Australia recognized China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. COVID-19 shot and India-made AstraZeneca Plc jabs, paving the way for overseas travelers and fee-paying foreign students who have received those vaccinations to enter the country.

The nation’s top drugs regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, said the shots should be “recognized vaccines” in determining incoming travelers as being inoculated, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday.

Australia is starting to unwind some of the world’s most intense pandemic border restrictions as vaccination rates across the country approach as key threshold of 80%. Recognition of Beijing-based Sinovac’s shot, which has been approved by the World Health Organization for emergency use, contrasts with the U.K. and neighboring New Zealand, which are yet to endorse it.

A number of European countries have said they will accept the vaccine, known as Coronavac, as part of programs for vaccinated entry. The U.S. indicated similar when it announced plans to open entry to most vaccinated foreigners last week.

Friday’s announcement potentially opens the door to thousands of foreign students that have been shut out of Australia during the pandemic. International education is a lucrative source of revenue for the country, worth A$14.6 billion ($11 billion) to the state of New South Wales alone in 2019.

“Very soon, we’ll be able to open those international borders again,” Morrison told reporters. “This will start happening from next month.”

Vaccines made by Sinovac and the state-owned Sinopharm are among the most used in China, and have efficacy rates ranging from around 50% to 80% in preventing symptomatic COVID, lower than the mRNA vaccines developed out of the U.S. Sinovac is also one of the most-deployed COVID shots globally, used from Indonesia to Brazil and Turkey. Chile said earlier this week it would start administering it to children age six to 11.

Covishield, also recognized Friday, is the name of the AstraZeneca Plc shot made by India’s Serum Institute, the world’s biggest vaccine maker.

More than 57,000 students are estimated to be overseas, according to the government of New South Wales. Chinese nationals are Australia’s biggest source of international students followed by those in India, Nepal and Vietnam, according to the Australian Trade Department.

The decision Friday could also be seen as a potential olive branch from Australia, which has been on the receiving end of criticism and trade blockages from China since it asked for a global inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus. — Bloomberg

BEIJING/CHICAGO – As Australian beef exports to China wither amid diplomatic tensions, demand there for U.S. grain-fed beef has soared, fuelled by the appetites of a growing Chinese middle class.

Hotpot restaurants, Japanese barbecue chains and steakhouses, all expanding in the world’s No. 2 economy, are swapping out Australian beef for U.S. meat. Several Australian suppliers were banned last year and shipments from others take too long to clear customs.

Beef imports from the U.S. have grown to 83,000 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, nine times the amount in the same period a year ago, according to Chinese customs data, and are set to be worth more than $1 billion this year. Australia also fell behind the United States this year as the top exporter of grain-fed beef to China.

“They don’t have a lot of other options when it comes to the well-marbled, grain-fed product,” said Joe Schuele, spokesman at the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF). “That’s the product that really stands out in China.”

Deteriorating relations between Beijing and Canberra have hurt supplies from Australia. Five of its largest factories were suspended by Beijing last year for reasons such as poor labelling and contamination with a banned substance.

Though other plants are still allowed to ship to China, importers say they face long delays.

Beef imports from Australia in the first eight months fell to 96,000 tonnes, half of what they were in the same period last year, China customs data shows.

“We’ve been told it will take at least 85 days to clear,” said a Beijing-based importer who has six containers of frozen Australian beef stuck in Shanghai port and has begun offering Tyson beef to his restaurant clients.

That compares with about one week for meat from other origins. China’s General Administration of Customs did not respond to a request for comment.

Sino-Australian ties have been strained since 2018 and worsened last year when Australia called for an independent investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus, prompting trade reprisals from China.

GRAIN-FED DEMAND

Grass-fed beef, a premium product in other markets, typically goes to cheaper channels in China, such as mass-market restaurants and supermarkets.

Last year imports accounted for 40% of China’s beef consumption, or about 2 million tonnes. Though supplies are dominated by low-cost grass-fed producers Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, demand from mass-market consumers is slowing amid a weaker economy.

China’s mid- to high-end market – where grain-fed rules – continues to grow, however, as consumers “trade up, eat better”, said Pan Chenjun, senior analyst at Rabobank.

China’s middle class spent $7.3 trillion in 2020, more than any other country’s, according to a report by U.S. research group Brookings, and is still growing, with young people accounting for more spending than in other countries.

New York chain Wolfgang’s Steakhouse, which has two restaurants in Beijing, opened another in the southern city of Shenzhen this year and has plans for a fourth in Hangzhou.

The restaurant flies in chilled U.S. beef before ageing it. Its 800g rib-eyes cost $150 apiece.

“Young people like meat, especially 20- and 30-year-olds who come here on dates,” said Glen Feng, manager of the Beijing outlets.

TRADE TIES

Even as China’s beef demand has surged in recent years, driven by a growing middle class, politics have reshuffled the country’s top importers.

Domestic production costs, meanwhile, make local supplies of grain-fed beef erratic, said Zhong Dingming, the manager of Jingli hotpot restaurant in Beijing. He said imported beef like the Tyson short ribs he buys offers better quality for a slightly higher price.

In last year’s Phase 1 trade deal between Beijing and Washington, China agreed that U.S.-approved processing plants could access its market without Chinese inspections.

The number of facilities allowed to ship to China has jumped to more than 500.

TREX Corp, a U.S. meat exporter owned by Greater Omaha Packing Co, is buying meat from other packers to ship to China as demand climbs, said Henry Davis, chief executive of Greater Omaha.

In China, USMEF has doubled the number of training events teaching local chefs how best to cut and slice, said Joel Haggard, senior vice president for the Asia Pacific.

Shanghai-based retailer Swiss Butchery said it had stocked up on American beef as Australian supplies became less reliable. The store now sells American wagyu for 1,430 yuan ($221.87)per kilogramme, on occasion selling 10 kilogrammes at a time, said general manager Jaap Zuidervliet.

U.S. beef that meets China’s import standards is in tight supply and the European Union is competing to buy the same meat, said Omaha’s Davis.

And though Australia’s beef exporters have turned to Japan and South Korea, a well-established reputation means customers in China could quickly return if things change.

“Australian beef still has a reputation for top quality and being natural. Long-term we’re still really bullish on China,” said Andrew Cox, general manager of international markets at trade body Meat and Livestock Australia. — Reuters

TOKYO – Asia’s manufacturing activity was lackluster in September as signs of slowing Chinese growth and factory shutdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic weighed on the region’s economies, surveys showed on Friday.

Factory activity in September shrank in Malaysia and Vietnam, and grew in Japan at the slowest rate in seven months, as chip shortages and supply disruptions added to the woes of a region still struggling to shake off the pandemic’s hit.

China’s waning economic momentum dealt a fresh blow, with the official Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) on Thursday showing the country’s factory activity unexpectedly shrank in September due to wider curbs on electricity use.

While the private Caixin/Markit Manufacturing PMI fared better than expected after slumping in August, growing signs of weakness in the world’s second-largest economy is clouding the outlook for neighboring Asian countries.

“While coronavirus curbs on economic activity may be gradually lifted, the slow pace at which this will happen means Southeast Asian economies will stagnate for the rest of this year,” said Makoto Saito, an economist at NLI Research Institute.

The final au Jibun Bank Japan Manufacturing PMI slipped to 51.5 in September from 52.7 in the previous month, marking its slowest pace of expansion since February.

“Supply chain disruption continued to dampen activity and demand,” said Usamah Bhatti, economist at IHS Markit, of Japan’s PMI survey.

South Korea’s PMI for September rose to 52.4 from 51.2 in August, staying above the 50-mark threshold that indicates expansion in activity for a 12th straight month.

But continued supply chain disruptions dented business optimism for manufacturers.

Taiwan’s PMI eased to 54.7 in September from 58.5 in August, while Vietnam saw the index unchanged from August at 40.2.

Once seen as a driver of global growth, Asia’s emerging economies are lagging advanced economies in recovering from the pandemic’s pain as delays in vaccine rollouts and a spike in Delta variant cases hurt consumption and factory production. — Reuters

LONDON – A group of central banks sketched out a potential operating manual for digital cash on Thursday as they aim to strike a balance between keeping up with cryptocurrencies and concerns that the new technology could upend commercial lenders.

Worried that the explosion of bitcoin and its ilk could weaken their control of money, policymakers from Beijing to Washington are exploring central bank digital currencies, known as CBDCs.

And while a widely-used digital dollar or euro may still be years away, work by central banks is gathering pace as consumers increasingly ditch coins and notes in favour of digital payments on debit or credit cards and mobile phones.

The seven central banks – including those in the United States, Britain and the ECB in the euro zone, but not China – said publicly-used “retail” CBDC must harness both public and private players to mesh with existing payment systems.

The tech should be useable with existing domestic payments systems, with strategies for adoption tailored to on-the-ground economic conditions, said the central banks, working alongside the Bank for International Settlements.

The existing financial system must be given time to adjust to the introduction of CBDC, they said, flagging risks of what could amount to slow-motion bank runs if commercial bank customers suddenly shifted savings to the new tech.

“Regardless of the design, developing and running a CBDC system would be a major undertaking for a central bank,” they said, stressing the involvement of private operators must be closely monitored to ensure public trust in the tech.

STABILITY RISKS

Unlike cryptocurrencies like bitcoin that are usually run by private actors, CBDCs would be equivalent to cash, issued and backed by central banks. They differ from the electronic money used in billions of transactions daily that is mostly funnelled via commercial banks.

The People’s Bank of China is the most advanced among major economies on CBDCs, and is planning its biggest digital yuan trial at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve will “soon” release research examining the costs and benefits of a CBDC, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week.

Commercial banks, fretting that a retail-focused CBDC could cannibalize their deposit bases, are trying to exert influence on their design.

The central banks sought to downplay the threat of retail-focused CBDC to lenders’ business models.

“Our analysis suggests the impacts on bank disintermediation and lending could be manageable for the banking sector,” they said, with any impact likely limited in “plausible” levels of adoption. — Reuters

U.S. senators on Thursday grilled Facebook Inc on its plans to better protect young users on its apps, drawing on leaked internal research that showed the social media giant was aware of how its Instagram app harmed the mental health of teens.

The hearing in front of the Senate consumer protection subcommittee was called after the Wall Street Journal published several stories earlier this month about how Facebook knew Instagram caused some teen girls in particular to feel badly about their self-image. After growing opposition to the project, Facebook put plans for Instagram Kids, aimed at pre-teens, on hold this week.

Antigone Davis, Facebook’s global head of safety, disputed the committee and WSJ’s conclusions of the research documents throughout the hearing, and said the company was working to release additional internal studies in an effort to be more transparent about its findings.

“This research is a bombshell,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, during the hearing. “It is powerful, gripping, riveting evidence that Facebook knows of the harmful effects of its site on children, and that it has concealed those facts and findings.”

“IG stands for Instagram, but it also stands for Insta-greed,” said Senator Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts.

The senators pressed Davis on several major themes, including what identifiable data Facebook collects on users under the age of 13, to what extent the company views young users as a growth area and to confirm whether it knew that Instagram led some children to consider suicide.

Davis reiterated that kids under 13 were not allowed on Facebook, adding 0.5% of teens in the company’s research connected their “suicidal ideation” to Instagram, lower than the figures the Journal had reported.

“You’ve cherry-picked part of the research that you think helps your spin right now,” said Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, demanding Facebook commit to releasing its full research on the links between Instagram and youth suicide.

A second hearing is planned for Tuesday and will feature a Facebook whistleblower. The whistleblower is expected to reveal their identity on Sunday in a recorded interview for TV news program “60 Minutes,” which in a preview described the woman as a former Facebook employee who left with tens of thousands of pages of research.

Davis said Thursday that Facebook would not retaliate against the whistleblower for sharing confidential documents with the senators. — Reuters

LONDON – It is safe for people to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and a flu shot at the same time and it does not negatively impact the immune response produced by either, a British study found on Thursday.

Britain and other northern hemisphere countries are bracing for a tough winter and the possibility of a surge in flu cases as COVID-19 restrictions are eased and social distancing measures relaxed.

Booster COVID-19 shots are being given to elderly and vulnerable people and to health workers in Britain, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has also promised the biggest flu vaccination programme in history this year.

The study, led by the University of Bristol, found that reported side effects were usually mild to moderate in tests with three flu vaccines and either Pfizer or AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shot.

“This is a really positive step which could mean fewer appointments for those who require both vaccines,” chief investigator Rajeka Lazarus said.

“The results of this study have been presented to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) for their consideration and will aid policy makers in planning the future of these important vaccination programmes.”

Shots were given on the same day, in opposite arms.

One group had a COVID shot and a flu jab in a first visit, with a placebo given in a second visit, and another had a COVID-19 shot and a placebo given on the same day, followed by a flu vaccine on the second day.

The study found 97% of participants said they would be willing to have two vaccines at the same appointment in the future.

The study involved 679 volunteers at 12 sites across England and Wales, and was released as a pre-print, with full results due to be published in the Lancet. — Reuters