01/07/2025

BIZ & FINANCE TUESDAY | JULY 1, 2025

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Australia considers gas reservation for east coast SYDNEY: The Australian government said yesterday it will consider creating a gas reservation on the country’s east coast as part of a sweeping review of market rules to prevent supply shortages. The competition regulator has warned of looming shortfalls for the country’s populous east coast, with the latest forecast pointing to a gap by 2028 without new investment. Most reserves are located in the remote northwest. Australia, which exports more gas than it consumes, is also keen to maintain its reputation as a major reliable exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and that will be a major aim of the review. Market regulations under review include export controls, a mandatory code governing sales of the fuel on the east coast and government agreements with major producers. “It’s critical that we use this review to get the settings right in our gas market, ensuring we are securing affordable Australian gas for Australian use, while remaining a reliable energy exporter and delivering lasting energy security in our region,” Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said in a statement. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s centre left government sees gas as playing a role beyond 2050 as the country moves rapidly away from its dependence on coal-fired power stations. The review will examine the “effectiveness and coherence” of the current rules, identify improvements and consider consolidating rules to create a more “stable regulatory environment” for investors. Areas of focus include supply security, pricing, transparency, market conduct, and the impact of regulations on the competitiveness of Australia’s LNG export industry. Speaking about the potential for a gas reservation, Bowen told a news conference that any new requirements would be “prospective” without “ripping up existing contracts”. – Reuters Norwegian fund bars US, German arms makers over Gaza war OSLO: Norway’s biggest pension fund KLP said yesterday it had dropped US group Oshkosh Corporation and Germany’s ThyssenKrupp from its investment portfolio for selling weapons and equipment used by Israel’s military in Gaza. KLP – which is separate from Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest – said Oshkosh Corporation was supplying trucks to the Israeli military, which adapts them into armoured troop transport vehicles. The fund also accused ThyssenKrupp of agreeing to supply Israel’s navy, before the outbreak of the war in Gaza, with corvettes and submarines. “Companies have an independent duty to exercise due diligence in order to avoid complicity in violations of fundamental human rights and humanitarian law,” Kiran Aziz, head of responsible investments at KLP Asset Management, said in a statement. KLP, which managed assets worth $114 billion in the first quarter, sold its holdings in Oshkosh valued at 19 million kroner (RM8 million). It also sold its investment in ThyssenKrupp worth 10 million kroner. The two companies were excluded on the basis of KLP’s criterion relating to the “sale of weapons to states in armed conflicts that use the weapons in ways that represent serious and systematic breaches of international law governing the conflicts”, KLP said. – AFP

Canada rescinds digital tax to revive trade talks

the fact that many large technology companies operating in Canada may not otherwise pay tax on revenues generated from Canadians. “Canada’s preference has always been a multilateral agreement related to digital services taxation,” the statement said. Stocks index futures rose after the news the digital tax will be rescinded and the bullish sentiment spilled over into Asian markets. Canada is the second-largest American trading partner after Mexico, and the largest buyer of US exports. It bought US$349.4 billion of US goods last year and exported US$412.7 billion to America, according to US Census Bureau data. Joe Biden’s administration had requested trade dispute settlement consultations over the tax in 2024, saying it was inconsistent with Canada’s North American trade deal obligations. Canada had escaped Trump’s broad tariffs imposed in April but faces 50% duties on steel and aluminum. – Reuters

pledging to set a new tariff rate on Canadian goods within the next week, which threatened to push US-Canada relations back into chaos after a period of relative calm. The breakdown in trade talks comes after the two leaders met at the G7 in mid-June and Carney said they had agreed to wrap up a new economic agreement within 30 days. Canada’s planned digital tax was 3% of the digital services revenue a firm takes in from Canadian users above US$20 million in a calendar year, and payments were to be retroactive to 2022. It would have impacted US technology firms, including Amazon, Meta, Alphabet’s Google and Apple, among others. Monday collection will be halted, the Canada’s Finance Ministry statement said, and Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne will bring forward legislation to rescind the Digital Services Tax Act. “The DST was announced in 2020 to address

o Ottawa hopes for economic deal with Washington by July 21

OTTAWA: Canada scrapped its digital services tax targeting US technology firms late on Sunday, just hours before it was due to take effect, in a bid to advance stalled trade negotiations with the United States. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and US President Donald Trump will resume trade negotiations in order to agree on a deal by July 21, Canada’s Finance Ministry said in a statement. Trump abruptly called off trade talks on Friday over the tax targeting US technology firms, saying that it was a “blatant attack”. He reiterated his comments on Sunday,

Carney and Trump arriving for a family photo during the Group of Seven Summit at the Kananaskis Country Golf Course in Canada. – AFPPIC

Trump says ‘very wealthy’ group to buy TikTok WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Sunday a group of buyers had been found for TikTok, which faces a looming ban in the United States due to its China ties, adding he could name the purchasers in two weeks. national security grounds was due to take effect the day before Trump’s inauguration on Jan 20. But the Republican, whose 2024 election campaign relied heavily on social media and who has said he is fond of TikTok, put the ban on pause.

support in the November election. “I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok,”Trump told NBC News in early May. “If it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension.” Now after two extensions pushed the deadline to June 19, Trump has extended it for a third time. He said in May that a group of purchasers was ready to pay ByteDance “a lot of money” for TikTok’s US operations. The previous month he said China would have agreed to a deal on the sale of TikTok if it were not for a dispute over Trump’s tariffs on Beijing. ByteDance has confirmed talks with the US government, saying key matters needed to be resolved and that any deal would be “subject to approval under Chinese law.”– AFP

“We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way,” Trump said in an interview on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. “Very wealthy people. It’s a group of wealthy people,” the president said, without revealing more except to say he would make their identities known “in about two weeks”. The president also said he would likely need “China approval” for the sale, “and I think President Xi (Jinping) will probably do it”. TikTok is owned by China-based internet company ByteDance. A federal law requiring TikTok’s sale or ban on

In mid-June Trump extended a deadline for the popular video-sharing app by another 90 days to find a non-Chinese buyer or be banned in the United States. Tech experts quickly described the TikTok kerfuffle as a symbol of the heated US-China tech rivalry. While Trump had long supported a ban or divestment, he reversed his position and vowed to defend the platform – which boasts almost two billion global users – after coming to believe it helped him win young voters’