Brazil court fines Cargill in case involving child labor on cocoa farms

September 27, 2023 | 6:23 pm

SAO PAULO — Commodities trader Cargill has been ordered by a Brazilian court to pay 600,000 reais ($120,185) as indemnity for buying cocoa from farms where child labor or forced work has been identified.

US-based Cargill said on Tuesday it disagreed with the complaints and fine and would appeal the ruling to a higher court.

According to a decision dated Sept. 18, seen by Reuters, from the 39^th Labor Court in the northeastern state of Bahia, Cargill was also ordered to add to its contracts with Brazilian cocoa suppliers clauses to end the commercial relationship if child labor or other unlawful working conditions occur.

The lawsuit was brought against the commodities company by local labor prosecutors.

The court also requires Cargill to start a “due diligence” process to verify whether there is child labor in its supply chain and launch a campaign to combat the practice, according to the ruling.

In a statement, Cargill said it could not comment on details of the case because it is subject to legal confidentiality.

However, it said it “does not tolerate” human trafficking, forced or child labor in its operations or supply chain and suspends suppliers if any violation is found.

In the lawsuit, the company said that it buys cocoa from hundreds of producers, co-ops and merchants in the country and has no way of knowing whether child labor was used in any stage of that chain.

The court’s decision was first reported by local news outlet Reporter Brasil.

Similar lawsuits have appeared in other countries aiming to make food companies liable for cases of child labor.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., last year dismissed a lawsuit by eight citizens of Mali who sought to hold Hershey Co., Nestle, Cargill and others liable for child slavery on Ivory Coast cocoa farms. — Reuters

California enacts first state tax on guns, ammunition in US

September 27, 2023 | 6:22 pm

LOS ANGELES — California Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed into law a first-in-the-nation state excise tax on sales of firearms and ammunition, aimed at raising a projected $160 million annually to prevent gun violence in schools and elsewhere.

The California excise tax, due to go into effect in July 2024, will essentially add an 11% levy on top of the existing federal excise gun and ammo tax, a rate of 10 or 11%, depending on the type of weapon.

The measure, part of a package of gun safety bills signed by Mr. Newsom, was enacted four days after a federal judge struck down a California ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines, ruling that it unconstitutionally infringed on Second Amendment rights of gun owners.

Mr. Newsom’s office said his action on gun safety also came in “the wake of shootings across the country that have left at least 104 people dead over the past 74 hours.”

“While radical judges continue to strip away our ability to keep people safe, California will keep fighting — because gun safety laws work,” Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Mr. Newsom said data showed the rate of gun-related deaths in California, home to some of the most stringent firearms laws in the US is more than 40% lower than the national average.

The California excise tax would be collected on the gross receipts of manufacturers, retailers and dealers derived from gun and bullet sales in the state.

The tax measure was one of nearly two dozen gun safety bills passed during the latest session of the Democratic-controlled California legislature and signed by Mr. Newsom days after his administration vowed to appeal last week’s federal court ruling on high-capacity magazines.

One prominent bill from Tuesday’s package is aimed at toughening California’s concealed gun permit law, raising from 18 to 21 the minimum age at which a gun owner can apply for such a permit, increasing advance training requirements and banning alcohol consumption while carrying a concealed weapon.

Sponsors said the measure, which also would bar concealed weapons altogether in airports, around schools and other sensitive zones, was crafted in such a way as to protect the measure from conservative legal challenges.

Still, the California Rifle & Pistol Association, a gun rights advocacy group, posted a statement on the social media platform X saying it had already filed a “preemptive lawsuit” against the measure.

Supporters of the new tax pointed to a 2021 report by gun control advocates that found gun deaths and injuries cost California $22.6 billion annually, of which $1.2 billion is paid directly by taxpayers every year. — Reuters

China’s Trina Solar plans $400-M Vietnam plant following US sanctions

September 27, 2023 | 6:22 pm

HANOI — Chinese solar panel maker Trina Solar is planning to build its third factory in Vietnam, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters, a move that would boost exports to the United States following punitive duties to be imposed on products it makes in Thailand.

Trina, one of the world’s biggest solar panel makers by sales, would invest $400 million in the plant that would span 25 hectares of industrial land. Production is set to begin in 2025, one of the sources with direct knowledge of the plan said.

Another person who was involved in discussions with the company said Trina had flagged $600 million in possible investment in Vietnam.

The sources declined to be named because the project details remained confidential. Trina did not reply to requests for comment.

Trina’s Vietnam investment follows an investigation by the US Department of Commerce which concluded last month that Trina was among five Chinese solar firms who used their plants in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries to dodge punitive tariffs on Chinese-made panels, which the US says benefit from unfair state subsidies.

The tariffs, which are due to come into effect from the middle of next year, only impact Trina’s Thailand operation so far, but the widespread practice of Chinese firms setting up facilities in Southeast Asia for export to the US remains under close scrutiny.

The top producing countries in the region account for about 80% of US panel supplies, with Vietnam providing about one third of all US imports of solar panels in the first quarter of this year, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Trina is already one of the biggest solar panel makers in Vietnam, and its planned investment underscores the growing interest of Chinese businesses in setting up factories there as they seek to avoid escalating geopolitical and trade tensions between Beijing and Washington.

China is the second biggest foreign investor in Vietnam this year, pouring into its neighbor from January to mid-August $2.7 billion, or more than five times the value of investments by US companies during the same period, according to Vietnamese government data.

FENG SHUI MASTER
Trina has two plants in Vietnam: one began making silicon wafers last month with an expected annual output of 6.5 gigawatts (GW), and another one that produces solar cells and panels.

It was not immediately clear what product the new plant would manufacture. One source said it would focus on making solar cells, while another person said silicon wafers.

Sources said the company was looking at various industrial parks. One person said Trina had asked a feng shui expert to be involved in the final decision.

Feng shui is a traditional Chinese geomancy practice that is used to determine which location would be most auspicious.

Another source said Trina Vietnam’s power supply problems were being considered as the company weighed options for its possible expansion.

A heatwave in June hit the output of hydropower, Vietnam’s second biggest source of electricity, forcing factories to temporarily suspend production due to power cuts. — Reuters

Amazon faces landmark monopoly lawsuit by FTC

September 27, 2023 | 6:19 pm

WASHINGTON — The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a long-awaited antitrust lawsuit against Amazon.com on Tuesday and asked the court to consider forcing the online retailer to sell assets as the government accuses Big Tech of monopolizing the most lucrative parts of the internet.

The FTC accused Amazon, a company started in a garage in 1994 and today worth $1.3 trillion, of fighting efforts by sellers on its online marketplace to offer products more cheaply on other platforms. Amazon forces sellers to use its warehouses and delivery services, inflating costs for consumers and sellers, the FTC said.

Amazon is a monopoly and misuses its powers, according to the FTC, which quotes a seller as saying: “We have nowhere else to go and Amazon knows it.”

The lawsuit had been expected after years of complaints that Amazon.com and other tech giants abused their dominance of search, social media and online retailing to become gatekeepers on the most profitable aspects of the internet.

The need to take action against Big Tech has been one of the few ideas that Democrats and Republicans have agreed on, and the FTC chief has been particularly concerned about Amazon’s power.

The lawsuit, which was joined by 17 state attorneys general, follows a four-year investigation and federal lawsuits filed against Alphabet’s Google and Meta Platforms’ Facebook.

The FTC said that it was asking the court to issue a permanent injunction ordering Amazon to stop its unlawful conduct. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Seattle, where Amazon is based.

“Left unchecked, Amazon will continue its illegal course of conduct to maintain its monopoly power,” the FTC said in its complaint which asked the court “to put an end to Amazon’s illegal course of conduct, pry loose Amazon’s monopolistic control, deny Amazon the fruits of its unlawful practices, and restore the lost promise of competition.”

The FTC complaint asked for the court to consider “any preliminary or permanent equitable relief, including but not limited to structural relief, necessary to restore fair competition.”

Structural relief in antitrust jargon generally means a company sells an asset, such as a part of its business.

In a press briefing, FTC Chair Lina Khan was asked about the idea of breaking up Amazon but declined to discuss it. “At this stage, the focus is really on liability,” she said.

In other antitrust trials, the court first establishes that the company broke the law and then, if needed, discusses how to remedy that.

Amazon said that the FTC lawsuit was wrongheaded and would hurt consumers by leading to higher prices and slower deliveries.

“The practices the FTC is challenging have helped to spur competition and innovation across the retail industry, and have produced greater selection, lower prices, and faster delivery speeds for Amazon customers and greater opportunity for the many businesses that sell in Amazon’s store,” said David Zapolsky, Amazon’s general counsel. In a blog post, the company noted that it had 500,000 independent sellers on the platform.

Amazon shares, which were down 3.2% before the lawsuit was announced, traded down 4% in late afternoon trade. Some investors saw upside from the lawsuit.

“Either way, the shareholders win. If FTC loses its status quo, if company breaks up, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole as the AWS (cloud) business will command a very high multiple. Analysts will figure this out soon, but for now it’s ‘shoot first, ask questions later,’” said Thomas Hayes, chair at Great Hill Capital.

The FTC said that Amazon punished sellers that sought to offer prices that were lower than Amazon’s by making it difficult for consumers to find the seller on Amazon’s platform.

Other allegations include that Amazon gave preference to its own products on its platforms over competitors.

The case, which was filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, was assigned to John Coughenour, who was nominated to the bench in 1981 by Republican President Ronald Reagan.

‘MONOPOLY POWER’
Ms. Khan said that Amazon had used illegal tactics to fend off companies that would have risen to challenge its monopoly.

“Amazon is now exploiting that monopoly power to harm its customers, both the tens of millions of families that shop on Amazon’s platform and the hundreds of thousands of sellers that use Amazon to reach them,” she said.

Ms. Khan, while a law student, wrote about Amazon’s dominance in online retailing for “The Yale Law Journal” and was on the staff of the House committee that wrote a report issued in 2020 that advocated reining in four tech giants: Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook.

Amazon’s critics welcomed the lawsuit.

“No corporation has ever centralized this much power across so many crucial sectors. Left unchecked, Amazon’s power to dictate and control threatens the rule of law and our ability to maintain open, democratically governed markets,” said Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which has pushed for the government to act against Amazon.

During the Trump administration, which ended in 2021, the Justice Department and FTC opened probes into Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon.

The Justice Department has sued Google twice — once under Republican Donald Trump regarding its search business and a second time on advertising technology since Democratic President Joseph R. Biden took office. The FTC sued Facebook during the Trump administration and Mr. Biden’s FTC has pressed forward with the lawsuit. — Reuters

Youth vs. Europe: ‘Unprecedented’ climate trial to kick off at rights court

September 27, 2023 | 3:42 pm

Six young people from areas in Portugal ravaged by wildfires and heatwaves will on Wednesday take 32 European governments to court over what they see as climate inaction, arguing countries’ failure to cut emissions fast enough is a violation of their human rights.

The case – filed in September 2020 against the 27 EU member states as well Britain, Switzerland, Norway, Russia and Turkey – is the largest-ever climate case to be heard by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg.

With the support of the British-based Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), the Portuguese applicants, aged between 11 and 24, are seeking a legally-binding decision that would force states to act.

A ruling in the case is expected in the first half of 2024. If the complaint is upheld, it could result in orders from national courts for governments to cut carbon dioxide emissions blamed for climate change faster than currently planned.

Gerry Liston, one of GLAN’s lawyers, said that if the case was successful, it would be up to national courts to enforce the rulings and that they would be provided with a roadmap to ensure enforcement was effective.

Applicants will argue climate change threatens their rights including to life, physical and mental wellbeing.

One of the six, 15-year-old Andre Oliveira, previously told Reuters their goal was to force governments to “do what they promised they would do”, referring to the 2015 Paris Agreement to cut emissions to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius and ideally 1.5C. Current policies would fail to meet either goal, according to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“Without urgent action to cut emissions, (the place) where I live will soon become an unbearable furnace,” another applicant, 20-year-old Martim Agostinho, said in a statement.

Mr. Agostinho and three other applicants are from the central Portuguese region of Leiria, where two wildfires killed more than 100 people in 2017.

DOZENS OF LAWYERS
More than 80 lawyers are expected in court to represent the accused countries, while the applicants will be represented by six lawyers, resulting in what GLAN described in a statement as a hearing “unprecedented in scale”.

Mr. Liston acknowledged “taking on the legal teams of over 30 very well-resourced countries” would not be easy.

Portugal’s legal team has submitted to the court that it was committed to fight climate change and the applicants had failed to provide evidence of its direct impact on them.

Britain argued the case should be rejected because it was “inadmissible” for various reasons, including jurisdiction.

Climate litigation occurring in Europe and beyond is growing.

Last month, a judge in Montana, in the United States, handed a historic win to young plaintiffs in a climate change case. In addition to Wednesday’s youth case, there are two other climate cases pending before the ECHR’s Grand Chamber. — Reuters

Reforms could boost World Bank lending to developing countries by nearly $190 bln -study

September 27, 2023 | 2:21 pm

WASHINGTON – Reforming the World Bank‘s approach to risk could unlock nearly $190 billion in additional urgently needed lending for developing countries without jeopardizing its AAA credit rating, a study commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation found.

The study, carried out by international finance analytics firm Risk Control, found the bank‘s two main lending arms, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), have “significant headroom” to boost lending.

Rockefeller hired Risk Control to review and quantify key recommendations made in 2022 by an independent Group of 20 panel, which said easing the bank‘s strict capital adequacy framework could free up hundreds of billions in additional lending to combat climate change and advance development.

The report, to be published early Wednesday, comes as the United States, China and other World Bank shareholders prepare to meet in Marrakech, Morocco next month to review and advance initial reforms already underway at the bank.

The study said the IBRD could boost lending by $162 billion over a decade or less before triggering a downgrade by global credit rating agencies, while IDA, which lends to the poorest countries, could boost lending by $21 billion to $27 billion.

In fiscal 2023, which ended June 30, IBRD made net new lending commitments of $38.6 billion, while IDA committed $34.2 billion.

It said IBRD and IDA could boost lending to nearly $900 billion if the rating agencies changed their processes and modified the allowance they make for “callable capital,” commitments by shareholders to supply additional resources in the event of severe financial problems.

Use of innovative approaches, including hybrid capital, could provide further funds, the study concluded, while securitizing 10% of IBRD and IDA’s portfolios could generate additional lending headroom of $29 billion to $41 billion.

The bank has already increased its leverage ratio to squeeze out an additional $50 billion in lending over a decade, but World Bank President Ajay Banga on Tuesday said the bank could potentially double that amount with international contributions.

Eric Pelofsky, vice president at the Rockefeller Foundation, said Risk Control conducted a math-based and transparent analysis that confirmed additional lending capacity was possible, even beyond the levels mapped out to date.

“This is the math, absolutely as detailed and transparent as you could possibly get, that says there’s more room,” he said. “It very clearly says that there are actions that can be done now while we consider other more long-term reforms to the bank.”

Hans Peter Lankes, a professor at the London School of Economics and member of the G20 panel, said the study provided “timely benchmarks” for shareholders and World Bank management as they scoped out ways to boost lending.

Some experts argue that developing and emerging economies need $2.4 trillion per year to meet global climate challenges.

“We need this because the developing world is pitching off a cliff in terms of debt, available climate finance, development needs,” Pelofsky said. “And from a geopolitical standpoint, the Bank, the Fund, the regional development banks are infinitely more transparent than some of the obvious alternatives.”

The Biden administration is pushing the World Bank as a “credible alternative” to China’s overseas lending, which U.S. officials say is often not transparent and often uses collateralized loans that pose risks to countries later. – Reuters

Russia mulls joining China in banning Japanese seafood imports

September 27, 2023 | 2:17 pm

japanese-tuna-357224_1280 — STOCK PHOTO | Image by Jason Goh from Pixabay

Russia may join China in banning Japanese seafood imports after Japan released treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea, and Moscow is seeking talks with Japan, a Russian regulator said on Tuesday.

Japan started releasing the water from the plant into the ocean last month, drawing strong criticism from China. In retaliation, China imposed a blanket ban on all aquatic imports from Japan.

Russian food safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor on Tuesday said it had discussed Japanese food exports with its Chinese counterparts. Russia is one of the biggest marine product suppliers to China and is seeking to increase its market share.

“Taking into account the possible risks of radiation contamination of products, Rosselkhoznadzor is considering the possibility of joining with Chinese restrictions on supplies of fish products from Japan,” Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement. “The final decision will be made after negotiations with the Japanese side.”

So far this year, Russia has imported 118 tonnes of Japanese seafood, the regulator said.

Rosselkhoznadzor said it had sent a letter to Japan on the need to hold talks and requesting information on Japan’s radiological testing of exported fish products by Oct. 16, including tritium.

Japan will scrutinize Tuesday’s announcement by Russia, the top Japanese government spokesperson Hirokazu Matsuno said on Wednesday.

Japan says the water is safe after being treated to remove most radioactive elements except tritium, a radionuclide difficult to separate from water. It is then diluted to internationally accepted levels before being released.

Japan has said criticism from Russia and China was unsupported by scientific evidence.

“We strongly ask Russia to act based on scientific evidence,” Matsuno told a Wednesday press conference, adding that Russia was a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s Fukushima expert team, which in July greenlighted the water release plan.

On Monday, in its latest report on water testing, Japan’s Ministry of Environment said analysis results of seawater, sampled on Sept. 19, showed the tritium concentrations were below the lower limit of detection at all 11 sampling points and would have no adverse impact on human health and the environment.

Russia has also detected no irregularities in marine samples used for tests in Russian regions that are relatively close to where the treated water was released, Rosselkhoznadzor’s far eastern branch said on Tuesday, Interfax reported.

Russia exported 2.3 million metric tons of marine products last year worth about $6.1 billion, around half its overall catch, with China, South Korea and Japan being the biggest importers, according to Russia‘s fisheries agency. – Reuters

China’s central bank to use ‘precise, forceful’ policy to bolster recovery

September 27, 2023 | 2:12 pm

woman-Beijing, China — A WOMAN walks across the street during morning rush hour in Chaoyang District, Beijing, China Nov. 21, 2022. — REUTERS

BEIJING – China’s central bank said on Wednesday it would step up policy adjustments and implement monetary policy in a “precise and forceful” manner to support an economy whose recovery was improving with “increasing momentum”.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) will keep liquidity reasonably ample and maintain stable credit expansion, the bank said in a statement after a quarterly meeting of its monetary policy committee.

“The current external environment is becoming more complex and severe, international economic trade and investment are slowing down, inflation is still high, and interest rates in developed countries remain high,” the central bank said.

“The domestic economy continues to recover and improve, with increasing momentum, but it still faces challenges such as insufficient demand.”

“We need to continue to work hard and take advantage of the improving momentum, step up macro policy adjustments, implement the prudent monetary policy in a precise and forceful manner,” the PBOC said.

The wording in the latest comments was consistent with the line taken earlier by the central bank, though the remarks on the economy appeared slightly more positive as the PBOC had said in its April statement that the recovery lacked solid foundations.

The world’s second-largest economy is showing some signs of stabilizing after a flurry of modest policy measures, but the outlook is clouded by a property downturn, aging demographics, high debt and geopolitical tensions.

The central bank will guide banks to lower borrowing costs for companies and households and support banks to replenish capital, it said.

China will step up government investment and policy incentives to spur private investment and promote a recovery in prices from a low level, the central bank said.

The PBOC reaffirmed its stance of keeping the yuan CNY=CFXS stable and preventing the risk of currency overshooting.

The central bank also pledged to promote the healthy and stable development of the property market, implementing policies to lower down payment ratios and mortgages rates for some home buyers.

The central bank will step up its support for the building of public infrastructure for both normal and emergency use in megacities, the transformation of “urban villages“, or underdeveloped areas, and affordable housing, it said.

The cabinet has announced guidelines to boost investment in such areas as part of efforts to support the economy. – Reuters

Musk’s X disabled feature for reporting electoral misinformation – researcher

September 27, 2023 | 2:08 pm

SYDNEY – Elon Musk’s X, formerly called Twitter, disabled a feature that let users report misinformation about elections, a research organisation said on Wednesday, throwing fresh concern about false claims spreading just before major US and Australian votes.

After introducing a feature in 2022 for users to report a post they considered misleading about politics, X in the past week removed the “politics” category from its drop-down menu in every jurisdiction but the European Union, said the researcher Reset.Tech Australia.

Users could still report posts to X globally for a host of other complaints such as promoting violence or hate speech, the researcher added.

X was not immediately available for comment.

Removing a way for people to report suspected political misinformation may limit intervention at a time when social media platforms are under pressure to curtail falsehoods about electoral integrity, which have grown rapidly in recent years.

It comes less than three weeks before Australia holds a referendum, its first in a quarter century, on whether to change the constitution to establish an Indigenous advisory body to parliament and 14 months before a US presidential election.

“It would be helpful to understand why X have seemingly gone backwards on their commitments to mitigating the kind of serious misinformation that has translated into real political instability in the US, especially on the eve of the ‘bumper year’ of elections globally,” said Alice Dawkins, executive director of Reset.Tech Australia.

In a letter to X’s managing director for Australia, Angus Keene, Reset.Tech Australia said the change may leave content that violates X’s own policy banning electoral misinformation online without an appropriate review process.

“It is extremely concerning that Australians would lose the ability to report serious misinformation weeks away from a major referendum,” said the letter which was published online.

Since Mr. Musk took Twitter, as it was then known, private in late 2022, the company, which cut most of its workforce, has been accused of allowing the proliferation of antisemitism, hate speech and misinformation.

As previously reported by Reuters, Reset.Tech Australia found X failed to remove or label a single post containing misinformation about the Australian referendum over a three-week period, including after it was reported using the now-disabled feature.

Mr. Musk has said X’s “Community Notes” feature, which allows users to comment on posts to flag false or misleading content, is a better way of fact checking. But those notes are only made public when they are rated as helpful by a range of contributors with varying points of view, according to X’s website.

Australia’s internet safety regulator wrote to X in June demanding an explanation for an explosion in hate speech on the platform, noting it had reinstated some 62,000 high profile accounts of individuals who espouse Nazi rhetoric.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), which will oversee the Oct. 14 referendum, has said the spread of electoral misinformation is the worst it has seen.

The commission said it was still able to report posts containing political misinformation directly to X, even after the feature was disabled. For other users, the AEC was “available for people to ask questions or seek information”. – Reuters

Philippines urges fishermen to keep up presence at China-held shoal

September 27, 2023 | 1:50 pm

fishing-fishermen — PHILIPPINE STAR/ MICHAEL VARCAS

The coastguard of the Philippines urged the country’s fishermen on Wednesday to keep operating at the disputed Scarborough Shoal and other sites in the South China Sea, pledging to step up patrols there despite an imposing Chinese presence.

Philippine vessels were unable to maintain a constant presence but were committed to protecting the rights of fishermen inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), Coastguard Spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela said.

“We’re going to increase patrols in Bajo de Masinloc and other areas where Filipino fishermen are,” he told DZRH radio, referring to the shoal, one of Asia’s most contested maritime features, by its Philippine name.

On Monday, the coastguard cut a 300-meter floating barrier installed by China that blocked access to the Scarborough Shoal, a bold response in an area Beijing has controlled for more than a decade with coastguard ships and a fleet of large fishing vessels.

China’s response has been measured, with its foreign ministry advising Manila on Tuesday to avoid provocations and not cause trouble.

Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said the Philippines’ cutting of the cordon was not a provocation.

“We are reacting to their action,” he said during a senate hearing on Wednesday. “They moved first, they blocked our fishers.”

The rocky, mid-sea outcrop is the site of numerous diplomatic rows. Both countries claim sovereignty over the shoal, a prime fishing spot about 200 kilometers off the Philippines and 850 kilometers from mainland China and its southern island of Hainan.

Close to shipping lanes that transport an estimated $3.4 trillion of annual commerce, control of the shoal is strategic for Beijing, which claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea.

Those claims complicate fisheries and offshore oil and gas activities by its Southeast Asian neighbors, however.

Mr. Tarriela said the Philippine fisheries bureau had successfully anchored a vessel just 300 meters from the Scarborough Shoal’s lagoon, its closest point to the atoll since China seized it in 2012.

It is unclear whether China’s use of a barrier represents a change to a status quo that has existed since 2017 in which Beijing’s coastguard allowed Filipinos to operate there, albeit on a far smaller scale than China.

It comes amid soured relations, with the Philippines increasingly assertive over the conduct of China’s coastguard in its EEZ, as it strengthens military ties with ally the United States by expanding access to its bases.

“The Scarborough Shoal is closer to the Philippines,” said fisherman Pepito Fabros who had come ashore in the province of Zambales between trips to sea.

“Why are they stopping us from entering?” — Reuters

Elevate your banking experience with RCBC Hexagon Club Priority

September 27, 2023 | 12:00 pm

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Celebrating excellence: Philippine Finest Business Awards and Outstanding Achievers 2023

September 27, 2023 | 11:00 am

Honoring exceptional individuals, companies, and achievements

The stage is set for an extraordinary celebration of excellence as the prestigious “Philippine Finest Business Awards and Outstanding Achievers 2023” gears up to recognize and honor exceptional individuals, companies, and achievements that have made a significant impact on the business landscape.

Organized by La Visual Corp. and SIRBISU Channel, the “Philippine Finest Business Awards and Outstanding Achievers 2023” is a testament to the pursuit of excellence, innovation, and dedication to outstanding business practices. This remarkable event will take place on Sept. 8, 2023 at The Hexagon Events Place in Penthouse Floor Hexagon Corporate Center, 1471 Quezon Ave. West Triangle, Quezon City, Philippines, promising an evening of glamour, recognition, and inspiration.

The awards ceremony aims to honor businesses and individuals that have demonstrated unwavering commitment to consumer welfare, product quality, and outstanding customer service. With categories ranging from “Business Excellence” to “Outstanding Individual Achievements,” the event seeks to highlight and applaud a diverse array of accomplishments across various industries.

“We are thrilled to bring together exceptional individuals, companies, and achievers under one roof to celebrate their remarkable contributions to the business world,” at La Visual Corp. “This event is not just about awards; it’s a platform to inspire others to strive for excellence and foster a stronger business community.”

Adding to the excitement, the event is proud to have the support of esteemed media partners such as Business Mirror, BusinessWorld, The Market Monitor, Malaya Business Insight, Philippine Graphic, Pilipino Mirror, Pasyal Tayo, Light TV, 98.4 LOVE FM Teleradyo, Win Radio 91.5 Manila, Media House Express, Daily Tribune, Amazing Manila Journal, 97.9 Home Radio, DWIZ 882 AM, Manila Bulletin, and Aliw Channel 23, whose presence guarantees extensive exposure to a wider audience. The “Philippine Finest Business Awards and Outstanding Achievers 2023” promises an evening filled with excitement, inspiration, and the celebration of exceptional success stories.

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