The duties were imposed after Australia conducted an investigation into dumping accusations levelled at Indonesia’s products.

The action will most likely put on hold both countries’ commitment to seal a free trade agreement by the end of this year, an issue that has become more and more sensitive.

In April, Australia said it would apply a dumping fee on A4 paper imported from Indonesia and three other countries.

The move led to a decline in Indonesia’s paper exports to the country of up to 36.8 per cent.

Indonesia responded by filing the complaint on September 1.

Pradnyawati, the Trade Ministry’s director for trade security, said Indonesia had tried a diplomatic approach to solve the problem, but Australia offered no response and kept going on with its investigation.

“Therefore, the Indonesian government decided to take the issue to the WTO,” she said as quoted by kontan.co.id.

“When oil prices decline heavily, it makes many oil exploration companies hesitate and put their projects on hold,” Meng Saktheara, secretary of state at the Ministry of Mines and Energy, said.

Cambodia has divided the country and its territorial waters into six offshore oil blocks and 19 onshore blocks for oil and gas exploration.

It has also assigned blocks in the overlapping claims area (OCA), a disputed maritime territory covering nearly 27,000 square kilometres in the Gulf of Thailand.

Of Cambodia’s six offshore blocks A-F, Block A is the most advanced in terms of exploration and production plans, and contains the country’s only proven oil discovery.

Singapore-listed KrisEnergy, which holds a 95-per-cent interest in Block A, signed a production-sharing agreement (PSA) with the government last month that is expected to pave the way to developing the block’s Apsara oil field, where oil was discovered in 2005.

KrisEnergy estimates that it can recover 8.5 million barrels of oil from a single platform during the project’s first phase, with extraction to begin in late 2019 or early 2020.

Company representatives have said that with additional platforms KrisEnergy could likely achieve the government’s ambitious projection of recovering 30 million barrels of oil over nine years.

According to Saktheara, all licences for the other five offshore blocks have been revoked after the operators failed to make progress in exploring them. Cambodia’s 19 onshore blocks I to XIX are even less developed, with only three contracts officially granted for exploration, and just one still in play.

Saktheara said the concession licence for Block XV, awarded to Vietnamese state-owned oil and gas firm PetroVietnam in 2009, remains in effect despite the company’s inactivity. “The company has not been active since early 2017, and there is no noticeable progress,” he said.

According to Saktheara, the low price of oil in the global market, as well as the long time it took to conclude the PSA with KrisEnergy, discouraged companies from sinking capital into exploring Cambodia’s oil potential. But the development of Block A could renew interest.

“I expect that when offshore Block A will start operations [extracting oil], this will reboot attention in the other blocks,” he said.

The provisional concessions awarded in the OCA remained in effect, although exploration of the blocks was subject to resolution of a long-running maritime border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand, he said.

“The acquisition is in line with Japan Tobacco Group’s geographic expansion for sustainable growth.

“It also provides a nationwide distribution network in the Philippines and strengthens the group’s brand portfolio with the addition of local brands such as Mighty and Marvels,” JTI said in a statement on Thursday.

JTI said it bought 46.8 billion pesos in assets of Bulacan-based Mighty.

It added that the transaction will not have any material impact on Japan Tobacco Group’s consolidated performance for fiscal 2017.

JTI’s products are sold in more than 120 countries. Its popular brands are Camel, LD, Mevius, Natural American Spirit and Winston.

Last week, the Philippine Competition Commission approved JTI’s acquisition of Mighty, which the anti-trust body said was “not likely to result in anti-competitive effects in the market”.

“There appears to be no ability nor incentive for the parties to engage in anti-competitive coordinated behaviour. Sufficient competitive constraints remain from other market participants after the sale,” the PCC said.

“In the transaction, JTI Philippines will own the sales and distribution network, manufacturing and equipment and inventories of Mighty, while Japan Tobacco International, an affiliate of JTI Philippines, will own the trademarks and associated intellectual property of Mighty and Wong Chu King Holdings Inc.

“JTI Philippines is a company engaged in the business of importation, manufacturing, distribution and marketing on wholesale basis of tobacco products, while JTI is a global company engaged in the manufacture and sale of tobacco products,” the PCC also said.

The governor of the islands, Gus Jaspert, said in a message to the archipelago, whose 28,000 inhabitants took the full force of the mega-storm, that there had “sadly been reports of casualties and fatalities”.

Britain sent a C-17 military transport plane with 50 troops and humanitarian aid on board, heading to Barbados and the British Virgin Islands, while another was to head to the Caribbean later Friday, officials said.

A military ship is also nearby offering assistance, while another laden with more aid has been diverted from the Mediterranean.

This photo shows soldiers making final checks to equipment before it is loaded at the Joint Air Mounting Centre (JAMC) in South Cerney, southwest England on September 8, 2017. // AFP PHOTO

Sharon Flax-Brutus, director of tourism for the British Virgin Islands, said that the damage was difficult to assess because communications were down, but that “many homes are without roofs, or have been diminished to merely foundations”.

Teresa Brooks, a 23-year-old photographer in London, said her family on nearby Anguilla, another self-governing British territory hit by the storm, reported a “complete disaster”.

“The hospital is not functioning properly as it lost its roof during the hurricane and started to flood. The majority of the schools have been complete destroyed,” she told AFP in an email.

“Shops have been destroyed as well so there will be no food available. The majority of the poles for electricity have been destroyed so there will be no power for months.

“Tourism — which is Anguilla’s main industry — will be down for months as most hotels have been destroyed and so there will be no income for many months.”

In Turks and Caicos, another British territory struck by the hurricane, the disaster agency said on Twitter: “National shutdown has been declared. All residents and tourists are instructed to stay indoors.”

– Response too slow? –

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the impact of the storm had been “absolutely devastating”, telling BBC radio: “Everything, for some people, has been destroyed.”

On Thursday her government increased the aid budget for Irma to #32 million ($42 million, 35 million euros) from an initial #12 million.

The military ship Mounts Bay visited Anguilla on Thursday, where Royal Marines and army engineers helped clear the airport runway and restore power and communication services.

This photo shows emergency medical equipment before it is loaded at the Joint Air Mounting Centre (JAMC) in South Cerney, southwest England on September 8, 2017. // AFP PHOTO

The ship, which was sent to the area before the hurricane hit, was due to deliver tents and water purifying equipment to the British Virgin Islands on Friday.

HMS Ocean, a second ship, has been diverted from the Mediterranean to take further supplies to the Caribbean, including 10,000 buckets for water purification and 5,000 solar lanterns.

But some islanders criticised Britain’s relief efforts as too slow.

Dorothea Hodge, a former government official in Anguilla, told The Guardian it was “absolutely disgraceful” it had taken so long for London to respond.

And barrister Josephine Gumbs-Connor, who also lives in Anguilla, told BBC radio she was “very disappointed”.

“We have huge trees and some of our oldest trees are still lying across the roads, roads are remaining impassable,” she said.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said: “We believe that we were swift to respond and we continue to get humanitarian aid to people in desperate need.”

Foreign Office figures show there are currently 88,000 British citizens in the British Overseas Territories of Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands and the Turks and Caicos islands.

Hurricane Irma has been ripping through the Caribbean since Wednesday, with its violent winds and torrential rains leaving a trail of devastation and killing 12 as it hurtles towards the United States, where up to a million people have been told to flee.

Debris and trash is seen on a beach in Cap-Haitien on September 7, 2017, as Hurricane Irma approaches. // AFP PHOTO

Alejandro Murat told local television that 17 of the deaths were recorded in the southeastern town of Juchitan.

The quake hit offshore in the Pacific at 11:49 pm (0449 GMT) about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the coastal town of Tonala in far southern Chiapas state, Mexico’s seismologic service said.

With the monster storm expected to reach the American south by the weekend, coastal areas of Florida and Georgia were battening down the hatches and carrying out the biggest evacuation since 2005.

“The entire southeastern United States better wake up and pay attention,” warned US federal emergency chief Brock Long. “It will be truly devastating.”

Barreling across the Caribbean, the rare Category Five storm laid waste to a series of tiny islands like St Martin, where 60 per cent of homes were wrecked, before slamming the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

As it raged westwards, Irma packed winds of up to 185 miles per hour (295 kilometres per hour), an intensity it sustained for 33 hours — the longest of any storm since satellite monitoring began in the 1970s.

On many islands, violent winds had ripped roofs or facades off homes and businesses, tossing cars and even shipping containers aside like matchsticks.

So far, 1.2 million people have been affected by Irma, the International Red Cross said.

But that number looks set to rise — possibly reaching as many as 26 million.

– Six more deaths –

===================

At least two people were killed in Puerto Rico, a senior rescue official said.

More than half of the territory’s population of three million was without power, with rivers breaking their banks in the centre and north of the island.

Ahead of the storm, Governor Ricardo Rossello activated the National Guard and opened storm shelters sufficient for up to 62,000 people.

Another four people were killed on the US Virgin Islands, with the governor’s office saying a number of badly injured people had been airlifted to Puerto Rico.

St Martin, a pristine island resort divided between France and the Netherlands, also suffered the full fury of the storm.

France said four had died and 50 were injured, two of them seriously. Officials also said six out of 10 homes were so badly damaged that they were uninhabitable.

Insurance officials in Paris believe the cost of storm damage on France’s Caribbean islands to be well over 200 million euros ($240 million).

On the Dutch side of the island, one person died and several others were wounded, officials said.

Both France and the Netherlands have quickly mobilized to join in search and rescue efforts and provide food and water to their respective citizens.

Britain also said the hurricane had caused “great devastation” in the British Virgin Islands, with foreign minister Boris Johnson saying London had sent teams there to distribute aid.

Two British warships have also been deployed to help as the storm heads for Turks and Caicos, an archipelago of around 30 islands that is a self-governing part of the United Kingdom.

– Tourists evacuated –

======================

Irma also laid waste to tiny Barbuda which suffered “absolute devastation,” with up to 30 per cent of properties demolished, Prime Minister Gaston Browne said.

Rescue teams were scouring the island for survivors, an AFP correspondent said, as some 300 people without shelter were evacuated to Antigua.

One person died on the island of 1,600 residents, apparently a child whose family was trying to get to safer ground.

As of early Friday, the eye of the storm was just north of Great Inagua, at the southern tip of the Bahamas.

As the storm swept past Haiti, people were largely left to face the hurricane’s fury alone as authorities showed little sign of preparing for what forecasters said could be a catastrophic event.

In the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, torrential rain and powerful winds whipped the northern and eastern coasts, leaving 17 districts cut offs as rivers burst their banks, emergency officials said.

Nearly 20,000 people were evacuated from their homes and more than 100 houses were destroyed.

Meanwhile in Cuba, some 10,000 foreign tourists were evacuated from beach resorts and officials hiked the disaster alert level to maximum.

– ‘Walking the plank’ –

=======================

Florida is expecting to face the brunt of the hurricane from Sunday, with forecasters warning of storm surges of up to 25 feet (almost eight metres) above normal tide levels.

Tourists in the popular Key West islands were packing their bags on a mandatory evacuation order, with a similar order for residents due to follow.

“We can’t save you once the storm starts,” Governor Rick Scott told a press conference.

After going for a walk along the beach in Miami, theology professor James Nickolos, 69, said there was a sense of impending doom.

“I had the feeling of watching a great beauty walking on a gang-plank to their death,” he said.

Trump said he was “very concerned” about the situation but insisted that Florida was “as well prepared” as possible for the storm.

As Irma cut through the Caribbean, two other storms in the region were upgraded to hurricane status: Jose in the Atlantic Ocean and Katia in the Gulf of Mexico.

Katia, a Category One storm, is expected to hit the coast of the Mexican state of Veracruz sometime on Friday.

Jose, which is following Irma’s path and was located east of the Lesser Antilles late on Thursday, strengthened to a Category Three event, packing winds of up to 120 miles per hour, the US National Hurricane Center said.

The quake hit offshore in the Pacific about 120 kilometers (75 miles) southwest of the town of Tres Picos in far southern Chiapas state, the USGS said.

“Based on all available date … widespread hazardous tsunami waves are forecast for some coasts,” the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

“Tsunami waves reaching more than three meters above the tide level are possible along the coasts of Mexico,” it said, with lower waves in other countries.

The tsunami warning was for the coasts of Mexico, down through Central America into Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama and Honduras, and as far south as Ecuador.

The quake was felt in Mexico City, where people ran out of buildings after hearing earthquake warning sirens go off.

It was not immediately known if there were casualties.

The quake was also felt in much of Guatemala, which borders Chiapas.

The quake struck at a depth of 33 kilometers (21 miles), the USGS said.

Asean members are diplomatically connected to North Korea and have faced increasing US “requests” to implement more sanctions against the country and to join the United Nation Security Council in expressing concern.

While Asean is also connected with North Korea through the Asean Regional Forum dialogue, the recent meeting in the Philippines had not proven to be fruitful, said veteran columnist Kiatchai Pongpanich at a seminar at Thammasat University.

“Asean is indeed in a tight spot,” Kiatchai said. “It should be remembered that North Korea tension is also linked with China, on whom North Korea is dependent.”

China, a regional partner and a rival with Asean regarding South China Sea conflicts, does not want North Korea to break down, which would result in many of its 25 million people fleeing across the border to China.

Asean will take time to make a move, including regarding negotiations. However, Asean’s earlier agreements had been effective to help Thailand position itself while avoiding excessive pressure, Kiatchai said.

Those agreements include the Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality signed in 1971 and the Treaty on Southeast Asia Nuclear WeaponFree Zone signed in 1995. Both had solidified Asean’s stance on nuclear nonproliferation while maintaining neutrality on other issues, he said.

Asean would also have to balance itself carefully as North Korea succeeds in testing and developing its intercontinental ballistic missiles and what appears to be a hydrogen bomb.

The ongoing crisis, Kiatchai said, was rooted in the unsuccessful international measures taken against North Korea, proving that sanctions and the sixparty talks had not worked.

Damrong Thandee, director to Ramkhamhaeng University’s Centre for Korean Studies, said North Korea could also seek funding from Russia and other channels, sustaining it despite UN sanctions.

The North Korea issue was a balancing game between China and the US, he said. While the US tended to ensure that North Korea would have a limited role in the international arena given its nuclear weapon proliferation, China made sure that no country initiated a preemptive strike against North Korea, Damrong said.

“The likely scene could be that these provocations will be done along with more talks,” he said. “Both the US President Donald Trump and North Korean Kim Jongun are very unpredictable.

“The US might adopt containment as was used with Iran, and that could as well become a modern example for other countries,” he added.