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EBay
to add new safeguards
Orlando: Online auctioneer eBay Inc will add new
safeguards to protect purchases on its website and expand
an advertising program to help sellers promote their wares,
eBay's chief executive said on Friday. Meg Whitman, chief
of one of the few Internet companies to move through the
dot-com bust relatively unscathed, was speaking here to
a packed auditorium full of the sites' users, who gave
her a rousing standing ovation. But her speech at the
eBay Live user conference here was upstaged by a surprise
performer - comedic singer "Weird Al" Yankovic,
who sang "eBay," a parody of a popular Backstreet
Boys song.
In
her address, Whitman also said that the company would
test a new program that deducted purchases automatically
from the financial accounts of bidders as soon as they
won an auction.Under the expanded buyer protection program,
Whitman said sellers who used the PayPal payment system
and had at least 50 feedback ratings from buyers, with
at least 98 per cent of those ratings positive, would
be able to offer buyers $500 protection on their purchases,
with no deductible.
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HK,
China sign landmark free trade deal
Hong Kong: Hong Kong and China signed a landmark
free trade agreement on Sunday, aimed at boosting the
Asian financial centre's ailing economy but which some
say could further erode its political and economic autonomy.
"The agreement has given fresh momentum to Hong Kong's
economic restructuring, new competitive advantages, and
has also enhanced the relationship between Hong Kong and
the mainland," Hong Kong's chief executive Tung Chee-hwa
told the audience of government officials and tycoons
at the signing. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said that 273
kinds of Hong-Kong origin goods would enjoy zero tariffs
in the mainland market from January 2004 and that thousands
of others would enjoy zero tariffs in 2006. The Closer
Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), which many see
as a precursor to more aid from Beijing, will eliminate
mainland import tariffs on many goods made in the territory
and is expected to save its exporters billions of Hong
Kong dollars. Further details will be released later on
Sunday. The agreement is also expected to give Hong Kong
firms, especially service industries such as banks and
accountancy firms, greater access to China's rapidly growing
market.
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Top
bankers view sluggish recovery of economy
Basel: Central bank governors from around the world
said on Saturday they expected a slow and sluggish recovery
in the global economy. The governors gathering in Switzerland
for an annual meeting of the Bank for International Settlements
(BIS) saw a "gradual sluggish pickup across the world
moving into next year," Bank of England governor
Sir Edward George said. "The mood is one of guarded
optimism... but with guarded kind of underlined,"
Bank of Canada governor David Dodge told reporters after
a first discussion session in Basel. Among those attending
the meeting were the world's top monetary policymakers
including U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan,
European Central Bank governor Wim Duisenberg and his
heir-apparent, Bank of France governor Jean-Claude Trichet.
Bank of Japan governor Toshihiko Fukui also sounded cautiously
positive. "We expect a slow but steady recovery of
the Japanese economy in the latter half of this year,
in line with the global economy," he said.
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Goodyear,
labour union contract talks fail
Chicago: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co and its
union broke off contract talks on Saturday, leaving the
jobs of 20,000 workers uncertain as the sides differed
over how to turn around the company's North American tyre
business. "The union has rejected the company's latest
offer. Talks have broken off. No further talks are scheduled,"
a union spokesman, Wayne Ranick, of the United Steelworkers
of America, said. Akron, Ohio-based Goodyear had asked
the union for wage and benefit cuts. The largest US tyremaker
lost more than $1.3 billion total in the past two years,
forcing the company to renegotiate bank loans, eliminate
its quarterly dividend, put its chemical unit up for sales
and reduce other costs. Despite the talks breakdown, Goodyear
spokesman Chuck Sinclair said, "The lines of communications
are open and we are willing to meet with them to discuss
our offer." There was no immediate word on whether
the United Steelworkers of America will strike. The contracts
at 11 US plants have been extended on a day-by-day basis
since they expired April 13.
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