Amber Butler-Davis
Staff Reporter

In August 2008, China’s most anticipated anti-monopoly law was finally introduced; it was only thirteen years in the making. This law will provide an inclusive framework that will help regulate competition and prevent monopolistic behavior.

Despite its use of vague language, there are still many unanswered questions such as which authority will be in charge of implementation and also there is an air of uncertainty regarding its exact applications. But apart from these questions, the law has been received well. Many law firms and observers have said it is a positive development and it will definitely be a step forward in helping China with international practices while increasing fair competition in the country.

Coca-Cola’s recent bid for China Huiyuan Juice will be the first deal to be reviewed under the new law. The deal is being closely monitored by the M&A community and this will help give everyone a clearer idea of how the new law will actually be implemented.

Coca-Cola offered to buy China Huiyuan Juice in early September for $2.3 billion. Those involved in the process mentioned that the key to a speedy approved deal will in fact be the definition of the market that will be most affected by the deal and the submission of extensive documentation that must include details such as the impact on the competition.

This deal in particular had to determine whether it would be the whole beverage market that would be affected or only the juice or cola sections. A legal source that would like to remain un-named said that whether we take pure juice or cola separately or take an overview of both markets. In the end, Coca-Cola’s take over of Huiyuan juice will in evidently generate monopoly concerns. But, when put into context with the whole soft drink market, the monopoly concerns will be significantly less.

In the concerns of the documentation, the legal source did suggest that the notifying company should indeed work with highly experienced lawyers when it comes to submitting the required documents. If the information you provide is in a clear and concise format, this will help dramatically when forming a rational definition of the relevant market. It will also decrease the amount of time that the Ministry of Commerce (MOCOM) takes to reach a final decision.

Coca-Cola’s legal adviser is Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom while Huiyuan Juice has appointed Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
In the Anti-Monopoly Law, clause number 23 instructs the notifying companies to submit a total of five documents. These documents include, an extensive report on the competition situation in the relevant market in question, this report is extremely important when determining an outcome of the review.

The legal source explained that is the relevant market defined in the report is too large, it could actually delay the MOCOM to review it. However, if the market outline is too small, the MOCOM could actually block the deal because of monopoly concerns.

An official of MOCOM commented on the market competition report and said that it should be quite detailed but carefully measured. The report should include an analysis of barriers to the market entry and also a breakdown of the market share. In a nutshell, the more detailed and complete the report is the better of it is to succeed.

The MOCOM explained how they have often had to ask for extra documentation because the initial report has not had enough depth to it. A Shaghai lawyer, who has experience in antitrust notification, said that supplementary documentation requests are the main reason why most of the antitrust reviews are delayed by the MOCOM.

Since the new law has only just been hatched, the rules, guidelines and processes attached to it are still being a work in progress. Also, its effectiveness on the Chinese M&A activity can not be completely estimated yet.

Therefore, Coca-Cola is being watched like a hawk at the moment, in the hope to give some insight into the future application of this legal development.

Sorting out the Pork

Amber Butler-Davis (Staff Reporter)

In late September, local meat processors were warned that the ban of pork importation could be imposed by the Department of Agriculture. This ban could highly affect the supply of meat products especially so close to the holiday season. The Daily Inquirer stated how the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (PAMPI) asked Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap to immediately life the suspension of veterinary quarantine clearance (VCQ) processing for pork import applications for manufacturing-grade parts of pork in the soonest possible so we can catch up our inventory build up of processed meats intended for the holiday season.

Earlier in September, Yap ordered the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) to suspend the VCQ from distributing pork, this came in the response to the appeal of Representative Nicanor Briones and an “influential group of hog raisers.” Apparently, Briones is blaming PAMPI for imported pork being present at wet markets.

Local meat processors have raised their concerns about the suspension of pork importation and how it was made without conducting a dialogue between PAMPI members and the hog raisers, or the DA and BAI, or among the three parties.

In letter from PAMPI to Yap it stated how “It is fearful to think that the DA would actually decide to sacrifice the meat processing industry so that you could submit to the pressures that Congressman Briones and the hog raisers have applied upon your department.” PAMPI explains how the suspension of pork importation will affect the delivery and manufacturing- grade parts which are needed by meat processors in the industry. These pieces include pork bellies, fats, offal and skin/rind.

In the meantime, the BAI has showed data that explains how pork importation has reached over 83,000 metric tons since the 13th of September. In 2007 at the same time pork importation had only reached 79,381 tons. While the pork import value does seem quite high this year PAMPI explains how this can not trace the importation of the manufacturing-grade pork parts alone.

Instead, the group has claimed that the high quantity of pork importation this year is however due to the increase in the shipments of cuts that meat processors do not import. PAMPI has noted that the importation of pork cuts alone had in fact reached 23.76 million kilo in August 2008.

Bejing Correspondent

Premier: “Govt responsible in tainted milk incident”

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has agreed that his government is partly responsible for the tainted milk. The Premier is particularly concerned about the industry regulation and that this incident will be handled seriously and will make sure that lessons will be learnt from it.

In an interview with Bruce Alberts, the editor in chief of the Science Magazine of the United States, the Premier stated that his government will strengthen legislation in every phase of food production. From the farm to the dinner table is now put under strict supervising according to the law. Important steps in making milk products, production of raw milk, collection, transportation, processing and making formula all should have clear standards and testing requirements plus corresponding and legal responsibilities. But it seems that the government was not regularly checking to see if these steps were being practiced.

Wen told Alberts that it is absolutely impermissible to sacrifice people’s health and lives in exchange for temporary economic development. The Premier strongly believes that his government will be able to successfully lead the people through the difficulties caused by the tainted milk incident. The government is also looking into and is going to draw up plans for the revival of China’s food industry. The Premier has vowed to make the ‘made in China’ brand safe again.

In late September, Beijing tried to restore confidence after an outburst of reports said that the industrial chemical melamine had been found in milk product. However, after testing 47 different brands of milk and other dairy products and finding not a trace of the chemical that has made nearly 53,000 children sick, the Premier has now vowed to ensure that the ‘Made in China’ brand will be safe for consumers at home and internationally.

The Premier feels that his government will be able to make the whole ‘Made in China’ brand worry-free and reputable for not only the Chinese market but also for the people around the world. China has been desperately trying to contain the information of the contaminated milk scandal because it has had a global repercussion. Many countries around the world have been rushing to ban or even stop importing dairy products from China.

By the 26th of September, the European Union had decided to stop importing baby food that contained traces of milk and Hong Kong had ordered a recall for two of the products that were found positive when tested for the industrial chemical melamine, surprisingly one of those brands was Heinz baby food.

Even though China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision told AFP the following day that they had checked another 296 different dairy products from brands across the country’s major cities and that none of these products contained traces of the chemical. The EU and Hong Kong are sticking with the ban of milk products from China. And can you blame them. Over 7,000 tons of contaminated dairy products have been removed from shops across China.
China’s Commerce Minister, Chen Deming made a statement on the central government website saying that it is extremely important to restore the confidence of consumers, especially those interested in the countries milk product brands. The only way that this can be achieved is through effective monitoring and detection
Still, 176 new cases have emerged from China claiming that children have fallen ill after drinking the contaminated milk. Shanghai authourities also revealed that nearly five percent of children under the age of three have shown symptoms for possible kidney stones after being fed milk powder products tainted with the industrial chemical. Taiwan has reported that three young children had developed kidney stones and one of the children’s mother had also fallen ill after drinking Chinese milk formula. Plus in Hong Kong, five cases have been reported of children falling ill from drinking the tainted milk products.
Professors at Lanzhou University in Northwest China are working around the clock to perfect a newly developed chemical substance that will be able to detect the industrial chemical melamine quickly and cheaply. Any dairy farmer can use the substance and it will detect any traces of melamine within 20 minutes. The government in Gansu province was the ones to ask the university id they would be able to develop such a substance.
Hopefully, China will be able to export their milk and dairy products soon without having to place such warning labels like ‘Keep out of reach from children’ or instead of ‘may contain traces of nuts’ we could be finding such labels as ‘may contain traces of melamine’

Osaka Bureau

Fad in Japana take off like no other place on the planet. Take the craze of deco-tora sweeping the transport carriers of the country. Trucks lit up like Christmas trees or Manilla Jeepneys gone mad are to be found at night in every road side servo.

And now the whole place has gone Bananas! Literally. It is very difficult to find a shop with an adequate stock of bananas in Japan because of the “banana diet” craze. Normally stores can hardly get rid of this boringly classified fruit but the new banana diet has taken grip to such a degree that the importers can no longer get sufficient supply.

Getting out and about in Japan you would wonder why the population by and large the anithesis of obese and hardly weighing in more than 40 Kg dripping wet would want a diet. But that seems on the surface as the fast food rage has got the better of the younger people.

According to one credit card issuing company employee Ryuji Yamamoto “after college I simply put on the kilos. I tried every sport and ran every morning before work but the kilos came off in grams and not very many. After trying the banana diet for less than a year he lost over 12 kilograms!

This was due to a colleague recommending a breakfast of only raw bananas and water which supposedly boosts the metabolism so well that one can eat or drink almost everything for the rest of the day. However nutritionists claim that the diet is questionable and there is no clinical evidence to support it.

“Bananas and water for breakfast can hardly do any hard though”, they said.

Yamamoto said “it’s easy and cheap and far better than having to find time in my busy day to work out.”

Needless to say the best selling books in Japan now are banana diet books, as if one would need to read up on it but obviously so as one particular version has sold more than half a million copies!

Of course a Japanese businessman would seriously have to change habits away from after office drinking sessions; late night train rides home; a half hearted attempt at a midnight dinner before slouching on the tatami and of course a carefully balanced diet and regular excercise is well known to be the best thing for you.

Well the best of us can only go bananas for a short time. Peel it and see!.