Trade conferees debate medicine for poor nations

DOHA, Qatar >> Midway through the World Trade Organ-ization's five-day session, mini-sters got down to hard bargain-ing yesterday with some move-ment on at least one of their most divisive issues: ensuring access to medicines for poor countries.

They also paused to accept Taiwan's membership, a day after approving rival China.

Under a 1992 agreement, Taiwan could not join before China, which considers the island to be a breakaway province. For WTO purposes, Taiwan is classified as a "separate customs territory."

Meanwhile, members of the European Union and other countries were seeking to bridge the gap between the United States, Switzerland, Japan and Canada -- worried about undermining their pharma-ceutical industries -- and devel-oping countries led by Brazil and India, who charge strict pat-ent enforcement denies lifesav-ing drugs to poor countries.

Japan's economy shrinks only 0.7% in April-June

TOKYO >> The Japanese government announced today that the world's second-biggest economy shrank 0.7 percent in real terms during the second quarter, slightly less than an 0.8 percent contraction indicated by preliminary data two months ago.

The revised April-June data reflected a slightly smaller-than-expected drop in corporate investment, the Cabinet Office said.

But the figures still paint a picture of an economy that remains stuck in a decade-long slump and are expected to increase pressure on Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to step back from a campaign pledge to limit deficit spending.

Merger would create sixth-largest air carrier

TOKYO >> Two of Japan's largest airlines are close to a merger that would create the world's No. 6 carrier in terms of annual passenger miles flown, news reports said yesterday.

Japan Airlines Inc., the world's eighth-biggest airline, and regional carrier Japan Air System Inc. plan to merge their operations under a holding company in the fall of 2002, the Nihon Keizai financial daily reported, without citing sources. They hope to finalize the deal by the end of this year and have it approved by shareholders next June, it said.

Other Japanese news media carried similar reports.

JAL spokesman Geoffrey Tudor said today that the com-panies are discussing a merger.

JAS spokesman Teichi Murayama said late yesterday that the two airlines were discussing methods of making their management more efficient, but said he was unaware of any merger talks.