21/05/2026

BIZ & FINANCE THURSDAY | MAY 21, 2026

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prevailed with its demands for a comprehensive safety net.” “There is a suspension mechanism if the US does not abide by the deal, a monitoring mechanism for the impact on our economy, provisions for unjustified tariffs on certain products, an expiry date for the legislation, and strong involvement of the European Parliament,“ he said. The EU parliament’s conditional green light in March came after months of delay caused by Trump’s designs on Greenland and a US Supreme Court ruling striking down many of the president’s tariffs. The assembly’s largest force, the conservative European People’s Party, to which von der Leyen belongs, was pushing hard to finally implement the accord, which it says is vital to ending damaging uncertainty for EU businesses. – AFP Japan to sell eels bred in captivity in ‘world first’ TOKYO: Eels bred in captivity will be sold in Japanese shops for the first time, in a move that could ease eventually pressure on the endangered fish, officials said yesterday. Eel populations are falling worldwide, scientists say, largely due to factors linked to human activity such as the pollution of waterways, destruction of wetlands, hydroelectric dams, and fishing. Eel is an enormously popular food in Japan and other parts of Asia. The fish has proved stubbornly unwilling to reproduce in captivity without intervention, but Japanese researchers succeeded in breeding Japanese eels from eggs in a laboratory setting in 2010 at great expense. Since then, they have been trying to reduce the “huge cost... so that the price could be accepted in the market,“ Yasutaka Okamoto, a fisheries agency official in charge of aquaculture promotion, told AFP. “With countless small technological breakthroughs, the cost is now some ¥1,800 (RM44) per one baby eel, down from more than a million yen at the initial stages, and down from some ¥40,000 in 2016,“ he said. The price is still three to four times higher than a wild baby eel, “but we think it’s time to test market reactions“, he explained. The project brought together government researchers, universities and the private sector. Eel is eaten worldwide but is particularly popular in Japan, where it is called “unagi” and traditionally served grilled and covered in a sticky-sweet sauce. “If the (Japanese) people didn’t love eels so much, we wouldn’t go to such lengths to research how to farm them,“ Okamoto said. Grilled “kabayaki” using fully farmed eel will be sold from May 29 at a department store in Tokyo and several other outlets including online shops in Japan. Yamada Suisan, the eel farming company selling the fish, said it was a world-first, and a “very significant step toward the future commercialisation of fully farmed eel.” Two kabayaki eels will be sold at around ¥9,000, a price that is broadly comparable to high-end produce. Last year, a key global forum that regulates trade in threatened wildlife rejected an EU-led proposal to protect more species of eel. The protections were fiercely opposed by top consumers of the fish, led by Japan. The Japanese eel, along with the American variety, is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. – AFP

Jakarta to tighten control over commodity exports

o Exporters must keep foreign earnings in state banks from June 1

JAKARTA: Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said yesterday that his government will centralise exports of key commodities as part of efforts to boost state revenues and tighten the country’s grip over its abundant natural resources. Prabowo said in a fiery speech to Parliament that Indonesia had lost as much as U$908 billion in revenues in the last 34 years because its commodities were being sold on the cheap, adding that key exports like palm oil, coal and ferroalloy would be sold via a central government-run enterprise. Indonesia, a global commodities powerhouse, is the world’s largest exporter of thermal coal and palm oil. “Today the Indonesian government that I lead will issue a regulation on management of commodity exports,” Prabowo said. “The issuance of this regulation is a strategic step to strengthen management of commodity exports,” he said. “All sales of our resources, from palm oil, coal must be through a (state-operated enterprise) selected by the government ... as sole exporters.” Prabowo’s remarks confirm earlier accounts from two sources familiar with the matter, who said Indonesia was planning the move as part of a drive to strengthen government oversight over its natural resources. Expanding on Prabowo’s announcement, Senior Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto said in the first stage the commodities affected will be coal, palm oil and ferroalloy, and every three months the government will evaluate which commodities can be added to the plan. He added that there will be a three-month transition period in which exporters and buyers can continue to do business as usual, but the government-appointed entity would monitor export transactions. The chief of sovereign wealth fund Danantara Indonesia, Rosan Roeslani, speaking alongside Airlangga, said that this period could be extended to the end of the year. At the end of the transition period, all exports will have to be done through the state-appointed firm, which will be overseen by Danantara, he said.

Lawmakers take a selfie before Prabowo’s speech on the macroeconomic framework at the Parliament building in Jakarta yesterday. – AFPPIC

Prabowo said Indonesia’s natural resources were sufficient to deliver welfare to the entire country if they were managed according to the constitution. “In the opinion of the government – and I am sure every patriot will support this – the earth, water and all the resources within it must be enjoyed by all Indonesians,” he said. Despite being rich in resources as well as a G20 country, Indonesia had not managed the economy well enough to boost state revenues, he added. Many observers and experts are not convinced the move will work. “The (export control) agency may create more distortions instead of being the solutions to the distortions, on top of already severe distortions that exporters face,” said Rizki Siregar, an international trade economist at the University of Indonesia. – Reuters

In addition, as part of another regulation, starting June 1 all exporters of natural resources from Indonesia must store 100% of their export earnings in Indonesian state-owned banks, Airlangga said. He said this was being done to stabilise the rupiah which has plummeted in recent days. Rumours about the plan spooked the market on concerns that it could lead to changes in pricing mechanisms and squeeze trader margins. Jakarta’s main stock index shed 3.5% on Tuesday and was down 2% yesterday before paring losses. The move by Prabowo, who has vowed to optimise revenue from the country’s natural resources, is aimed at addressing concerns about under-invoicing and how exporters account for their transfer pricing, Airlangga said.

Under Trump pressure, EU agrees to implement US trade pact PARIS: EU lawmakers and member states reached a deal in the early hours of yesterday to implement the bloc’s nearly year-old trade pact with the United States, with President Donald Trump threatening new tariffs unless it is done by July 4. country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said in a statement announcing the deal. aluminium and car parts, has jolted the bloc into cultivating trade ties around the world. But the EU cannot afford to neglect the €1.6-trillion (RM7.5 trillion) relationship with the United States, its largest trade partner. the year to drop surtaxes above 15% on steel components, rather than insisting on it as a precondition.

Another fight was over so-called “sunrise” and “sunset” clauses under which the EU side of the accord would kick in once the United States makes fully good on its pledges, and would expire unless renewed in 2028. The sunrise clause was removed altogether, while the sunset was pushed back to the end of 2029, lawmakers said. The head of parliament’s trade committee, Bernd Lange, faced the challenge of hammering out a common stance between the parliament’s different factions, which were haggling until the last moment. Lange played down the concessions extracted from lawmakers, declaring after the deal was announced that “parliament has

“Maintaining a stable, predictable and balanced transatlantic partnership is in the interest of both sides,“ he said. The EU agreement puts the bloc on track to meet Trump’s deadline for ratification of the deal sealed in Turnberry, Scotland between Trump and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, and hopefully turn the page on more than a year of transatlantic trade battles. Short of that, Trump had warned the European Union should expect “much higher” tariffs – and had already vowed to raise duties on European cars and trucks from 15% to 25%. The tariff blitz unleashed by Trump before the Turnberry accord, including hefty levies on steel,

To reach a compromise with member states, parliament was under pressure to renege on several amendments it added to the text that the Americans considered unacceptable. One bone of contention was a suspension clause toughened by parliament that would scrap favourable tariff conditions for US exporters, should the United States breach the terms of the deal. According to lawmakers, parliament agreed to scale back its demands – and the final text notably gave the United States until the end of

The 27-nation bloc struck an accord with Washington last July setting levies on most European goods at 15%, but a final version of the text still needed to be nailed down on the EU side – to Trump’s growing frustration. Negotiators from the EU’s parliament and capitals wrangled late into the night, finally emerging several hours after midnight with news of a hard-fought compromise. “Today, the European Union delivers on its commitments,“ Cyprus’s Energy, Commerce and Industry Minister Michael Damianos, whose