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The home ministry is yet to take any punitive measure against 20 importers even seven months after a parliamentary body’s recommendation.
   The importers were alleged to have creamed off Tk 134 crore by creating an artificial scarcity of sugar last year.
   The three-member sub-committee of the parliamentary standing committee on commerce ministry, headed by former lawmaker Monirul Hoque Chowdhury, submitted the report on June 12 holding 20 importers responsible for an artificial crisis created by their cartel.
   The committee, comprising former lawmakers LK Siddique and Professor M Younus, after three months of investigation found six Chittagong-based importing agencies — Abul Khair Group, S Alam Group, Ilias Brothers, Musa and Sons, Super Oil Refinery and East West Trading, engaged in the collusion, said sources.
   The committee also found Partex Group, Meghna Group, Farzana Oil Refinery, AP Traders, King Traders, Hasan and Company, Ismail Food Products, Arban Industries, Agro Commodities, MS Majid and four more Dhaka-based agencies responsible for the crisis.
   The committee report said that the syndicate, in connivance with a section of bank officials, had barred other enterprises from importing sugar. The bank, in collusion with the importers, did not provide other parties with bank guarantees, which created a sever sugar crisis, said sources.
   They also hoarded a huge consignment of sugar to exacerbate the crisis, which pushed the retail price of sugar from Tk 35 per kilogram to Tk 65 during the first half of the last year, said sources. In the process they caused consumers to pay an estimated Tk 134 crore, said the sources.
   According to the sources the home ministry summoned the importers following receipt of the parliamentary committee’s report although no punitive measures have been taken so far.
   Sources also said that the home ministry refrained from taking any measures against the importers due to a hectic lobbying of business community leaders.

Export Processing Zone workers’ compensation package has fattened a little with the authorities paying a host of perks in an effort to comply with the factory standards set by overseas buyers.
   The Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) executive chairman has said that workers in the EPZs are getting additional money from January this year.
   The rise has not come in
   the way of an actual change in the pay structure, but as the result of a BEPZA decision to pay a host of fringe benefits and implementation of earlier pay scale, which was pending until now.
   ‘We have been able to add sums to the compensation package in Dhaka and Chittagong EPZs even without changing
   the wage structure after trying hard for the last six months,’ BEPZA executive Chairman
   Brig Gen. Ashraf Abdhullah Yussuf told bdnews24.com Thursday.
   ‘The hike was in the form of benefits under many heads,’ he added.
   The workers of Dhaka EPZ launched violent movement on 18 June last year demanding increased wages, and compliance with a host of other factors and facilities at the EPZ.
   BEPZA sources said, the workers wages in the different factories of Dhaka and Chittagong EPZs normally rose by Tk 58 million 70 thousand and Tk 31 million 40 thousand respectively in January this year compared to that in July last year.
   Compliance with conditions and other service related facilities of the EPZs was 65 per cent this year.
   Ashraf said, ‘We are stopping raw material import facilities for the time being to ensure wage and compliance as per existing BEPZA instructions.’
   ‘Only those factories where wages increased because of the compliance with the existing wage scale and other conditions year, were out of BEPZA instructions,’ he added.
   However, the workers of Dhaka EPZ acknowledged that factories improved their compliance system and other service related facilities but said change in the wage structure was a necessity.

Nobel peace prize winner Prof Muhammad Yunus Saturday spread his dream on ‘social business’ among the students of Mumbai University with an undying vision to put poverty in the museum.
   He gave a public address on the ‘Role of micro-credit in achieving MDGs’ at the Marathi Vangmaya Bhavan of Mumbai University Kanila campus. Mumbai University Vice Chancellor Prof Vijay Khole also spoke on the occasion.
   Narrating the huge success of micro-credit programme initiated by his brainchild, Grameen Bank, the Nobel Laureate said any village can find solution of their problems from own resources.
   ‘They don’t need any resource or advice from outside,’ he said, adding: ‘Problems can be solved locally.’
   Terming poverty as the artificial imposition on the poor people, he said each of us has unlimited potentiality. ‘Seeds of poverty is lying in the concepts, when we can pull them out the world will be free from poverty.’
   Prof. Yunus said that his micro-credit programme for the women only was a protest to the conventional banking system, which does not give loans to the poor women.
   Criticising those who consider the poor people not creditworthy, he said: ‘I want to tell them: are you people worthy?’
   Advocating his social business and social stock market concepts amid applause by hundreds of faculty members and students in the hall, the micro-credit guru said, citizens can change rules and laws if they want.
   He advised the students of the Mumbai University, whom he termed as the future of the nation, to prepare them for the social business to put poverty in the Museum of Mumbai for the future generation to see what the poverty was.
   Prof Yunus left Mumbai on Saturday for Bahrain.
   In Bahrain, the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2006 and founder of Grammen Bank, will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bahrain government to set up a replicated family bank there on February 6.
   Prof. Yunus will meet Crown Prince Sheikh Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa on February 5 at a dinner reception where he will also deliver a speech.
   He will also meet Emir of Bahrain Sheikh Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa, Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, Social Development Minister Dr Fatima Bint Mohammed Al Balooshi and Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa.

US employers added 111,000 jobs in January, the government said Friday in a report suggesting the world’s biggest economy kept positive momentum going into early 2007.
   The Labor Department figure on nonfarm payrolls, seen as one of the best indicators of economic activity, was weaker than the 150,000 new jobs expected by Wall Street analysts.
   But the agency revised upward its estimates for job creation in December to 206,000 from 167,000 and to 196,000 in November from 154,000.
   The unemployment rate, taken from a separate survey of households, rose slightly to 4.6 per cent from 4.5 per cent in December as more people joined the labor force.
   Average hourly wages, a key gauge of inflation, rose 0.2 per cent in January to 17.09 dollars.
   The report showed a gain of 104,000 jobs in services, offset somewhat by a loss of 16,000 manufacturing jobs in January.
   Beata Caranci, senior economist at TD Bank Financial Group, said the report was what Federal Reserve policymakers were looking for because it signals employment and income growth with little inflation pressure.
   ‘This is one of the best outcomes the Fed could have expected,’ she said.
   ‘There’s not any threat of wage-push inflation but still a significant number of people employed.’
   On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve said US economic momentum was picking up while inflation pressures were easing. The central bank left its base rate at 5.25 per cent.
   One concern for the Fed, which has retained a warning on inflation and potential rate hike, is whether a tight labor market will lead to wage-driven inflation. But the Fed was also watching for signs of economic weakness as a result of deep slump in housing last year, leaving some to expect a rate cut sometime in 2007.
   John Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia Securities, said the revisions pushed jobs gains to an average of 171,000 over the last three months.
   This suggests ‘good momentum for the economy and should diminish expectations of any Fed ease in the near term,’ Silvia said.
   ‘On the wage front, earnings were up 4.0 per cent (year-over-year), not enough to generate concerns about rising inflation.’
   Economist Stephen Gallagher at Societe Generale said that even though the headline figure of 111,000 new jobs ‘was well below our estimates,’ the ‘very solid upward revisions in the prior two months do not alter the anticipation of healthy growth.’
   He added that wage pressures ‘may not be so strong despite these very healthy nonfarm payroll gains.’
   Gallagher said the report suggested a ‘Goldilocks scenario’—not too hot or too cold—and ‘does not prompt any action from the Fed.’
   Earlier this week, the Commerce Department said the US economy expanded at a 3.5 per cent annualized rate in the fourth quarter, accelerating after a softer patch in midyear.

Indian tycoon Ratan Tata said Saturday he could give no guarantees over the safety of jobs, following his firm’s successful bid for Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group Plc.
   In an interview with British business daily the Financial Times in Mumbai, Tata said he could give no assurances because his company had only researched Corus ‘on paper’ and had yet to examine their plants in detail.
   ‘I wouldn’t even attempt to do so because it would be wrong of me to give those assurances or to deny that was so,’ he was quoted as saying. ‘But I would say that we’re not a company that would first look at jobs.’
   Tata’s comments come after Britain’s largest steel trade union demanded a meeting with the tycoon seeking assurances he will remain committed to expanding Corus after his 13.7 billion dollar bid.
   Community, which describes itself as the main union in Corus representing 80 per cent of its British employees, also sought government backing for the steel industry’s attempt to ward off ‘accelerated or slow demise’ and protect jobs.
   Tata told the FT Tata Group, where he is chairman, would apply to Corus the lessons it had learned from upgrading its 100-year-old Indian operation to improve margins and productivity.
   ‘Our plan would be to try to make the UK operations more profitable,’ he added.
   The FT said to make the deal work, Tata Steel would to have to drastically improve Corus’ efficiency as the European manufacturer’s margins were seven per cent less than the Indian firm despite having a greater capacity.
   Tata Steel’s managing director has previously said the merger—which would create the world’s fifth-largest steelmaker—was not about job cuts, yet also that no one in the world had job security.
   Corus—created by the 1999 merger of Dutch firm Hoogovens and British Steel—employs 47,300 people worldwide, including 24,000 in Britain and 11,400 in the Netherlands.
   It is Europe’s second-largest steel maker and the world’s ninth-largest, producing around 18 million tonnes per year.
   Tata Steel employed about 39,650 people as of March 2005, according to the company’s latest corporate sustainability report. It is the biggest private steel firm in India.

Protesters forced the shutdown of a natural gas pipeline serving several of Bolivia’s largest cities to demand that President Evo Morales broaden his petroleum nationalisation and expand state energy company operations in southern Bolivia.
   Vice President Alvaro Garcia confirmed that protesters on Friday had taken control of a pumping plant outside the city of Camiri, 320 miles southeast of the capital of La Paz, forcing employees of pipeline operator Transredes to shut off the flow of gas.
   The pipeline serves La Paz and the eastern city of Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s two largest cities, but the shutdown had not affected supplies in either city, Garcia said.
   Garcia said the protests have ‘no justification, because the pipelines are the veins of our country.’
   Officials at Transredes, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, declined to comment except to say they were monitoring the situation.
   The shutdown did not affect pipelines carrying Bolivian natural gas to neighboring Brazil and Argentina.
   Since Monday, the protesters have blockaded the main highway outside Camiri to demand that Bolivian state energy company Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos, or YPFB, build a local headquarters in their town.
   The office was planned before Morales was inaugurated last year, but scrapped as the beleaguered company reorganizes itself under the terms of his oil and gas nationalization.
   Saying that nationalization has not gone far enough, the demonstrators also have demanded that Morales seize two Bolivian oil refineries operated by Brazilian state energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras — a move his government announced last September but quickly aborted in the face of fierce international criticism.
   The protesters are also seeking the ‘refounding’ of YPFB, which was eviscerated by a botched 1996 privatization. But Morales already declared the company ‘refounded’ last August while announcing plans for a complete overhaul.
   ‘They’re asking for the refounding of YPFB, and we’re working on it,’ Morales said earlier Friday.
   Morales nationalized Bolivia’s extensive natural gas fields last May, sending soldiers to seize foreign companies’ installations. But after six months of delicate negotiations the companies were allowed to remain in the country after signing new contracts granting the state a significantly larger share of their revenues.
   In the early 20th century, Camiri was home to one of Bolivia’s first big gas wells, but production has since moved elsewhere. Local residents hope a new YPFB office could bring much-needed jobs to the area.
   Shutting down pipelines is a common form of political protest in Bolivia.
   Last August, demonstrators briefly shutdown a gas pipeline to Argentina to protest border crossing fees, while in the same month Guarani Indians seized a pipeline control facility to demand a larger share of gas royalties.

The High Court has stayed the showcause-cum-hearing notice served by the Securities and Exchange Commission on One Bank Limited regarding the transfer and dematerialisation of shares of Abdus Salam, a sponsor shareholder and ex-director of the bank.
   It also issued a rule nisi, returnable in four weeks from January 29, asking the government and capital market regulators to explain why the purported transfer of 31,000 shares of Abdus Salam and dematerialisation of his 3,06,000 shares shall not be declared illegal.
   The market regulators have also been barred from regularising the transfer of shares and proceeding with the demat process.
   The SEC earlier issued showcause-cum-hearing notice on One Bank Limited, its directors, managing director and company secretary alleging non-compliance of securities laws in connection with demat of share certificates of Abdus Salam.

The second largest mobile operator service in the country Aktel has inaugurated its 18th customers care centre at Orchid Centre at MK Road in Jessore on Saturday.
   The director coordination, Fazlur Rahman, inaugurated the centre as chief guest cutting a cake.

Etihad Airways, the National Airline of the United Arab Emirates, will begin non-stop flights from Abu Dhabi to Sydney of Australia on March 26.
   The new three times a week service will be flown by a three-class Airbus A340-500 aircraft. Flight frequency will increase to a daily operation from June 29.
   The Etihad Airways chief executive, James Hogan, said, ‘I am very optimistic that the new Sydney service will boost the development of commerce and tourism between Australia and the UAE’s capital, Abu Dhabi.
   ‘As well as direct traffic between these two great cities, we are aiming to attract connecting passengers from throughout the Middle East and from Europe, who are looking to travel via Abu Dhabi to Sydney for business and holidays.
   Etihad’s Sydney route will also provide Australian business and leisure travellers with easy access to the Middle East region, as well as key international cities across Europe, with swift connections through Abu Dhabi to a choice of 47 destinations currently served by the airline. The ambassador of Australia to the UAE, Jeremy Bruer, said, ‘I am delighted that Etihad has shown a huge vote of confidence in Australia by starting flights to and from Abu Dhabi. Australian travellers can now enjoy direct access to one of the most important locations in the Middle East on one of the world’s most exciting new airlines.

In one of the biggest advancements in fundamental transistor design, Intel Corporation has recently revealed that it is using two dramatically new materials to build the insulating walls and switching gates of its 45 nanometer transistors.
   Hundreds of millions of these microscopic transistors – or switches – will be inside the next generation Intel® Core™ 2 Duo, Intel Core 2 Quad and Xeon® families of multi-core processors.
   The company also said it has five early-version products up and running – the first of fifteen 45nm processor products planned from Intel.
   The transistor feat allows the company to continue delivering record-breaking PC, laptop and server processor speeds, while reducing the amount of electrical leakage from transistors that can hamper chip and PC design, size, power consumption, noise and costs.
   It also ensures the Moore’s Law, a high-tech industry axiom that transistor counts double about every two years, thrive well into the next decade.
   Intel believes it has extended its lead of more than a year over the rest of the semiconductor industry with the first working 45nm processors of its next-generation 45nm family of products – codenamed ‘Penryn’.

World oil prices jumped higher for the second week in a row, energised by falling heating fuel stocks and colder winter weather in the United States.
   The Commodities Research Bureau’s index of 17 commodities rose to 297.90 points on Friday at about 1700 GMT, from 294.85 points a week ago. The index had breached 300 points Thursday for the first time since January 3.
   Gold: Gold prices climbed in London to 661.46 dollars per ounce on Thursday, which was last seen in July 2006.
   The precious metal benefits from higher oil prices because they increase the risk of inflation, which in turn increases the attractiveness of gold as a defence against the erosion of the value of money.
   On the London Bullion Market, gold prices firmed to 645.70 dollars per ounce at Friday’s late fixing, from 645.50 dollars the previous Friday.
   Silver: On the London Bullion Market, silver prices rose to 13.66 dollars per ounce at Friday’s late fixing, from 13.22 dollars the previous week.
   Palladium and Platinum: On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum eased to 1,165 dollars per ounce at the morning fixing Friday, from 1,169 dollars the previous week.
   Palladium fell to 339 dollars per ounce, from 349 dollars one week earlier.
   Base Metals: On Friday, three-month copper prices sank to 5,500 dollars per tonne on the London Metal Exchange from 5,750 dollars the previous week.
   Three-month aluminium prices declined to 2,700 dollars per tonne from 2,777 dollars.
   Three-month nickel prices fell to 37,505 dollars per tonne.
   Three-month lead prices sagged to 1,660 dollars per tonne.
   Three-month zinc prices plunged to 3,270 dollars per tonne.
   Three-month tin prices dropped to 11,825 dollars per tonne.
   Oil: In London, a barrel of Brent North Sea crude for delivery in March jumped to 56.97 dollars per barrel, from 55.15 dollars.
   Rubber: Singapore’s RSS 3 April contract ended at 224.25 US cents per kilogramme on Friday.
   Cocoa: On the LIFFE, London’s futures exchange, the price of cocoa for March delivery rose to 901 pounds per tonne on Friday.
   Coffer: On LIFFE, Robusta quality for March delivery stood at 1,601 dollars per tonne on Friday.
   On NYBOT, Arabica for March delivery stood at 118.20 cents per pound on Friday.
   Sugar: On NYBOT, the price of unrefined sugar for March delivery dipped to 10.57 US cents per pound.
   Wheat: On the LIFFE, the price of a tonne of wheat for March delivery stood at 94.50 pounds.
   Cotton: The Cotton Outlook Index of physical cotton stood at 58.90 US cents on Thursday.
   Wool: The Australian wool market firmed this week, supported by strengthening demand from China.
   The Eastern index rose to 9.31 Australian dollars per kilo on Friday, from 9.2 dollars the previous week.

The dollar benefited from healthy US job numbers Friday that reinforced the Federal Reserve’s appraisal of solid growth combined with quiescent inflation, traders said.
   By 2200 GMT, the euro had fallen under 1.30 dollars to trade at 1.2963, against 1.3022 late Thursday in New York.
   The dollar was trading at 121.07 yen, against 120.77 on Thursday. The Japanese currency has been in focus ahead of a Group of Seven (G7) meeting in Germany.
   US employers added 111,000 jobs in January, according to the Labor Department’s closely watched nonfarm payroll report. That was weaker than the 150,000 new jobs expected by Wall Street analysts.
   But the agency revised upward its estimates for job creation in December to 206,000 from 167,000, and to 196,000 in November from 154,000.
   The unemployment rate climbed to 4.6 per cent from 4.5 per cent in December, while average hourly wages, a key gauge of inflation, rose 0.2 per cent in January to 17.09 dollars.
   Immediately after the announcement, the euro shot up to a four-week high of 1.3064 dollars, while the pound briefly touched a nine-day high of 1.9748 dollars.
   But the US currency soon recovered much of those losses, as the headline readings were offset by the substantial revisions to back data.
   ‘For the short-term traders looking for immediate gratification, the (payrolls) number was disappointing when set up next to the 150,000 print expected,’ John Kicklighter of Forex Capital Markets said.
   ‘Alternatively, economists and position traders saw the number as proof positive that the stabilization the Fed has linked between employment and economic growth is genuine,’ he said.
   ‘For both parties though, the upward revision to a five-month high 206,000 new hires was a considerable surprise and likely the shining statistic from the whole gauge.’
   Russell Bloom at Thomson IFR Markets agreed. ‘The upward revision in December jobs was a bright spot in the data and some dollar bulls are taking heart,’ he said.
   Beata Caranci, senior economist at TD Bank Financial Group, said the report was what Federal Reserve policymakers were looking for because it signals employment and income growth with little inflation pressure.
   ‘This is one of the best outcomes the Fed could have expected,’ she said.
   ‘There’s not any threat of wage-push inflation but still a significant number of people employed.’
   On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve said US economic momentum was picking up while inflation pressures were easing. The central bank left its base rate at 5.25 per cent.
   One concern for the Fed, which has retained a warning on inflation and potential rate hike, is whether a tight labor market will lead to wage-driven inflation.
   But the Fed was also watching for signs of economic weakness as a result of deep slump in housing last year, leaving some to expect a rate cut sometime in 2007. Lower borrowing costs would diminish the dollar’s appeal for investors.
   In other trading, the pound bought 1.9664 dollars at 2000 GMT, little changed from 1.9668 late Thursday.
   The dollar stood at 1.2475 Swiss francs (1.2433).
   Traders said the yen was likely to come back in focus as currency players look ahead to the meeting of G7 finance ministers at the end of next week.
   US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Wednesday he was watching the yen’s slumping value ‘very, very closely,’ when asked by senators whether Tokyo was depressing its currency’s value to gain an unfair trading edge.
   His remarks came after European officials said they wanted the G7 to debate the yen’s weakness, which has defied an economic recovery in Japan.

Street's rally is back on track after reassuring words from the Federal Reserve and data backing the central bank's premise that the US economy is accelerating with modest inflation pressure.
   In the week to Friday, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped to fresh all-time highs before settling Friday at 12,653.49, a weekly gain of 1.33 per cent.
   The broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 index picked up 1.84 per cent to end the week at 1,448.39 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index added 1.66 per cent to 2,475.88.
   The key event of the past week was the Federal Reserve policymakers' two-day meeting, which ended Wednesday.
   As expected, the panel made no change to interest rates, and in its policy statement suggested the economy was hitting its stride with inflation diminishing.
   Economic date seemed to back the Fed's view, with one report showing the US economy expanded at a 3.5 per cent pace in the fourth quarter of 2006.
   A separate report showed 111,000 new jobs created in January, with upward revisions to earlier payrolls data, but only small gains in wages.
   'Increasingly, it looks as if the US economy is in a sweet spot,' said Marc Levesque, chief economics strategist at TD Bank Financial Group.
   'Although the housing market correction has not yet run its course, consumer spending is holding up well.'
   'The evidence on the US economy pointed to healthy growth with limited, and perhaps declining, inflation pressures,' said Stephen Gallagher, economist at Societe Generale in New York.
   Gallagher and others said the latest news supports the 'soft-landing, Goldilocks economy' which is not too hot or too cold, which would allow the Fed to hold rates steady for some time or even cut rates later this year.
   'All is just right,' Gallagher said. 'Labor markets were the one fear in this otherwise fairly-tale economy. Yet, even the labor market appears to be conforming.'
   John Wilson, equity strategist at Morgan Keegan, said the market is shaking off fears that the economy may be too strong.
   'We were into that 'good news is bad news' mindset that occasionally pervades the trading floor,' he said.
   'Over the past several days, good news has become good news again as the economic releases seem to be pointing to a strong economy without inflation pressures to speak of. That's the ideal environment for stock prices.'
   One worry for some analysts is that the market has been moving up since July without a 'correction' to take out some of its speculative fervor.
   'We could get a correction any time soon because it's very rare to see eight consecutive months of gains,' said Marc Pado at Cantor Fitzgerald.
   Bob Doll, chief investment officer at the Wall Street firm BlackRock, agreed that stocks 'are overdue for a correction' but does not believe it will end the bull market.
   'Equities have enjoyed a largely uninterrupted positive run since July, and the Dow Jones, in fact, has now experienced its longest string in 50 years of not having a two-per cent down day,' he said.
   'In our opinion, investors should certainly be cautious, and we do expect 2007 to be noticeably more volatile for stocks than 2006 was, but we reiterate our belief that this year should be another strong one for stocks.'
   The bond market firmed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond fell to 4.827 per cent from 4.879 per cent a week earlier while that on the 30-year Treasury bond dipped to 4.926 per cent against 4.980 per cent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
   In the coming week the market will digest a survey from the Institute of Supply Management on the services sector of the US economy, and quarterly results from tech bellwether Cisco Systems and media-entertainment giants Disney and News Corp.

The US government Friday signalled a sharp escalation in its trade frictions with China by filing a WTO action against the fast-growing Asian economy over ‘illegal’ industrial subsidies.
   ‘Our decision to bring this case to the WTO comes after our efforts at dialogue failed,’ US Trade Representative Susan Schwab told reporters.
   ‘The case is important because we are seeking to level the playing field to allow US manufacturers to compete fairly with Chinese firms,’ she said.
   The decision heralds a shift in US policy away from quiet negotiations with China on a host of trade frictions including Beijing’s currency regime, at a time when the Democratic-
   led Congress is ratcheting up angry rhetoric on trade.
   The USTR office said it was seeking formal dispute settlement from the WTO to remedy tax and other tools allegedly used by China ‘to encourage exports and to discriminate against imports of a variety of American manufactured goods.’
   State subsidies for steel, paper, information technology and other industries allow China to export its goods on the cheap and so prevent US companies from competing fairly, both at home and in third markets, it said.
   ‘This case is about standing up for America’s workers and manufacturers,’ Schwab said.
   The case is only the third time that the United States is taking China to the Geneva-based arbiter of global trade since the Asian powerhouse joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
   The first case, involving China’s tax treatment of computer chips, was resolved before it reached the formal WTO dispute stage. But the second, a case against Chinese auto tariffs, is now awaiting arbitration with the United States joined by Canada and the European Union in its suit against China.
   In an annual report Thursday, the USTR office and the Commerce Department attacked China for being ‘unwilling to commit to the immediate withdrawal of the prohibited subsidies in question.’
   In October, US industry filed a petition with the Commerce Department requesting a ‘countervailing duty’ be slapped on some Chinese paper imports. To apply such a duty, Commerce says it must first rule that China is officially a ‘market economy.’
   Last week, 23 US senators told Commerce to go ahead with special duties on imports from China, which they claimed were heavily subsidized by the state and were hurting US manufacturers and workers.
   ‘We believe firmly that the countervailing duty law should be applied to China, and that the Department of Commerce possesses the legal authority to do so,’ the senators said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.
   Representing both sides of the political aisle, they said the whopping 200 billion-dollar annual US trade deficit with China was fueled in large part by subsidies provided by the Chinese government to ‘favored’ industries.

Foreigners in Beijing will be limited to buying a single home for their own use under new curbs imposed amid efforts to slow a surge in housing costs, newspapers reported Saturday.
   Foreign home-buyers in Beijing will have to prove they have lived in China for a year for work or study, and will be barred from renting out the property, the Beijing Morning Post and China Daily newspapers said.
   China’s government is trying to restrain a jump in housing prices and cool an investment boom that Chinese leaders worry could spark inflation or a financial crisis.
   Beijing has mainland China’s largest population of long-term foreign residents, including tens of thousands of Western and Asian business people, diplomats and others. The reports gave no indication whether other cities would impose similar curbs.
   The communist government began allowing Chinese families to buy homes in the 1990s, and later let foreigners buy real estate. The government still officially owns all land in China, but buyers of apartments and houses receive deeds valid for up to 70 years.
   The government warned last July that it would restrict foreigners’ purchases in an effort to restrain prices and ensure adequate supplies of low-cost housing.
   Restrictions in the capital also apply to buyers from Hong Kong and Macau, which are Chinese territory but are treated as foreign economies by regulators, according to the reports.
   Spending by developers on apartments, office buildings and other real estate projects nationwide jumped by 21.8 per cent last year, according to the government.
   Under a measure that took effect Thursday, developers will pay a value-added tax of up to 60 per cent on new projects.
   Chinese leaders also worry that heavy spending on real estate, fueled by easy bank credit, could ignite inflation or cause a debt crisis if builders of ill-conceived projects default on their loans.
   Investment from Hong Kong and other areas outside China’s mainland has poured into real estate.
   Some foreign investors apparently hope to profit from the rise of China’s currency, the yuan, which would push up the value of mainland assets in foreign currency terms.
   Some projects, such as luxury villas, have been banned outright as the government prods developers to build more low-income housing.

European stock exchanges moved higher Friday on corporate news and following a US job creation report that fell short of expectations but suggested that US economic momentum would maintain a healthy pace.
   In London the FTSE 100 index added 0.46 per cent to end the week at 6,310.90 points, while in Paris the CAC 40 rose 0.27 per cent to close at 5,677.30. The Frankfurt Dax gained 0.50 per cent to finish at 6,885.76.
   The Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone issues gained 0.41 per cent to reach 4,228.39.
   On the currency market the dollar climbed against the euro as the US job report was seen as likely to keep the Federal Reserve from lowering US interest rates.
   The single European currency in late-day trade was at 1.2959 dollars after 1.3022 late Thursday in New York.
   US stocks traded mixed as investors digested a strong two-day rally and the employment data that suggested the economy was moving ahead with only modest inflation pressures.
   The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average, which closed at an all-time high Thursday, 0.16 per cent to 12,653.65 at 1650 GMT. The tech-dominated Nasdaq composite advanced 0.18 per cent to 2,472.88.
   Ahead of the opening bell, the Labor Department said US employers added 111,000 jobs in January, suggesting the world’s biggest economy maintained positive momentum going into early 2007.
   The Labor Department figure on nonfarm payrolls, seen as one of the best indicators of economic activity, was weaker than the 150,000 new jobs expected by Wall Street analysts.
   But the agency revised upward its estimates for job creation in December to 206,000 from 167,000, and to 196,000 in November from 154,000.
   Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland, said the report highlights ‘moderate growth (that) will be good for the stock market.’
   Added Dick Green at Briefing.com: ‘The payroll numbers reveal a very strong labor market that will fuel a continued strong economy in 2007.’
   In London supermarket chain Sainsbury shot up 13.87 per cent to 507 pence as investment funds CVC, KKR and Blackstone said they were mulling a takeover offer.
   Elsewhere in the sector Morrison rose 5.90 per cent to 300.75 pence while Tesco added 3.69 per cent to reach 435 pence.
   Royal Dutch Shell fell 1.84 per cent to close at 1,707 pence after several analysts lowered their recommendations on the group, which on Thursday said it foresaw lower production in the years to come.

Japanese automaker Toyota will launch a major assault on US supremacy in the domestic pickup truck market this weekend with a splashy ad campaign aimed at football fans during the Super Bowl.
   Toyota will be pitching its new Texas-built Tundra pickup truck to the largest television audience of the year, where advertisers customarily go all-out to produce unique ads to show during the annual football championship.
   The spots attract as much attention as the game in some cases, and are selling for 2.3 million dollars per 60 seconds.
   It is a big challenge for Toyota: Ford, General Motors and Chrysler have until now dominated the lucrative pickup truck market in the United States, where owners have intense brand loyalty.
   But Toyota, which has been steadily expanding its market share with popular cars, minivans and sports utility vehicles and is expected to push Ford out of the number two spot in the United States this year, is hoping the Tundra’s power will sway the more domestic-oriented truck owners.
   The Super Bowl spots are only the thin, opening wedge of an ambitious campaign aimed at transforming Toyota’s image as an import for golfers to a company with deep roots in the United States and an affinity for country music and freshwater bass fishing—a demographic of US pickup truck buyers.
   ‘We’re treating this like we’re a challenger brand,’ said Jim Farley, vice president of marketing for Toyota Motor Sales USA.
   ‘We’re not assuming anything. We have a chip on our shoulder and we’re going to go after this business.’
   The two Super Bowl spots will highlight the new vehicle’s power and brakes and feature a truck climbing up and then driving down a five-story scaffolding.
   Farley described the ads as ‘old-fashioned’ because they will dwell on the product’s attributes rather than trying to stir emotion, like GM’s patriotic heart-tugging ‘This is Our Country’ ad campaign for Chevrolet Silverado trucks.
   But Toyota will face plenty of competition for the attention of football fans from Ford and GM, which have also purchased prime ad spots.
   Ford Motor Co. purchased 90 seconds to tout its new Super-Duty pickup truck just before the game’s kickoff.
   The Super-Duty, which is widely used in construction and farming, accounts for nearly 40 per cent of Ford’s pickup sales and its success is critical to Ford’s turnaround effort, Mark Fields, Ford president of the America, said recently.
   Ford has been previewing the spot on YouTube, where it has already gotten more than 8,000 visits, said Ford spokesman Jim Cain.
   John Murphy, an analyst with Merrill Lynch, said in recent note that Ford can ill afford to lose share in the pickup truck market. The automaker lost 12.7 billion dollars last year and slipped to fourth in overall US sales in January behind GM, Toyota and DaimlerChrysler.
   General Motors is airing three different commercials during the Super Bowl, including one emphasizing the quality of its vehicles and GM’s new five-year, 100,000 mile warranty, and two featuring Chevrolet. One of the latter ads was created by a team of students in a competition that attracted more than 800 teams from 450 universities.
   GM spokeswoman Ryndee Carney said the automaker will also air several ads for GMC during the Super Bowl’s lengthy pre-game show, and GM’s Cadillac brand will sponsor the post-game show where the game’s most valuable player is honored.
   American Honda Motor Co. Inc. has announced plans to air three television advertisements during the Super Bowl telecast. The spots include two 15-second Element advertisements, along with a 30-second spot highlighting Honda’s position as the most fuel-efficient car company.
   ‘The Super Bowl remains one of the best opportunities to reach a wide television audience in one shot,’ said John Mendel, senior vice president of American Honda.
   ‘Many Super Bowl viewers look forward to the commercials almost as much as the game, and Honda has taken this great opportunity to highlight a couple of its key brand values through fun and creative ads.’

India is expected to urge Yemen to expedite the bidding process of its two oil blocks, in which Indian oil major ONGC Videsh has evinced interest, when petroleum ministers of both the countries meet at the Yemense capital of Sana’a.
   India’s Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora who is visiting Yemen will also explore possibilities of firming up oil supplies from Yemen when he meets his Yemense counterpart Khalid Mahfoudh Bahah in Sana’a, the country’s capital.
   Increased cooperation in oil sector will be the focus of talks between India and Yemen when the the ministers meet today, Indian officials told PTI on phone from the Yemense capital.
   Deora is reaching Yemen after his visit to Libya in the first leg of his tour to tie up oil cooperation.

The Rosneft oil company hopes to do a deal with KNOC to gain access to South Korea’s refining sector in exchange for giving KNOC a piece of Russia’s vast Sakhalin-3 oil and gas project, a newspaper here said Friday.
   ‘In March of this year Rosneft plans to start talks with... KNOC on creating a joint enterprise,’ said the RBK business daily, citing unnamed Rosneft sources.
   Rosneft, which is controlled by the Russian state, ‘is interested in access to oil refining and in diversifying routes for delivering oil and oil products. Experts suggest that in return KNOC will ask for a chance to increase its influence in Sakhalin,’ the paper said.
   Rosneft sources have expressed a willingness to allocate the Korean National Oil Company (KNOC) a 25-per cent stake in the Sakhalin-3 project of Russia’s Pacific coast currently held by the government-owned Sakhalin Oil Company, it said.

India to develop Myanmar port to benefit northeast
The Centre is contemplating a move to aid the development of Myanmar’s Sittwe port at a cost of 103 million dollars to give the land-locked northeastern states access to the sea for trade and commerce. This will be done after developing Kaladan river, which connects the northeastern state of Mizoram with the Bay of Bengal, as a waterway, Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh has said. ‘In principle, the government has taken a decision to develop the port. Cabinet approval is likely to be given soon,’ Ramesh told a seminar here earlier this week. By developing the port in Myanmar and making the Kaladan river navigational, India wants to give the northeast access to the sea and international trade, he said. Sittwe, formerly known as Akyab, is situated in Rakhine state, a long narrow coastal region in western Myanmar, and is separated from the mainland by the Rakhine Yoma mountain range. It is the capital of the state and a seaport with a rich hinterland producing crops and fish.
— PTI

US presses on with Malaysia trade talks
The US government said Friday it was pressing ahead with free-trade talks with Malaysia despite controversy over a mammoth energy deal between the Southeast Asian nation and Iran. US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said she had yet to see a letter from influential Democratic lawmaker Tom Lantos, demanding a suspension of the talks owing to the ‘abhorrent’ deal between Malaysia and nuclear renegade Iran. But she stressed to reporters: ‘We are pressing ahead with our negotiations with Malaysia for a free trade agreement.’ Malaysia’s government said earlier Friday it was ready to suspend the free-trade talks with the United States after Lantos’s criticism, and warned it would not be ‘held hostage’ to political demands.
— AFP