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International Business News
Asia-Pacific leaders to meet for free-trade appeal
Al l’, lima
lop officials from across the Pacific rim were sei to open talks here Wednesday on the global economic crisis and to issue a joint appeal against protectionism.
Peru, where Maoist guerrillas have stepped up attacks in recent weeks, was on its highest state of alert lor the summit, which is the last scheduled foreign trip for US President George W Bush before he steps down.
Ministers of trade and foreign affairs from 21 countries including China. Japan, Russia and (he United States will hold two days of talks to lay the groundwork for the leaders' summit on Saturday and Sunday.
An official of tire Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum drafting the leaders' statement said they would defend free trade despite the sharp slowdown in the global economy
"Everyone has been speaking with the same voice saying we need to keep markets open.” said Elizabeth Chelliah, chair of a committee drafting the statement.
"We have to keep the door open to foreigners. You can’t close the door." she told reporters.
Peruvian President Alan Garcia said that APEC, which accounts for 60 percent of the world's gross domestic product, also had more small private businesses than other parts of the world.
"It's thanks to this that the region is more active," Garcia told Asia-Pacific business leaders. "APEC is the greatest anti-crisis tool in the world .”
China to build new oil, gas pipeline across Myanmar AFP, Beijing
China flagged Wednesday it would build a pipeline into Myanmar in a project that would give it easier energy access but also potentially raise concerns about its links with die nation's ruling junta.
Work on the oil and gas line will begin in southwest China's Yunnan province in the first half of 2009. the staterun China Daily reported, indicating a project that has been in the planning stages for years may finally kick off.
Once it is completed, at least part of the nation's crucial energy supplies will be able to avoid the long, cumbersome and potentially insecure route via the Malacca Strait.
"From a geopolitical point of view, having alternative routes for energy supplies into China is attractive, said Jason Feer, a Singapore-based analyst with Argus Media, an energy market research firm.
The Strait of Malacca is a very busy waterway. It's a quite narrow waterway. There's always been concerns that it could be disrupted because of terrorism or piracy."
.Around 80 percent of China's oil imports, from areas such as the Middle East and Africa, is currently transported through the strait, earlier Chinese media reports said.
Toyota to shut plants in
US, Canada
AFP, Tokyo
Toyota Motor Corp will shut down production at all of its US and Canadian plants for two days next month due to sluggish sales, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Production at all 11 factories including assembly, transmission and engine plants will stop on December 22 and 23, although employees will still go to work, spokeswoman Kayo Doi said.
"We are responding to recent conditions on the ground. If we continue to produce, we will have full inventories," she added, but declined to specify the impact on production of the two-day halt.
The company's North American plants excluding Mexico produced a total of 1.636 million vehicles in 2007, she said.
Automakers in the US are being hit by the financial crisis that is spilling into other sectors of the economy including consumption, which accounts for three quarters of US growth.
Toyota's US sales slid 25.9 percent to 152,101 vehicles last month from a year ago.
Neptune Orient Lines to cut 1,000 jobs
AFP, Singapore
Global container shipping and logistics company Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) will cut about 1,000 jobs to deal with an "unprecedented" industry downturn, the company said Wednesday.
Most of the jobs will be lost in North America, where the company's costs are highest, said the Singapore-based shipper, which currently employs more than 11,000 people worldwide.
The cuts come after NOL last month said it would reduce capacity between Asia and Europe by close to 25 percent, and 20 percent on die trans-Pacific route.
Those cuts will significantly reduce operating costs but the market has worsened considerably over the past month, the company said in a statement, forecasting a "grim” outlook for profitability in 2009.