Manganese Bronze Holdings – the maker of London’s showcase black taxis – said it has finalized a joint venture contract with Geely to produce black cabs, a limousine and two large sedans in Shanghai, the Shanghai Business Journal reported. According to a statement released by Manganese, the deal was finalized when 5.7 million new ordinary shares issued to Linkstate Overseas Ltd, a subsidiary of Geely, started trading at the London Stock Exchange. Geely will own a 23% stake in the joint venture. Manganese announced last October that it would outsource the production of London cabs in an effort to curb overhead costs.

The central government will scrap or slash export rebates on over 2,831 types of goods to cut its escalating trade surplus and ease worsening tensions with its trading partners, the China Business Journal reported. Export rebates will be removed from 553 polluting and energy-consuming goods, including salt, cement, fertilizer and leather products, from July 1. Export rebates on nearly 2,268 low value-added goods will be reduced, including toys and textiles that are popular in America and Europe. The move comes as US lawmakers consider legislation imposing exponentially increasing tariffs on Chinese goods to overcome what they claim is an unfair trade advantage due to the artificially undervalued Chinese currency. China’s May trade surplus hit US$22.45 billion.

Singapore will lose its title as the world’s busiest port to Shanghai next year, the Singapore-based Straits Times reported. However, Singapore – which surpassed Hong Kong as the world’s busiest container port in 2005 – will keep its title as the world’s key transshipment hub. Transshipment cargo is unloaded from a ship and then loaded onto another vessel right away, typically destined for a smaller port. Shanghai overtook Hong Kong as the world’s second busiest container port in the first quarter of this year.

The director-general of the WTO, Pascal Lamy, is visiting Beijing to resume strained global trade talks, China Economy reported. In an interview prior to his arrival, Lamy said developing countries should contribute to the trade talks in order that they can be concluded in the next six to nine months. Delegations from the US, the EU, India and Brazil will meet in Germany next week to talk about possible compromise solutions to the stalled Doha Round, which kicked off in 2001 to promote international trade between developed and developing economies. The talks were suspended due to disagreements over agricultural subsidies and tariffs. Lamy said WTO member states needed to reach an interim consensus on slashing subsidies and tariffs before further talks could take place.