strengthen law enforcement, he said.Broader nicotine restrictions in Australia had left people with fewer less harmful alternatives to tobacco, Jegasothy said.People switching to vapes were going to the unregulated market where concentrations of nicotine and other adulterants were unknown, he said. “So that’s another risk that’s unnecessarily there because of the black market.”The high tobacco tax policy also hit people in the lowest socioeconomic groups the hardest, Jegasothy said, both because they were spending a higher proportion of their incomes on it, and because they had higher rates of smoking.Australia’s “disproportionate” focus on cutting nicotine supply rather than reducing demand and harm echoed the “War on Drugs”, Jegasothy argued in a joint paper with Deakin University’s Martin.”As with Australia’s broader War on Drugs, there is little evidence to suggest that our de facto War on Nicotine is an optimal strategy for reducing nicotine-related harms,” it warns.