PR Resource – Muarateweh.net

BEIJING, — (Xinhua) — By the end of November, cumulative total indirect cross-strait trade had exceeded 700 billion U.S. dollars since the Chinese mainland’s opening-up in the late 1970s,marking a new era of deeper and wider economic cooperation across the Taiwan Strait.

Statistics from the mainland show that for January-November 2007, the indirect trade between the mainland and Taiwan reached 113 billion U.S. dollars, up 14.9 percent year-on-year.

“The mainland has become the largest export market and largest contributor to the favorable balance of trade for Taiwan,” said Ye Kedong, deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

In the first 11 months of this year, 2,993 Taiwan-funded projects, with an actually utilized investment of 1.43 billion U.S. dollars, were approved by the mainland. By the end of November, the mainland had drawn some 45.33 billion U.S. dollars of cumulative (continue reading…)

Qatar Petrochemical Co. (QAPCO) signed on 5th Nov. 2዇ a contract of Affreightment (COA) with the gas shipping company “Eitzen Norgas Gas Carriers (ENGC)”. The signing Ceremony was held at Four Seasons Hotel in Doha.

The contract was signed on behalf of QAPCO by Dr. Mohd Yousef Al-Mulla, GM of QAPCO and Mr. Abdul Rahman Al-Abdullah, Group Manager, Commercial & Marketing. While on behalf of ENGC, the contract was signed by Mr. TERJE OREHAGEN, PRESIDENT & COO of Norgas Carriers, Mr. ANDERS RASMUSSEN, MANAGING DIRECTOR.

According to this COA contract, ENGC will ship QAPCO’s Ethylene expansion Plant’s (EP2) products of Ethylene, and ENGC to meet QAPCO’s full transportation solution for its ethylene export until end of the year 2ወ. Taking into consideration that the destinations for QAPCO”s ethylene exports will cover, India, SE Asia and West Europe. (continue reading…)

BOSTON, (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) — Forest Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:FRX) and Cypress Biosciences Inc. said Monday they have submitted a new drug application to the Food and Drug Administration for milnacipran, a drug treatment for fibromyalgia syndrome.

The submission includes efficacy data from two Phase III trials involving 2,084 patients, which showed that milnacipran demonstrated improvement compared to a placebo in treating fibromyalgia, the companies said.

Shares of Forest Laboratories, a New York-based drug manufacturer, closed Friday at $37.16.

Shares of Cypress, a San Diego-based biotechnology company, finished at $11.ǯ on Friday.
(continue reading…)

Dutch insurer Aegon said Monday it completed the acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co.’s life insurance subsidiaries for $1.25 billion in cash, including excess surplus of about $425 million.

Aegon acquired Merrill Lynch Life Insurance Co. and ML Life Insurance Co. of New York from Merrill Lynch. As part of the deal, the pair formed a partnership that will allow Merrill Lynch to offer Aegon insurance products through its financial adviser network. Aegon, through its Transamerica companies will continue to offer insurance and investment services, including Merrill Lynch annuity products.
(continue reading…)

Before throwing back those celebratory glasses of champagne, whiskey or beer tonight, consider what will happen when that booze – usually too much of it – makes its way through you.

That’s right: The infamous New Year’s Day hangover.

But with a few smart strategies, and a little self-control, you can raise a midnight toast – and still raise yourself the next day.

“It is feasible to prevent a hangover,” said Dr. Jerry Goldstein, a University of California-San Francisco neurologist and director of the San Francisco Headache Clinic.

So long, he added, as you follow the advice of hangover experts like Goldstein before, during and after your New Year’s celebrations. (continue reading…)

US textile owners have proposed Bangladesh to join in lobbying the Congress and administration to devise some mechanism to extend the cap on Chinese apparel import in the country beyond 2009, informed sources said.

The proposal came at a recent meeting of officials of Bangladesh Embassy in United States and the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition and the National Council of Textile Organisations in Washington.

In September 2005 US has imposed quota limit on Chinese clothing imports to the country as the US market for brassieres and synthetic fabric is being disrupted by surging Chinese imports.

By imposition of the cap the giant China was allowed to export no more than 7.5 per cent import of those products to the US market.

US is likely to lift the ban before January 2009 which became a big fear factor for both its local textile producers and also for its sourcing countries. (continue reading…)

A new online textile export license system began operation in China on Tuesday, just days before a quota system for shipments to the European Union (EU) is to expire, sources in the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) told Xinhua.

The online application system “is one of a series of measures taken by China to better regulate the textile export market and avoid a surge of Chinese clothing exports to the EU like the one in 2005,” Zhao Qiuyan, a senior analyst with the China Trade Remedy Information web site, under the MOC, told Xinhua.

After international textile quotas expired in January 2005, Europe was swamped by low-priced imports from China. That surge led Chinese and EU authorities to sign the Memorandum of Understanding on China-EU Textile Trade, which renewed quotas on China’s textile exports to the EU in June 2005. But that pact expires at the end of 2007.

The two sides agreed this September to set up a bilateral system to monitor Chinese exports of T-shirts, pullovers, men’s trousers, blouses, dresses, bras, bed linens and flax yarn after the quotas end. Monitoring is to continue until the end of 2008, without quantity restrictions.

Under the system, these eight categories will be tracked on the Chinese side through export licenses and will be monitored when they enter the EU, which is watching for signs of another surge in textile goods from China.

The MOC and the General Customs Administration issued a circular on European-oriented textile exporters’ management earlier this month, in which they stipulated that only qualified textile makers could apply to local MOC branches for export licenses, either electronically or on paper.

The China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textiles, China National Textile and Apparel Council and China Association of Enterprises With Foreign Investment established the standards in November for domestic exporters and formed a joint assessment group.

The standards require exporters to have a minimum registered capital of 500,000 yuan (68,250 U.S. dollars), at least two years of export operation experience and no violations of intellectual property or environmental protection laws.

“The bilateral monitoring system could eliminate the practice of quota trading between some export companies,” Zhao said.

The MOC didn’t reveal how many qualified exporters had applied under the online system. But experts believe that exporters’ quality assessment and license application and approval systems are expected to help reduce the often vicious competition among domestic enterprises.

“China has surplus production capabilities the in textile industry and competition is fierce, so we cannot guarantee that Chinese textile exports to the EU wouldn’t surge again,” Zhao Yumin, a research fellow with the Trade and Economic Cooperation Institute of the MOC, told Xinhua.

Commenting on the possibility of “Made in China” products flooding the EU, Zhao Qiuyan said that besides government efforts, domestic exporters should exercise restraint, since the EU might adopt tightening measures if there was a new surge of Chinese goods.

Under paragraph 2Ȋ in the “Report of the Working Party on China’s Accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO)”, if there is market disruption caused by a surge of textile exports from China, other WTO members are permitted to resume curbs.

This past October, MOC vice minister Gao Hucheng urged Chinese textile makers to develop more in-house brands, streamline their product structure and narrow disparities with international competitors through exchanges and cooperation.

Industry watchers said if the bilateral monitoring system functioned smoothly, it would serve as a good example for dealing with the Sino-U.S. textile quota system, which is set to expire by the end of 2008.

Source: Xinhua