Sait Online

Private mail will face higher duties under new customs regulations that take effect today, a move widely expected to hamper haiwai daigou, or representative overseas shopping services.

The General Administration of Customs will collect duties if the import duty payable on individual mail items is worth more than 50 yuan ($7.34).

Previously, the duty on personal mail to and from Hong Kong and Macao was exempt if the value did not exceed 400 yuan ($58.75), and for those to and from other areas, the exemption amount was 500 yuan ($73.44).

The change is aimed at fixing loopholes in the tariff system and cracking down on tax evasion through mail, said the announcement.

China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) announced Tuesday that it has signed a contract with the China-Africa Development Fund (CADF) on uranium exploration in Africa.

China Uranium Corporation, a subsidiary of CNNC, will set up a joint venture company with CADF in Beijing to carry out the uranium investment and exploration, according to the statement.

“Chinese is basically capable of exporting nuclear technologies,” said Zhou Xiujie, analyst with the China Investment Consulting.

“China will start nuclear power cooperation with Belorus, Vietnam, Argentina and South Africa and has plans to sell nuclear reactors to Pakistan.”

The real estate sector has finally shown a dip four months after the government launched tightening policies. Housing prices in Beijing Tongzhou District fell to 16,000 yuan ($2350.62), down nearly 10,000 yuan ($1469.14) per square meter, according to recent reports.

The People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, Tuesday said that housing prices would see further decreases in the future, as policies take effect.

Though the drop in prices is still not widespread, it is a sign the government truly wants the price to go down, and that series of policies are not just a show.

Foreign firms, such has Blackstone, Morgan Stanley, USGroup, Merrill Lynch and Softbank Asia, have entered China’s real estate market in various forms recently.

However, analysts said that it is a bad timing for such investment.

“The government is really taking on the real estate sector.

The bubble is so big that the government has to do some thing,” said Wang Deyong, a real estate industry analyst with CITIC Securities.

China is considering allowing companies to use its currency on overseas investments as a next step on the reform to facilitate cross-border yuan flow, Hu Xiaolian, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, said Tuesday.

However, according to Liu Yu, official from the Institute of Finance and Banking under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a bigger issue is whether countries will accept the yuan on transactions.

Hu also said that China will also launch a mini Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) plan, in which it will allow offshore yuan deposits back into the mainland’s capital market.

The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) has approved American Northern Trust’s application for a branch license in Beijing, announced the Chicago-headquartered international financial service company Tuesday.

“Institutional investors in China and the Asia-Pacific region have turned to Northern Trust as strong, stable financial partners with a commitment to the development of domestic financial institutions as sophisticated global investors,” said Northern Trust’s Chairman and CEO Frederick H. Waddell.

“With its dynamic economy and emerging opportunities for overseas investment, China is the focus of the time for us. Authorization of the Beijing branch will allow us to help our clients pursue their goals and bring the full Northern Trust client experience to the Chinese marketplace,” added Frederick.

The Northern Trust Company Beijing Branch will support institutional clients in China with global custody, accounting, among other services.

China Publishing Group, the country’s largest publishing institution, and China National Publications Import &Export (Group) Co., signed an agreement with two Japanese companies of the field in Beijing Tuesday to jointly establish a publisher in Tokyo.

The two Japanese counterparts are Japan’s largest publisher Tohan Corporation and Japan Cross TV Co.

The to-be-named China Tohan Publishing Co. Ltd, will mainly publish books translated from Chinese into Japanese.

China Publishing Group had previously conducted overseas partnerships in Sydney, Paris, Vancouver, London, New York, Frankfort and Seoul.

During the first seven months this year, China’s trade deficits of agricultural products grew 61.9 percent to reach $13.05 billion, and corn imports grew 56 times, according to figures released by the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) Tuesday.

Of the agricultural products, grains and cotton saw the largest growth in imports. The imports of the former grew 66 percent year-on-year and of the latter 97.6 percent compared with the same period last year.

Of the grains, the quantity of corn imported grew 56 times compared with last year; wheat imports doubled; rice imports were up 42.6 percent, and barley imports up 26.7 percent.

Zhou Siran, food analyst from consultant company ocn.com, said that the large hikes in grain imports are mainly attributed to recent natural disasters, which caused output to decrease and demand to rise.

The amount of imported corn in July doubled that of the total amount for the first six months; and the domestic price of the grain has increased 20 percent.

Chinese dairy tycoon Mengniu Dairy Co. Ltd, announced its half-yearly financial performance report of 2010 on Tuesday, which shows a revenue increase of 19.31 percent year-on-year.

By the end of June, the firm had assimilated 14.4 billion yuan ($2.1 billion), from which its net profit accounted for 619 million yuan ($90.9 million).

Through optimizing product portfolio and controlling material cost, Mengniu could boost its revenue. However, investments in milk bases’ construction shrank its net profit by 6.5 percent compared with a year earlier.

The US Commerce Department announced Tuesday its decision not to initiate investigations on allegations that China’s currency practices constitute an unfair subsidy.

The currency allegations under review were made in the context of countervailing duties (CVD) investigations of two Chinese products – aluminum extrusions and coated paper.

“Two allegations before it that China’s currency practices constitute an unfair subsidy under United States countervailing duty law failed to meet the requirements for the initiation of an investigation,” the Commerce Department said in a statement.

“The currency decision was based on a careful evaluation of the specific legal arguments and evidence put before the department, in relation to the standards for the initiation of an investiga-tion under the CVD law,” Deputy Assistant Secretary for Import Administration Ronald Lorentzen said.

A new A380 operated by Lufthansa is expected to arrive in Beijing from Frankfurt Thursday.

This is the second foreign carrier to fly its A380 to China in less than one month following Emirates, a sign the demand for international flights in China is soaring.

As the first European airline to fly directly from Beijing to Frankfurt, Lufthansa said it would have three flights from Frankfort to Beijing per week, replacing the Boeing 747-400 “to provide customers with a more comfortable tour experience.”

One month ago, Emirates started its A380 route from Beijing to Dubai to transport more customers. Currently, it has two passenger flights from Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong to Dubai per day and one flight from Guangzhou.

The Middle Eastern carrier will open A380 route from Hong Kong to Bangkok and Dubai October 1.

“The number of daily passengers is very good,” Pan Wang, PR for Emirates, told the Global Times Wednesday, adding the passengers are mainly for business, tourism and transferring for other destinations through Dubai.