Ata mārie and welcome to your Monday recap of international business and political news.
First up, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains defiant as countries formally recognise Palestine. Netanyahu said Israel would continue to develop settlements in the occupied West Bank that obstruct a future Palestinian state, Al Jazeera reported.
He said that Palestinian statehood “will not happen”.
The UK, Australia, and Canada had formally recognised Palestine and that was described as a “political disaster”, according to Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid.
“A functioning Israeli government could have prevented this through smart and serious work, professional diplomatic dialogue, and proper public diplomacy,” Lapid said.
“The government that brought upon us the worst security disaster in our history is now also bringing upon us the most severe diplomatic crisis ever.”
Militant group Hamas said the Palestinian statehood recognition was an “important step” in affirming the Palestinian people’s right to their land and holy sites, Al Jazeera reported.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged citizens to stop using foreign-made products and instead use local products, after US President Donald Trump imposed a 50% tariff on Indian goods, Reuters reported.
Modi’s supporters had started campaigns to boycott US brands including McDonald's, Pepsi, and Apple.
"A lot of products we use daily are foreign made. We should buy products that are made in India," Modi said.
He also asked local shop owners to focus on retailing Indian-made products to boost the country's economy.
French President Emmanuel Macron.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the European Union’s remaining energy imports from Russia were “very marginal”. He challenged Trump’s calls for the bloc to cut its dependence amid attempts to end the Ukraine conflict, Bloomberg reported.
“We decreased by more than 80%, the consumption of oil and gas,” Macron said.
Trump last week called for European allies to stop purchasing Russian oil, suggesting he’d consider additional measures against Russia “but not when the people that I’m fighting for are buying oil from Russia”.
Elsewhere, Trump said technology and media giants Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, and Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch would form part of a group in the acquisition of social media platform TikTok’s US operations, CNN and Bloomberg reported.
The White House said the US operations of TikTok would be majority-owned and controlled by US investors. The deal was finalised in a phone call on Friday local time between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and the White House said the arrangement would be signed in the coming days.
The TikTok deal was designed to comply with a bi-partisan law that would allow TikTok to keep operating in the US because of a switch to US-controlled ownership.
NZ Tourism and Hospitality Minister Louise Upston will travel to China to lead an industry delegation this week. The delegation will travel to Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Beijing to meet with Chinese airlines, e-commerce platforms, and tourism industry professionals.
China is New Zealand’s third-largest tourism market, with about 250,000 arrivals in the year ended July.
“This mission also builds on our efforts to increase the number of Chinese visitors to New Zealand, by making it quicker, easier, and cheaper for Chinese nationals to come to New Zealand via Australia from November, if they hold an eligible Australian visa,” Upston said.
“Most Chinese visitors receive a five-year multiple entry visitor visa, making it easier for Chinese visitors to return to New Zealand. Average processing times for Chinese visas are currently the fastest they’ve ever been, at five working days.”
Tourism Minister Louise Upston.
European luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault has criticised a proposed 2% wealth tax as an assault on France's economy, the Guardian and Reuters reported.
The proposed tax would target wealth above €100 million and had gained political traction. Arnault argued the tax was ideologically biased, but a recent poll showed 86% support for it. The French founder of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton said it would be “deadly for our economy”.
Finally, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has now completely exited its profitable equity investment in Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD. In 2022, Berkshire started to cut the 225 million shares it had purchased in 2008 for US$230m. That followed a 41% jump in the value to US$9 billion.
By June last year, Berkshire had sold almost 76% of its stake. A Berkshire spokesperson confirmed that its entire BYD stake had now been sold, CNBC reported.
Buffett had not fully explained why Berkshire started selling. In 2023, he told CNBC that BYD was an “extraordinary” company but that “we’ll find things to do with the money that I’ll feel better about”.
Overall, BYD shares had increased by about 3890% during the years Berkshire owned them.
