Search Results for: Canadian

Speaking at the event on Friday (Feb 17), Mark Carney, UN special envoy for climate action and finance, and former central bank governor for the UK and Canada, said of the baseline: “It’s critical. You need compatible information.”  

Mr Carney stressed ongoing discussions between the ISSB and major jurisdictions, such as the EU (European Union), the USA and Japan, about the need for regulatory harmony.…

Yes, Canada’s respected 75-year-old first ever indigenous Governor General should sue Elon Musk for defamation, as owner of Twitter, which published these untrue and poisonous comments.

Twitter and Musk made money from them – they attracted eyeballs, which boosted ad clicks, and boosted the social media site’s profile.…

Higher education institutions are being warned they could be a target for money laundering, with fees being financed by the proceeds of crime, including corruption, which might also buy property, cars and other items for students.

The problem has been highlighted in a series of reports.…

The new National Security Law imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong last June (2020) (1) has added a new dimension to money laundering requirements in the special administrative region (SAR), as banks and other institutions now find themselves required to flag cash movements by figures deemed as ‘secessionist’ under the new law.…

British and Swiss banks have been fined a total of EUR344 million for operating a cartel coordinating their foreign exchange (forex) spot trades of the world’s 11 most important currencies – USD, EUR, GBP, Japanese Yen, Swiss francs; Canadian, Australian and New Zealand dollars; Danish and Norwegian krone and Swedish Kroner.…

Opposition is mounting outside the Big Three US auto manufacturers to proposed federal tax credits for electric vehicle purchases within proposed House of Representatives and Senate versions of the Build Back Better Act.

With a House vote maybe happening this week, representatives of foreign-owned and non-union manufacturers as well as the Canadian and Mexican governments, are pushing for changes to the tax credit packages under discussion.…

The executive director of the Chamber of the Textile and Apparel Industry, of El Salvador (CAMTEX – Cámara de la Industria Textil) has told Just Style how her manufacturing hub is seizing market opportunities growing as Covid-19 ebbs.

Patricia Figueroa, who has been in her job since 2015, also highlighted the challenges the Salvadoran clothing and textile industry will tackle in 2021-22, with CAMTEX’s help.…

THE CANADIAN auto parts sector is likely to suffer should the Trump administration go ahead with plans to impose escalating duties on Mexican exports to the USA to force Mexico to further restrict immigration into America.

With President Donald Trump yesterday (June 5) claiming talks with the Mexican government have been insufficiently productive, the US is poised to impose 5% duties on all imports from Mexico on June 10.…

The increasing decriminalisation and legalisation of cannabis as a recreational and medicinal substance has encouraged the liberalisation of hemp as a fibre crop, whose use in some jurisdictions had been restricted because of laws against the plant’s chemically-active ingredients.

This is starting to change, most notably in the USA, which used to have severe anti-marijuana laws, but which now has 18 states that have legalised recreational cannabis use.…

While the Arab world certainly has a political culture of its own, there are many universal human truths that its politics shares with the rest of the globe, even if – perhaps – tensions can be more intense in this region than others.…

The Covid-19 pandemic has delivered experience about how an external crisis – in this case health – that forces AML officers to work at home, poses challenges in maintaining professional excellence. According to the Bank for International Settlements’ Financial Stability Institute an estimated 300 million office workers worked from home in May 2020, including 90% of banking and insurance workers.…

INTRODUCTION

The concept of bespoke tailoring and couture has long been regarded as the apex of clothing and textile making, given that it matches a garment closely to its wearer and intended use. Until now, such personal apparel has inevitably been expensive, given runs are individualised – indeed, bespoke has been the antithesis of mass-produced fast fashion.…

INTRODUCTION

Financial crime is a minefield for the international textile and clothing industry. With extended international supply chains extending into jurisdictions where the rule of law and a reliable independent judiciary may have a weak hold, if they exist at all, textile and clothing brands and manufacturers must take care.…

An anticipated surge in supply and demand for renewable diesel, fuel that is chemically identical to its fossil fuel predecessor, is likely to cause major disruption to the American vegetable oil market and industry, notably soy.

With the US government and certain states regarding renewable diesel as a swift way to further reduce carbon emissions and meet Paris agreement climate change targets, the prospects for major additional purchases of soybeans within the American domestic market are very real.…

The question of when and whether lobbying is ethically questionable or even a criminal bribe is a complex issue, with rules varying according to jurisdictions. Often, actions that are politically embarrassing, are definitely not bribes, or indeed unlawful in anyway. For example, on September 15, Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney survived a no-confidence vote in the Dáil Éireann over his handling of the appointment of former minister for children Katherine Zappone as his country’s ‘Special Envoy to the UN on Freedom of Opinion and Expression’.…

The question of when and whether lobbying is ethically questionable or even a criminal bribe is a complex issue, with rules varying according to jurisdictions. Often, actions that are politically embarrassing, are definitely not bribes, or indeed unlawful in anyway. For example, on September 15, Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney survived a no-confidence vote in the Dáil Éireann over his handling of the appointment of former minister for children Katherine Zappone as his country’s ‘Special Envoy to the UN on Freedom of Opinion and Expression’.…

TEXTILE and clothing products sold in Canada may have significant proportions of imports, but the country does retain an important digital textile printing capacity.

Covid-19, however, has changed the market according to researchers and companies working in the sector.

“Daily, I hear comments from clients that they want to keep their business local, and that they do not want to go offshore,” said Joe Scout, sales executive at Toronto-based Club Ink, manufacturers of film industry wardrobe costumes and digitally-printed (largely non-textile) display solutions and.…

Even though life has been increasingly lived online during the Covid-19 pandemic, there is still a significant market for hardware surveillance devices, including those that are covert, with recording devices hidden in everyday objects, such as pens, watches, even water bottles.…

INTRODUCTION

Until now, the use of sensors within garments has been regarded as a specialist technical exercise, usually as a means of delivering medical information to doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals. However, production advances, especially the integration of sensors within yarns using nanotech and conductive fibre is opening up a wider range of more user-friendly functions that could bring sensor tech to the mass consumer market.…

As Canada’s auto market emerges from its Covid-19-inspired slump, new vehicle sales are competing against increased demand for used vehicles, as inventories remain tight and prices rise across the board.

Canadian used vehicle prices have tracked upwards steadily in the past 10 years, according to data from JD Power (1), inching towards 110% of 1998 levels by early last year.…

AMERICA has long been the global policeman of international sanctions, including breaches of AML rules, but evidence suggests that the US dollar’s use in international transactions could be weakening and is having to compete with the rising power of crypto currencies.…

The under-developed system of higher education of African archipelago country São Tomé & Príncipe is growing slowly amidst expanding demand, being assisted by international projects and funds.
One major potential initiative that may cause significant progress, however, involves this Lusophone country being chosen by the Pan African Institute for Development (PAID) to host a future International University of Development Sciences.…

INTRODUCTION

Graphene has been hailed as a wonder material by its promoters – and for once in the tarnished history of scientific hyperbole – these claims seem to have significant merit. The reality is that graphene does not only offer textile manufacturers the ability to improve the functionality of their products, it helps them achieve this in an environmentally sustainable way.…

One of the many downsides of the Covid-19 pandemic has been the inspiration for cyber-criminals to develop new ways of attacking computer users at their home, especially when working remotely. European police agency Europol reported in its annual cybercrime report released last October (2020) that business email compromise fraud and phishing had expanded significantly in frequency and variety since Covid-19 took hold last March (2020).…

The world’s anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) system has come a long way since the G7 group of nations decided to launch the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in July 1989. But Australian researchers have claimed AML/CFT compliance costs USD300 billion and only nets USD3 billion of an estimated USD3 trillion in criminal funds generated annually (a 0.1% success rate).…

CANADIAN auto dealers, whose sales of high-tech vehicles maybe hampered by safety concerns linked to hacking and computer viruses, are being assisted by a new university cyber-protection unit allied to parts-makers.

The SHIELD Automotive Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence is based at the University of Windsor, just over the Detroit River, and will work with Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturing Association (APMA), with whom it has signed a memorandum of understanding.…

A PUBLIC inquiry in British Columbia, Canada, has increased concerns about how auto dealers maybe exploited by criminal networks to launder dirty money. Purchasers can be prepared to pay high prices for vehicles in cash, with dealers struggling to identify the source of these funds.…

THE WIDE diversity of AML laws worldwide can complicate the enforcement of AML/CFT extradition proceedings.

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations 37 and 39 say that governments should be prepared to extradite money launderers (and terrorist financiers) to another country if they both criminalise the underlying predicate offence.…

There is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has fuelled the black-market trade in illicit and smuggled licit tobacco products. The disease has depressed income and forced lower income smokers to look for cheap smokes, which has included counterfeits or smuggled goods.…

INTRODUCTION

NEW technology can deliver effective maintenance strategies to clothing and textile manufacturers, helping them go beyond reactive and proactive maintenance, moving into the more sophisticated world of prediction. The goal is to deliver an optimum maintenance strategy that enables manufacturers to get the most value out of their plant and equipment by spending the least amount of time, resources and money to deliver effective performance.…

SINGLE use plastics bans being brought in across the world may not cover all nonwovens products, but they certainly are having an impact on the industry as it parses often complex rules coming into force.

A key piece of legislation is the European Union’s (EU) so-called ‘single use plastics directive’ (1) which has deadlines passing in 2021.…

WHEN governments talk about how to reduce the risk of terrorism, the most oft-voiced policies are security-based: detecting and cracking down on extremist cells and targeting online propaganda.

But the reality is that a more effective way of reducing societies’ exposure to criminal groups seeking to achieve political ends through violence and fear is simply to make regular life more interesting.…

CANADIAN auto sales experts have warned that aftermarket supply chains, including parts for repairs, must be guaranteed to boost consumer confidence about buying EVs in this vast unevenly populated country. With rural drivers maybe scores of miles from a repair shop, motorists fearing delays for EV parts to arrive, may be reluctant to switch from combustion engine vehicles, say marketing experts.…

Traditionally a society of meat lovers, Russians are now developing a taste for vegetable and cereal-based products that reflect the taste and texture of meat – food manufacturers are eager to cater to this trend.

International companies have been entering this segment in Russia, while ambitious local startups are rapidly expanding their production capacities.…

THE CANADIAN automobile sector has called on the country’s provinces to better coordinate efforts to increase demand for electric vehicles. This follows the Québec government announcing a ban on local sales of new combustion-driven cars, SUVs and pick-ups from 2035.

While the ban would not apply to most commercial vehicles and used-auto sales, and hybrid sales and use might still be allowed, Brian Kingston, the new president and CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association (CVMA), fears this policy might not achieve its goal: to promote EV sales: “You need a plan, not a ban,” he told wardsauto.…

COVID-19 and the expansion of home-based working it has forged has posed significant challenges to AML/CFT training and mentoring. As a result, vendors, AML bodies and experts have been developing new services and strategies to ensure that AML officers keep their skills honed during the pandemic.…

THE QUESTION of whether governments should charge AML/CFT levies on designated professions and financial institutions to help fund public agencies fighting dirty and terror money flows is a sensitive topic, given STR designation already imposes operational costs on such businesses. Indeed, they may also have to pay for membership of bodies who assess their AML/CFT performance and of course fund government AML/CFT work through general taxation.…

AS every small business owner knows, marketing and sales is a tough task, especially when the day-to-day delivery of services to existing clients takes up so much time. Hiring a full-time marketer is also beyond the means of most small businesses.…

CANADIAN automobile dealers are looking out for a potential increase in the price of vehicles that they sell on account of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which came into force on July 1 (2020).

This is likely to be fuelled by the new deal insisting that Canadian (as well as American and Mexican) auto-manufacturers may have to increase their USMCA-bloc sourcing to ensure that 75% of a vehicle’s parts are made a signatory country.…

ORGANISERS of the Canadian International AutoShow are drawing on innovative online systems to launch a unique online 2021 event, which will be staged virtually because of Covid-19.

Canada’s largest annual consumer show attracted 330,000 visitors this February, so staging the 2021 event physically was an impossible health risk until the epidemic is over, said show general manager Jason Campbell.…

USA automotive manufacturers are facing some tough choices when implementing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which entered into force on July 1, to avoid its pressure on costs being reflected in showroom price increases.

The new deal, which replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), requires US, Mexican and Canadian auto manufacturers to increase their USMCA-bloc sourcing to ensure that 75% of a vehicle’s parts are made in a signatory country to benefit from the free trade provisions.…

The Canadian government is likely to extend its ‘Incentives for Zero-Emission Vehicles’ subsidy program when it brings an economic update statement to parliament during the fall, the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) predicts.

Its Chief Economist Oumar Dicko highlighted promises within a ‘Throne Speech’ delivered on September 23 (1), outlining the Liberal government’s plans, which said it would “make zero-emissions vehicles more affordable while investing in more charging stations across the country”.…

THE WORLD has become used to large leaks of confidential data from intelligence services and banks, but the latest dump, from the files of the USA’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) may have impacts beyond the unveiling of wrongdoing. Keith Nuthall explains.…

QUANTUM computing is coming to fruition after decades of research and these new powerful systems will offer textile finishers the opportunity to develop new chemicals and products that they simply could not explore and create using classical computers.

These new computers excel in the complex calculations that are needed to model molecules, especially those from nature, whose assessment are often at the core of designing new chemical solutions that could deliver new functionality and colour to textiles.…

CANADIAN auto dealers and marques have been developing remote technologies enabling remote vehicle sales when Covid-19 social distancing restrictions impedes the physical operation of dealerships.

Even with these rules relaxing – with much of Ontario entering a ‘stage 3’ reopening from July 17, and dealerships fully open – physical distancing will still be required on premises.…

INTRODUCTION

Quantum computers were once the stuff of science fiction, the technology that was always 10 years away from fruition. But now they are real and operating. Google last October announced it had developed a device of 53-qubits (quantum computers’ ability to express a signal), nicknamed Sycamore, which it claimed in a Nature article [1] took 200 seconds to sample one instance of a quantum circuit a million times, which the IT major claimed would take 10,000 years for a state-of-the-art digital supercomputer to achieve.…

Unsettling images of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch or pristine tropical beaches desecrated with debris have promoted the trend for plastics-free goods across a wide range of economic sectors, including nonwovens, pressuring industries and policymakers to respond to the problem.…

THE EGMONT Group, the international network of financial intelligence units (FIU), is focusing on improving how its central resources and members use and interact with new technology. Interim Egmont Group chair, Hennie Verbeek-Kusters, told MLB that the group is reviewing its IT systems, of critical importance regarding the safe and encrypted exchange between its 164 member FIUs (there were 22,538 such exchanges in 2017, the most recent available data).…

THE NORTH American – especially the USA – nonwovens sector, has this year had to content with two major external impacts – the US trade war with China and the Covid-19 pandemic. New statistics from the North Carolina, USA-based Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry (INDA) have revealed a sharp decline in north American exports (including those from the USA, Canada and Mexico) to China from across north America (with the USA dominating) showed a fall in exports tonnage of 18.6% respectively year-on-year between 2019 and 2018, “led by declines in trade with China”, according to a memo from the organisation.…

CANADA’S Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association (APMA) is optimistic that the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will deliver more sustained work to the country’s supply chain once the deal comes into force on July 1. It replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), in place since 1994.…

THE POTENTIAL development of new food, liner molecules, label dyes and magnetised metals through the emerging technology of quantum computing offers benefits to the can manufacturing and filling industries. However, these companies will also need to review their IT security to ensure cyber-attacks via these powerful technologies do not disrupt their operational and financial systems and expose commercially valuable secrets to prying eyes.…

CANADA’S automotive industry associations are pressing the Canadian federal government to launch a scrappage scheme to help the country’s automotive market out of its Covid-19 related slump. The Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA), the Global Automakers of Canada (GAC) and the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association (CVMA) have made a formal proposal that the government subsidises automotive consumers by between CAD1,500 and CAD3,000 when they trade in an old vehicle and replace it with a new model.…

While the Canadian chocolate market is dominated by major manufacturers, such as Nestlé, Hershey, Mondelēz, Lindt, Mars and Ferrero – a diverse artisanal sector is growing towards commercial maturity, as consumers seek out premium products that are locally produced and often marketed to specific target customers.…

ANTI-money laundering maybe a career that financial and legal professionals increasingly follow, but the training and qualification structure for AML/CFT is still emerging and solidifying, and there are doubts whether it will ever coalesce into a formal global structure, akin to FATF recommendations.…

AS online food sales boom to aid self-isolation during the Covid-19 outbreak, the risks of counterfeiting and piracy within the food and drink sectors will become more evident. This comes as regulators are mulling tougher action to fight this commercial crime.…

Mexico’s digital textile printing industry is poised for growth as the country’s textile manufacturers bet on the technology to cut costs, meet orders faster and widen exports to Canada and the United States, efforts that have gained in importance this year as the global economy reels from the spread of the coronavirus.…

THE TREND towards consumers buying confectionery made with natural ingredients is gathering pace, with research from Germany-based international food ingredients-maker Döhler saying that worldwide more than 50% of confectionery consumers now want a “healthier” product and more than 60% “value natural ingredients”.…

THE ROLE of whistleblowers in the Americas has been given special attention in since last August, when an intelligence officer lodged a complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General about a phone call by President Donald Trump to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky pressuring him to open an investigation into alleged corruption by former vice-president Joe Biden.…

THE USE of paint and coatings by airlines is far more than the choice of an elegant trip for tail fins and fuselages. High tech coatings help aircraft operate efficiently and play an increasingly important role in helping planes fly smoothly, reducing drag and hence carbon emissions.…

While this dispute is happening thousands of kilometres away from where most Canadians (settler or indigenous) live, this dispute illustrates how tough it is to get appropriate sign-off from indigenous communities on pipeline projects and how it is underpinned by centuries’ old struggles involving indigenous Canadians.…

Global production of fibreglass is predicted to soar over the coming decade, as appreciation grows of its utility and cost effectiveness in expanding materials manufacturing sectors.

Driven by a push to increase reliance on renewable energy sources to help tackle the climate crisis, manufacturers of wind turbines are increasingly reliant on glass – and carbon – fibres to produce rotor blades, for instance.…

THE RELEASE this week of an immigration policy by the British government that is designed to emulate the points-based systems of Canada and Australia is yet another example of how Brexiteers ignore the reality that Britain is a small island off the coast of a populous and rich continent – Europe.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has called on its member States and other EU institutions to work harder to fight the scourge of food fraud, which can damage the commercial health of legitimate manufacturers and risk consumer health. In a detailed policy statement (called ‘council conclusions’ in EU jargon), ministers said an EU “legal definition of food fraud” should be created that would underpin future regulatory actions fighting such wrongdoing, which can include deliberate mislabelling and the use of illicit ingredients.…

The Canadian automotive industry has welcomed the final text of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade deal, which includes new flexibility over steel supplies to the North American automotive manufacturing industry.

David Adams, president, Global Automakers of Canada (which represents all Canadian auto manufacturers except for the Big Three), said the new amendments reflected Canadian government thinking and that now he expected “all three countries will work to ratify expeditiously….”,…

MEXICAN clothing industry experts hope that the current stand-off over the ratification of the new United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) will be solved soon, given that they expect that it will cement Mexico’s position as a major apparel exporter to the USA and Canada.…

SALES of light trucks – SUVs, CUVs, pick-ups and minivans – are rising in Canada, and the big question is how dominant this segment may become in this north American market. Sales hit 70.9% of the passenger vehicle market according to new 2018 data from Ontario-based DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc.…

The British subsidiary of French engineering giant Alstom has been fined GBP15 million (USD19.37 million) plus GBP1.4 million (USD1.8 million) costs over bribes it paid to win a key contract to build trams to serve the Tunisian capital Tunis. The fine comes more than a year after Alstom Network UK’s April 2018 conviction for bribery and corruption, in a case brought by the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO). …

As national, regional and international legislation nudges the world away from its reliance on fossil fuels, corporations are increasingly sourcing renewable energy through the mechanism of green power purchase agreements (PPAs), whereby companies (and also utilities) act as an off-taker, making commitments for future renewable energy payments.…

THE INLAND Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) has for the first time used powers of arrest, in October and November raids, holding 10 suspected members of a crime syndicate, suspected of operating a GST carousel fraud. Chains of sales and purchases have ended in goods disappearing or being exported, with dishonest participants claiming input tax for GST, which is ultimately never paid to the government.…

Robust international enforcement of revised AML guidance will improve current weaknesses in cryptocurrency compliance, according to financial services analysts.

Current figures indicate about 3,000 separate cryptocurrencies being traded with a value of USD221 billion, according to Yahoo Finance on October 8^.…

WITH Canadian auto exports to the USA falling in 2018 and the new USMCA trade agreement between the USA, Mexico and Canada still unratified (only Mexico has done so), the Canadian auto sector has been eyeing Europe for overseas sales.

A report from the Canadian government’s chief economist released in June (2019) gave grounds for optimism as regards future EU sales.…

IT’S no simple business serving Canada’s indigenous community market, even though this includes 1.67 million people. A majority have official residency in 3,100 reserves (the Canadian term for reservation), many of whom live in the far north, where average January and February highs can be minus 21C/minus 6F.…

THE DEVELOPMENT of uniform safety standards to help reduce the number of reputation-damaging accidents occurring as automated vehicles are rolled out commercially is of key importance, a CAV Canada conference (connected and autonomous vehicles) in Canada has been told.

Sasha Ostojic, a board member of California-based autonomous vehicle company Zoox, and a former senior vice president engineering at GM’s Cruise Automation, said of the current American system, where manufacturers are protecting their CAV IP and not sharing safety information: “I truly think this is a problem.…

THE CANADIAN government has told wardsauto that it will wait for the release of a US final rule on federal automotive emissions before making any decisions on whether to follow the lead of the Trump administration on freezing emissions limits or imposing tougher tailpipe rules for Canada.…

EFFORTS are escalating to reduce regulatory trade barriers between the 13 provinces and territories of Canada that can restrict sales of automobiles, especially trucks, while hindering the growth of auto-industry companies wanting to expand across the country.

Provincial and territorial premiers (heads of government) were in July debating their response to a Canada Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) struck between the federal government and the governments of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Newfoundland & Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut.…

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) trade deal struck with South America’s Mercosur group of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, will open this emerging market to EU confectionery exporters, but Europe’s sugar sector fears increased Brazilian sugar exports. The agreement, which now needs to be ratified by both sides, will phase out Mercosur duties on EU exports of chocolate and sugar confectionery of 20%; biscuits (taxed at 20% to 35%); liquorice extract – 8%; and confectionery-making equipment – 14%.…

As an industry much maligned for its heavy carbon footprint, the oil and gas sector is increasing its use of sustainable materials and manufacturing methods making textiles used for its protective clothing. This segment has also been focusing on improving the comfort and aesthetics of this apparel.…

Are universities and the media doing enough in the defence of knowledge when faced with the global rise of populism? This question has been debated at the third Worldviews International Conference on Media and Higher Education. Staged at Canada’s University of Toronto, speakers asked how can higher education and journalism counter the claims of elitism made against these institutions?…

AN INTERNATIONAL market research company is predicting that the legalisation of recreational cannabis, notably in Canada, and now in 10 US states, could encourage tobacco consumers to shift from smoking to vaping, and even depress tobacco sales overall long term.

Shane MacGuill, head of tobacco at Euromonitor International, said that while in the short term, recreational cannabis legalisation “could support the Canadian tobacco market as consumers experiment with consumption of cannabis flower in combustible format”, he predicted “any bump will be relatively small and short lived”.…

WOLLASTONITE has been described by a Canadian producer as “a white mineral for a greener world,” and it seems governments, businesses and industries agree – with wollastonite is set to see increased market growth in its traditional uses plus a new focus on its powerful qualities to help tackle climate change.…

WOLLASTONITE has been described by a Canadian producer as “a white mineral for a greener world,” and it seems governments, businesses and industries agree – with wollastonite is set to see increased market growth in its traditional uses plus a new focus on its powerful qualities to help tackle climate change.…

The Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) has announced a public inquiry [1] into how money laundering has distorted its economy after three independent reports noted how criminal funds have flooded into this Pacific coast region. BC Supreme Court Judge Austin Cullen has been appointed to head the inquiry, which BC attorney general David Eby said would have the power to force cooperation by “people and organisations who refuse to share what they know unless legally compelled to do so”.…

Russia has criticised Mexico at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for maintaining anti-dumping duties on Russian steel exports, which it claims are outdated, being based on pricing assessments using data from a different country.

The Mexican government used this method for past dumping calculations on Russian steel because it is permitted under WTO rules where a government dominates an economy that does not operate as a free market.…

THE LEGALISATION nationwide of recreational cannabis in Canada last October (2018) was a groundbreaking move – a first for a major western country – and from this coming October 17, at the latest, one that may have significant implications for the beauty business.…

HONG Kong accountants may see an increase in demand for non-financial assessments, with the HK Stock Exchange consulting on proposed new environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting. It is proposing introducing mandatory disclosure requirements to include board statements considering ESG issues; and what reporting principles are used to develop company ESG reports.…

THE CANADIAN auto-sector, encouraged by its federal government, has been pushing ahead with a wide range of initiatives to try and make Canada an international high-tech hub of connected and automated vehicle (CAV) research and development.

These focus on the country’s existing auto-making hub Ontario, with – unusually – the capital Ottawa playing a key auto-manufacturing role, encouraged by its existing local tech sector.…

THE CANADIAN auto sector wants the country’s federal government to recycle payments made through its carbon tax system back to Ontario’s automotive manufacturing sector, so it can reduce emissions and related energy costs. Executives want the government to hasten an announcement on how the system will work in detail to enable the industry to plan and mitigate costs.…

Gluten remains one of the most commonly reported allergens in European Union (EU), despite the existence of an EU regulation (EU) 828/2014) harmonising information provided to consumers on the absence or reduced presence of gluten in food.

While this might be expected to pressure manufacturers to provide low gluten or gluten free lines, the rules have proved burdensome and complex to implement, say industry experts – blunting the law’s impact.…

THE ONTARIO government has launched a Canadian dollars CAD40 million (USD29.8 million) policy package designed to grow the Canadian province’s auto-sector and stem the haemorrhaging of its jobs and output to Mexico and the southern USA. However, while these is support for the plan in the industry, there is also skepticism that this policy package will move the needle on preserving auto output in Canada’s most populous province.…

A FORUM of experts, including senior academics, staged in Toronto, Canada, has been told that Canadian academic institutions need to do more work to promote reconciliation between the country’s indigenous population and descendants of settlers from overseas and more recent immigrants.…

CANADIAN tobacco majors have sought creditor protection after the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld two class action rulings, warning appellants Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges (RBH) and JTI-Macdonald Corp are liable to pay Canadian dollars CAD13.6 billion (USD10.2 billion) in damages to sick smokers.…

THE UNITED States and Canada maybe two developed countries that have long-established anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) systems, but these have been found wanting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). While both countries continue to introduce AML/CFT reforms, they are unlikely to meet some key FATF demands.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is expanding its network of cyber-crime expertise, with a view to beefing up intelligence, protections and responses to online criminal attacks, including frauds such as identity theft, as well as hacking.

EU member states and the European Parliament are to start talks establishing from January 2021 a European Cybersecurity Industrial, Technology and Research Centre, pooling European investment in cybersecurity research, technology and industrial development.…

ANNOUNCEMENTS made at the Routes Americas conference for 2019 have demonstrated how the region’s civil aviation sector is expanding and providing more business to airports.

New Canadian low-cost carrier Jetlines, for example, unveiled plans to put conference host Quebec City on its route network when it begins operating later this year.…

THE CANADIAN dairy industry has been left concerned by a change in Canada’s federal government dietary advice to consumers which damps down previous encouragement for them to eat dairy products. The change comes in the new Canada Food Guide (CFG), which has been updated for the first time in more than 10 years by the relevant ministry, Health Canada.…

From top quality cacao that meets the new European Union (EU) regulation for minimum cadmium content in foods; to a camu camu fruit-based supplement line with stable shelf life and high vitamin C content; Sacha Inchi flour with over 60% protein content; and liquid high potency maca not found elsewhere, UHTCO Corporation, is expanding its portfolio and presence in the international market.…

OTTAWA’S Macdonald-Cartier Airport is to begin a Canadian dollars CAD45 million (USD34 million) makeover this year (2019), starting with the construction of an enlarged food service and retail area, plus a new security screening facility, which is expected to take up to two years to complete.…

A CANADIAN automotive industry association wants its federal government and the provincial administration of auto-making hub Ontario, to address the high cost of making vehicles in Canada, now the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) has been negotiated.

Drafted on September 30 and signed on November 1, but still awaiting ratification, the Canadian auto sector has been assessing the likely impact of the USMCA, guessing that the agreement will come into force – maybe this summer.…

A CANADIAN automotive industry association wants its federal government and the provincial administration of auto-making hub Ontario, to address the high cost of making vehicles in Canada, now the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) has been negotiated.

Drafted on September 30 and signed on November 1, but still awaiting ratification, the Canadian auto sector has been assessing the likely impact of the USMCA, guessing that the agreement will come into force – maybe this summer.…

AN INNOVATIVE support programme funded by the Mastercard Foundation is seeking to boost participation of indigenous Canadian youth in higher education, which has historically been low compared to the general population.

The foundation, which funds education and financial services for underprivileged communities worldwide, is hoping that systems established in Vancouver Island University, on Canada’s Pacific coast, and Yukon College, in the far north-west, will help guide the development of follow-up projects.…

New smaller banks competing with established players and other payment service providers (PSPs) are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their use of fintech to addressing anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) financial crime compliance.

David Carlisle, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, told Money Laundering Bulletin that anecdotal evidence suggests that these so-called ‘challenger’ banks and PSPs are increasingly using third-party fintech suppliers to help them address know your customer (KYC) requirements, transaction monitoring, record-keeping and suspicious activity reporting.…

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) Disputes Settlement Body (DSB) has approved establishing disputes settlement panels ruling on whether retaliatory duties imposed by the European Union (EU), Canada, China, and Mexico on US drinks exports, imposed in response to America’s controversial steel and aluminium tariffs, break WTO rules.…

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) Disputes Settlement Body (DSB) has approved establishing disputes settlement panels ruling on whether retaliatory duties imposed by the European Union (EU), Canada, China, and Mexico on US drinks exports, imposed in response to America’s controversial steel and aluminium tariffs, break WTO rules.…

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) Disputes Settlement Body (DSB) has agreed to establish disputes settlement panels to rule on whether retaliatory duties imposed by Canada, China, and Mexico on US meat exports, imposed in response to America’s controversial steel and aluminium tariffs, break WTO rules.…

MPs in Canada have returned to their House of Commons after the traditional summer break, when they are expected to vote on a draft law, the Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act, that would ban the testing of cosmetics and their ingredients on annals in Canada and block the sale of personal care products that have been assessed using such techniques.…

FACED with ever tightening restrictions on production, marketing and distribution, the tobacco sector is keeping a close eye on how the legalisation in Canada of another largely smoked product – cannabis – rolls out. On October 17, 2018, the consumption and cultivation of cannabis in Canada will become legal, making it the first G7 country to legalise recreational cannabis nationwide.…

THE PRESIDENT and CEO of the Aluminum Association of Canada has said he hopes the agreement yesterday (September 30) of a new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will lead to a swift resolution of the dispute over 10% American tariffs imposed from June 1.…

AMERICAN poultry exporters will gain improved access to Canadian markets under the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which was announced late Sunday night. (September 30). The deal has created new duty-free quotas for US chicken and turkey producers, chipping away at the Canadian tariff protection which underpins its supply management system.…

COMMENTATORS may scoff at President Donald Trump’s ‘Art of the Deal’ negotiating pretentions, but it would be hard to argue that the American food sector was not a winner in the new USA-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade deal, stuck on September 30.…

THE PLASTICS industries of the United States, Canada and Mexico have something to cheer about – at last – from American trade policy – a north American trade deal that cuts regulatory barriers as well as tariffs. But as these three plastics markets – with a combined population of close to 500 million people – become more integrated, will this make them a tougher mark for European plastics exporters, who lack trade deals with the USA, especially.…

THE PERSONAL care product industries of the United States, Canada and Mexico have something to cheer about – at last – from American trade policy – a north American trade deal that will cut regulatory barriers as well as tariffs.

While ensuring most trade in personal care products will be exported duty free between the three signatory countries, a new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) – which was announced on September 30 – has a special personal care product annex.…

AMERICAN confectioners may suffer from the latest tit-for-tat tariff exchange between the USA and China, with retaliatory duties from China targeting US confectionery exports. Many of these duties are high – at 25% – imposed from September 24 on US-made sugar; cocoa powder; milk powder; honey; jams; and more; plus 20% duties on US-made confectionery without cocoa; chewing gum; some chocolates; and more.…

THE CANADIAN government has launched a contest encouraging innovators to develop and use biofuels to fly commercial airliners in Canada. The Natural Resources Canada ministry said four finalists (or fewer) will receive up to Canadian dollars CAD2 million (USD1.53 million) each over 18 months to scale up sustainable aviation fuel in Canada.…

THE CANADIAN government is resisting Australian proposals to establish a disputes panel at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to judge whether discrimination against wines imported into Canada break global commerce agreements.

Despite Australia making its initial complaint to the WTO back in January, Canada claimed to a WTO disputes settlement body (DSB) meeting yesterday (Aug 27) that talks held since then between the two governments had been inconclusive and more time was needed for consultations.…

CANADA’S government has been talking tough about protecting the country’s supply management system, as negotiators conduct what might be the final round of talks to renew the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), with the United States and Mexico.

Faced with objections from US President Donald Trump about sky-high Canadian tariffs on out-of-quota imports of some foods, including chicken and turkey, Ottawa has stressed that it wants to preserve its supply management of these poultry products within Canada.…

China seems to have given the world nuclear industry back its mojo this summer with two big moves: the signing in June of an order for four Gen 3+ VVER-1200 reactors from Russia’s Rosatom. This certainly got the bubbly flowing at the World Nuclear Exhibition, in Paris, in late June, following two years of sluggish investment in this globalised industry.…

LARGE motorway service areas have become a recent feature of the Irish landscape, with plaza-type facilities incorporating fuel, food and grocery retailers under one roof.  However, the key players in the forecourt market, which is increasingly held by Irish firms Maxol and Applegreen, along with Canadian newcomer Couche-Tard – are now racing to reposition themselves given the Irish government plans by 2030 to end sales of petrol and diesel vehicles.…

THE ALUMINUM Association of Canada is assessing the list of aluminium products that could be subject to retaliatory duties following the USA’s imposition of tariffs to identify lines that maybe re-exported multiple times during complex manufacturing processes. The industry group will request that these lines are reduced from the Canadian government safeguard duty list.…

THE QUÉBEC government has said it will push the American government to exempt its aluminium industry from the duties that it announced last Thursday would be levied on Canadian exports of the metal. Québec smelters make the vast majority of aluminium exported from Canada – much of it destined for the USA.…

THE DEPUTY Premier of Québec this morning committed her government to helping the Canadian province’s aluminium sector preserve its current level of employment in the face of the American tariffs that have hit the industry since last Thursday.

Speaking at an international aluminium summit in Montreal, Canada, Dominique Anglade said: “If there’s a risk of a reduction in production and not being able to export as much, we will be here to support the companies to make sure they maintain the jobs in the sector.”…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has moved ahead with its plans to impose temporary safeguard duties on imports into the EU of USA-made knitwear, as a reaction to the levying of American import duties on aluminium and steel imports.

The EU executive, the European Commission, has published a regulation that should see some of the duties in force by July, after they have been approved by the EU trade barriers committee.…

A GLOBAL meeting of senior aluminium executives worldwide has heard calls for a multilateral solution for the problem of overcapacity. The goal would be integrating China and its state-owned enterprises into the world trading system in a way that is acceptable to major market economy regulators.…

CANADA’S minister of international trade today told world aluminium sector leaders how the deplored the imposition of duties by the USA of Canadian exports of the metal, branding it “deeply troubling and unacceptable.” Arguing that the action would “do nothing to address the problem of global over-capacity”, François-Philippe Champagne said the tariffs would harm American and Canadian producers whose integrated aluminium industries “don’t sell to each other, they make things together.”…

THE USA personal care product industry is under fire, with the European Union (EU) and Canada and Mexico announcing plans to impose protective duties on American exports following the decision by the Trump administration to levy tariffs on streel and aluminium exports on these key trading partners.…

THE USA personal care product industry is under fire, with the European Union (EU) and Canada and Mexico announcing plans to impose protective duties on American exports following the decision by the Trump administration to levy tariffs on streel and aluminium exports on these key trading partners.…

THE AMERICAN confectionery sector is facing tough tariffs in its key export market of Canada after the US government decided to impose punitive duties on Canadian exports of steel and aluminium.

Ottawa announced its own retaliatory duties, which it intends to impose from July 1, having consulted on a shortlist of products, including potential 10% duties on US-made maple sugar and syrup, liquorice, toffee, chocolate, sugar confectionery, strawberry jam, nut purées and pastes.…

THE AMERICAN and Canadian automotive industries will be counting the cost of new tariffs being imposed on steel and aluminum traded between their countries, following the decision yesterday by the Trump administration to start collecting 25% on Canadian steel and 10% on aluminum.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has moved ahead with its plans to impose temporary safeguard duties on imports into the EU of USA-made textiles and clothing, as a reaction to the levying of American import duties on aluminium and steel imports, announced on Thursday (May 31).…

THE CANADIAN fur industry is adapting to changes in consumer demand by looking to new uses of pelts, including fur yarns that can be knitted or weaved, as well as the use of fur for trimming. The resulting product lines are intended for a broader target market, including clothing and accessories that will appeal to a new generation.…

THE PROSPECTS of a successful conclusion to the ongoing talks to renew the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have taken a heavy blow from today’s decision by President Donald Trump to impose duties on steel and aluminium products from Canada and Mexico at 25% and 10%, respectively.…

THE IMPOSITION of tariffs on American imports of steel and aluminium has prompted anger in Mexico, which is the largest US aluminium buyer and the second largest buyer of American steel. However, with Mexico also a major exporter of these metals to the USA (USD1.7 billion’s worth of steel and iron was sent north in 2017 and USD1 billion’s worth of Mexican aluminium was sold to the US last year), the tariffs will harm Mexico’s economy.…

THE AMERICAN clothing sector has attacked the imposition of tariffs by the US government on European Union (EU), Mexican and Canadian steel and aluminium exports, which has prompted the EU to move ahead with imposing retaliatory duties on USA-made clothing.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has moved ahead with its plans to impose temporary safeguard duties on imports into the EU of USA-made clothes, as a reaction to the levying of American import duties on aluminium and steel imports, announced yesterday (May 31).…

THE USA food industry is under fire with the European Union (EU), Canada and Mexico all announcing plans to impose protective duties on American exports following today’s decision by the Trump administration to levy tariffs on streel and aluminium exports from these three key trading partners.…

TECHNICAL textile markets can be driven and shaped by a range of forces – from natural disasters, to technological change, economic developments and political movements. In the case of the USA, at present, the technical textile market and industry is being moved by all these influences at the same time.…

Diversity – a theme very close to Mohamed Irshad’s heart – could not be embodied by a more appropriate person than the affable, youthful-looking 34-year-old head of global internal audit – the Americas, at French multinational Schneider Electric. Irshad is an Indian national who was born and raised in Dubai, studied in India, has lived in Paris and is now based in Canada.…

Are students and academics free to speak their mind on university and college campuses in north America? And how should higher education institutions respond when one person’s free speech silences or harms another? These issues have been highlighted at the fourth annual Worldviews Lecture at the University of Toronto, at which University World News was a media sponsor.…

AIR Canada has joined with other civil aviation organisations and companies, plus academics, to stage a biofuel blend demonstration project at Toronto’s Lester B Pearson International Airport. The Canadian carrier claims it avoided emitting 160 tonnes of carbon on 22 domestic flights during April 22’s international Earth Day through introducing 230,000 litres of sustainable biofuel blended within the airport’s multi-user fuel supply system.…

WHILE global politics, whether through the protectionism of Donald Trump, or the uncertainty of Brexit, have the potential to chill the global minerals industry, a recent major conference in Canada showed that market demand can often outweigh concerns about regulation.

A noticeably more positive outlook was evident this year, as the global mining community gathered in Toronto for the 2018 Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention, trade show and investors exchange.…

WHILE United States President Donald Trump’s imposition of import tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium on March 8 included a waiver for Canadian and Mexican exporters, his administration continues to stress this relief could be temporary.

In the March 8 presidential proclamation imposing the steel duties, Trump stressed “ongoing discussions with these countries” alongside his decision “to exempt steel articles imports from these countries from the tariff, at least at this time”. …

PRESIDENT Donald Trump today (March 5) signalled to Canada and Mexico that he would use his planned imposition of import tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium as a bargaining chip to wring concessions in the ongoing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiation.…

Representatives of the USA beef industry are voicing consternation over the Chinese government’s announcement that the country is preparing retaliatory sanctions against beef exports as part of its escalating trade war with the United States.

Kent Bacus, director of international trade and market access for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (USA), followed up the April 4 Chinese announcement of a potential 25% tariff on USA beef exports with an immediate statement of concern.…

THE UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is to regain GBP4.4 million (USD6.2 million) in a corruption case where Canada’s Griffiths Energy bribed Chadian diplomats in the United States and Canada with discounted shares deals and “consultancy fees”.

Griffiths used a front company ‘Chad Oil’ set up in September 2009, just five days before agreements were signed, the SFO said.…

A KEY Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) conference on fighting graft has heard how auditors can play a key role in promoting honesty in local government.

Speaking to Accounting & Business at the 2018 OECD Anti-Corruption & Integrity Forum, in Paris, on March 27, Richard Chambers, President and CEO of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), said: “There are inherent risks involving local government where you often have less oversight and where you have officials or individuals who have motives to benefit from positions of authority.”…

IF there is one issue that is a key focus of the north American nonwovens sector this year, it has to be the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the USA, Canada and Mexico.

Tri-lateral talks have now reached their eighth round, with an objective of achieving a new deal by this summer, although observers believe this timescale might slip.…

INDUSTRIAL minerals companies need to better manage their communications in an increasingly interconnected world, the CEO of Brazil-based Nexa Resources S.A. told this year’s Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention.

In comments echoed by Canadian colleagues, Tito Martins, said he felt that the industry must change the way it engages with an expanding number of potential partners, from local communities and environmentalists, as well as regulators and financiers.…

THE CIVIL aviation industry – for very good safety reasons – is one of the most regulated industries in the world. And suppliers of aviation textiles have to take note. Regulations spring from the Convention on International Civil Aviation, whose annex 8 covers the airworthiness of aircraft.…

Australia has today (January 16) requested formal talks with Canada at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), where it will pressure the Canadian government to liberalise wine trading restrictions in four of Canada’ provinces. These are British Columbia (BC), Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.…

CANADIAN air traffic control specialist Aeronav has supplied a temporary mobile ATC tower at Anguilla’s Clayton J Lloyd International Airport, after the existing facility was damaged by September’s category five storm Hurricane Irma. The Aeronav ANT-57 Mobile Tower System will stay in use until a new permanent tower, now under construction, is completed.…

Two new cosmetics houses which each claim to be ‘disrupting’ the industry in their approach as start-ups follow diametrically opposed business models with both claiming their version is the key to their success.

While one, Deciem, based in Toronto, Canada, keeps all stages of development and production in-house, Be For Beauty, from Nottingham, UK, claims business is better when outsourcing key elements such as manufacturing to specialists in the field.…

Consumers in the home of cosmetics, France, appear to be combining the long-established traditions of French-made products with the ultra-modern twist of Korea-inspired ‘K-beauty’ items in their latest personal care trends.

Traditionally, mention France and cosmetics in the same breath and an image of class and sophistication is brought to mind.…

THE RUSSIAN Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) may impose a ban on all imports of beef and pork from Brazil, the largest meat importer to Russia, in coming days over concerns about the detection of a forbidden hormone, government officials have warned.…

Prospects for trade deals that have underpinned the growth in American clothing and textile imports and exports appear increasingly precarious as the administration of President Donald Trump passes the 300-day mark, participants at a clothing industry conference heard this week.

Concern is especially severe regarding the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), as indicated by ‘SaveNAFTA’ being the password to access a mobile app provided to attendees at the 29^th annual Apparel Importers Trade & Transportation Conference held by the American Import Shippers Association (AISA) and the United States Fashion Industry Association (USFIA) on November 15, in New York City.…

Of course, it is not doing this by increasing policing and the number of suspicious transaction reports, but by liberalising what is now a criminal activity, the growing, processing, sale and consumption of cannabis for recreation.

By doing so, it plans to be the first G20 country to legalise and regulate the recreational use of cannabis nationwide by July 2018.…

WITH the introduction of Bill C-45 into the Canadian House of Commons earlier this year, and its securing a second reading vote in June (see https://openparliament.ca/bills/42-1/C-45/), Canada’s government has moved closer to removing millions of dollars of dirty money from its economy.…

Upgrades and advancements in airport winter management technologies and techniques, especially regarding wet snow, were highlighted at this year’s SWIFT Airfield Operations Conference & Equipment Expo, which was staged at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, for the first time.

The largest city in Atlantic Canada has a reputation for receiving large doses of such snow at Halifax Stanfield International Airport, with high humidity from the Atlantic Ocean combining with the intense cold of eastern Canadian winters.…

THE GLOBAL increase in commodity prices for beef and veal has dampened demand in Russia for imports of these meat products. The country’s agriculture ministry has said imports fell 18.6% this January-May compared to the same period in 2016, That was mainly due to a rise in import prices, which since the beginning of the current year have grown by almost 25%, said ministry officials.…

THE RUSSIAN Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) may impose a ban on all imports of beef and pork from Brazil, the largest meat importer to Russia, in coming days over concerns about the detection of a forbidden hormone, government officials have warned.…

Donald Trump’s decision to pull the USA out of the Paris Climate Treaty has been universally viewed as a setback for moves to decarbonise the world electricity sector. Trump called for a new “fair” deal that would not disadvantage US businesses and workers and claimed that China and India had “no meaningful obligations” placed on them by the deal.…

Donald Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris Climate Treaty will not halt moves to cut fossil fuels or reduce decarbonisation requirements on the non-energy minerals sector and other industries, say experts.

Trump called for a new “fair” deal that would not disadvantage US businesses and workers and claimed that China and India had “no meaningful obligations” placed on them by the agreement.…

TECHNICAL discussions between the European Union (EU) and Canada over cheese quotas are threatening to disrupt the planned operational launch of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) that was supposed to have been agreed in detail in February.

CETA is scheduled to come into force on July 1, but talks are ongoing about the administrative arrangements establishing how Canada will open up its cheese markets.…

MOROCCO is blessed with an ideal geographical position to develop a Europe-focused export-based dairy sector although its proximity to Spain – just 14 km of the Straits of Gibraltar separates the two – means this emerging market is a key focus of European exporters.…

Italy’s ministry of agriculture, food and forestry has confirmed to just-food that it has notified the European Commission of a national decree proposal that would make origin labelling mandatory for all foods containing durum wheat, including dry pasta. The measure would be applicable to foods sold in Italy only, with labels indicating where the wheat was cultivated and milled, protecting Italian wheat producers, with the idea being supported by Italy’s farmers’ association Coldiretti.…

Political uncertainty over US trade deals sparked by the ascension of President Donald Trump to power should be eased to avoid stifling innovation in the country’s technical textiles industry which could see it marginalised on the world stage, insiders have warned.…

In the wake of the rising tide in populism that has seen the United Kingdom vote to leave the European Union (EU) and the United States elect a former reality television star, one respected educator warns that academia is not immune to the sentiments behind these events.…

Success and sustainability appear to be the buzzwords of a US nonwovens industry that is moving forward confidently, leading the north American sector, which it dominates in sales and production.

Having recovered from a slight downward turn in capacity following the recession, the US sector has returned to healthy growth and an improving economic outlook, coupled with ever-increasing applications for engineered fabric products.…

AN INCREASE in numbers of people attending this year’s annual Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) international convention has signalled a return of confidence to the global mineral exploration and mining industry.

After three consecutive years of steadily declining attendance, PDAC organisers were pleased to announce that more than 24,000 people from over 120 countries took part in this year’s edition, which ran from March 5-8 in downtown Toronto.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) and Canada’s strong branded knitwear companies may benefit from additional mutual trade after the European Parliament’s approval and resulting signature of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the two jurisdictions.

This long-negotiated and highly contested deal, which could apply from April as far as its key duty and quota liberalisation elements are concerned, will remove nearly 99% of tariffs on all goods traded between the EU and Canada and eliminate tax discrimination.…

THE CANADIAN government has introduced temporary drone controls, banning operators from flying model aircraft and recreational drones weighing between 250g and 35kg from within 9 kilometres of the centre of any airport, heliport, aerodrome or water aerodrome. Operators also cannot fly such drones higher than 90 metres; at night; and within 75 metres of buildings, vehicles or people, and must mark their drone with contact information.…

DECARBONISING air travel is increasingly becoming a priority for the aviation sector. Indeed, the world’s first, fully hydrogen fuel cell-powered four-passenger aircraft with zero-emissions launched last October could be a game changer – as researchers now look to apply the technology to bigger planes.…

EUROPEAN food and drink exporters will be preparing to boost exports through the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the European Union (EU) and Canada (CETA), which has been provisionally approved by the European Parliament.

The deal, whose duty reduction and quota expansion elements could apply from April (2017) will phase out nearly 99% of tariffs on all food and drink traded between the EU and Canada over the next seven years.…

THE AUTOMOTIVE industries of the European Union (EU) and Canada are both optimistic that they will export more vehicles as a result of the newly approved Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the two jurisdictions. The European Parliament gave CETA its support last Wednesday (February 15), meaning it will come into force provisionally once the Canadian House of Commons does the same (considered a formality).…

THE EUROPEAN and Canadian minerals industries have broadly welcomed the approval by the European Parliament of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the European Union (EU) and Canada (CETA), saying it would increase exports in an already flourishing trade.…

EUROPEAN drinks industry associations have said they are now preparing to exploit the export market benefits that flow from yesterday’s (Feb 15) approval by the European Parliament of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the European Union (EU) and Canada (CETA).…

The European Parliament today (Feb 15) authorised a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union (EU) and Canada (CETA), a deal that has been long anticipated by the EU drinks export sector.

The deal, which could now apply provisionally from as early as April 2017 will scrap nearly 99% of tariffs on all goods traded between the EU and Canada.…

EUROPEAN drinks industry associations have said they are now preparing to exploit the export market benefits that flow from yesterday’s (Feb 15) approval by the European Parliament of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the European Union (EU) and Canada (CETA).…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) exports of cheese to Canada will increase substantially, by some 128%, as a result of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union (EU) and Canada, which the European Parliament approved provisionally on February 15, say EU dairy associations.…

THE EUROPEAN and Canadian cosmetic industries have welcomed the European Parliament’s approval [February 15] of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union (EU) and Canada (CETA), with both sides anticipating greatly increased exports.

This long-negotiated and highly contested deal, which could apply from April as far as its key duty and quota liberalisation elements are concerned, will remove nearly 99% of tariffs on all goods traded between the EU and Canada and eliminate tax discrimination.…

THE TRADE in confectionery products between the European Union (EU) and Canada is likely to increase now the European Parliament has approved the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

The vote – on February 15 (2017) – follows years of detailed negotiations and means that large sections of this trade deal can now come into force, maybe as early as April, as long as Canada stages its own vote in time.…

The European metals industry will wait before taking an official position on the controversial European Union (EU)-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), following a key European Parliament vote backing the deal.

The European Parliament’s international trade committee (INTA) has now referred CETA (on January 24), with its blessing, to the body’s plenary, which could vote later this month to approve provisional implementation of the agreement as early as April.…

LICENCES created last year (2016) by Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) for grocery stores, allowing them to sell wine, but only brands made in the province, are being challenged at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by the USA.

It has triggered disputes proceedings at the global trade body, claiming that by discriminating against foreign wine in this way, BC, and hence Canada, has broken its obligations under the WTO’s General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).…

WINTER sportsmen and women are busy training for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, in South Korea, from next February 9 to 28 (2018), and part of their preparation will be securing the best clothing and footwear made from carefully drafted technical textiles.…

ELECTRONICS and gadgets such as smart watches may have reached their technological and popularity limits, but smart textiles – materials, for example anti-bacterial, that react to environmental or physical stimuli – are here to stay, industry experts argue.

Speakers at this year’s FUTEX – the 7^th Innovative Textile European Convention on ‘interactive textiles for health, sport and the home’ emphasised the bright future for ‘wearable’ technology.…

Companies want to avoid hiring fraudsters, but can trained HR professionals weed out the scammers at interview through detected personality traits – or sensitive managers pinpoint an employee who has an inbuilt propensity for graft?

Research can certainly help employers know who is more likely to turn fraudster than not, but it is far from a precise science.…

Colombia’s billion dollar illegal gold trade has become one of the country’s primary sources of finance for armed groups and mafias and a hub of commercial crime. Underworld networks now exploit, infiltrate, and co-opt every step of Colombia’s gold supply chain.…

A FIRST pilot test of automated vehicles is now underway within the Canadian province of Ontario, using a groundbreaking regulatory system designed to encourage tech and auto firms to undertake such research and development.

The pilot, which began November 28, takes advantage of a provincial law, in place since January 1 (2016), which allows companies to test self-driving vehicles on Ontario roads.…

2016 – Winners and losers

RETAILERS & BRANDS

WINNERS

US-based sportswear brand Under Armour delivered its 26th consecutive quarter of 20%-plus revenue growth in the third quarter of 2016, with sales increases across all divisions. Net sales were up 22% in the third quarter to USD1.47bn.…

THE PROMISE from US President-elect Donald Trump to withdraw the USA from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement on his first day of office has prompted widespread nervousness in auto-sectors around the world.

His rejection of the deal could scupper an agreement negotiated over five years by the United States; Australia; Brunei; Canada; Chile; Japan; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Peru; Singapore and Vietnam.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) paint and coatings companies have been offered new flexibility over securing authorisation for biocidal products. A new rule that came into force on November 1 allows companies to get a national authorisation when an authorisation, or an application, for an EU-wide authorisation has been made for an identical product.…

A senior Canada metal industry association has called on its government to continue ratifying the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), despite US President-elect Donald Trump’s commitment to withdraw the US from the trade deal on his first day of office.

“We definitely still support Canada moving forward with the TPP, even without the US.…

TOBACCO has been grown, processed, smoked and traded within and between native Canadian and American communities for centuries, so it is no surprise that attempts to restrict how their reserves and reservations make and sell tobacco cause upset.

But in Canada, with tobacco control rules on health warnings, advertising and tobacco content in these First Nations jurisdictions often weak or non-existent, and tax and duty not collected on sales, there has been pressure on the federal and provincial government to crack down on what police and anti-tobacco campaigners regard as a legal free-for-all.…

FACED with the twin threats of Brexit and a new US President-elect who prefers bilateral relations to multilateralism, the European Union (EU) and its institutions are nonetheless pushing ahead with forging a collaborative system of anti-fraud law enforcement.

In a sign that such initiatives draw overwhelming backing from European Parliament political groups, the EU’s elected assembly, its plenary has backed by 545 votes to 91 a detailed call for the European Commission to review its legislation against corruption and organised criminals.…

BATHURST Regional Airport, in the Canadian Atlantic province of New Brunswick, is to be expanded through a Canadian dollar CAD6.28 million (USD4.63 million) project. The federal Canadian and provincial New Brunswick governments will both support the plan, spending CAD2.09 million (USD1.53 million) each.…

THE SIGNING of a Comprehensive Economic & Trade Agreement between the European Union (EU) and Canada (CETA) on October 30 will have a positive impact on the personal care product sector, industry associations have claimed on both sides of the Atlantic.…

THE LEADER of Europe’s farmers has warned that the European Union (EU)-Canada Comprehensive Economic & Trade Agreement (CETA), whose legal texts were finally signed on Sunday (Oct 30), will be “a painful exercise” for the EU meats sector, EU farm body Copa-Cogeca secretary general Pekka Pesonen has claimed.…

Sun protective clothing is continuing to move from its health-focused niche origins to become a general and versatile product, protecting consumers of all ages from the harm of prolonged sun exposure. What first began as products for children or for people with varying skin ailments, such as melanoma or xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), a rare disease where the body is unable to repair damage caused by ultraviolet (UV) light, the market has been expanding robustly.…

BRITISH company boards will have another Brexit-related issue to consider now that the European Union (EU) appears set to approve the controversial Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada. Will it apply in Britain once the UK quits the EU?…

LAW firms are at “high risk of misuse” for money laundering and terrorist financing in Canada, according to the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF). 

FATF inspectors scoured Canadian anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) provisions in a November 2015 visit and found: “All high-risk areas are covered by AML/CFT measures, except legal counsels, legal firms and Quebec notaries.”…

The market for packaged food with health claims is still small in Thailand, with the organics food sector being particularly tiny. But functional food sales growth rates have been picking up markedly on the back of an aging population translating into increasing awareness of health problems, such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, obesity and diabetes.…

Dairy processors have expressed their concern regarding a 2.76% increase in the minimum price for butter and skimmed milk powder sold in Canada. Imposed by the Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC), this came into effect on September 1. The Dairy Processors Association of Canada (DPAC) has voiced its apprehension to the CDC: “We expressed our concerns with a mid-year increase, and presented the potential impact of this not only for processors, but for the market and ultimately consumers,” said Jacques Lefebvre, president and CEO of the DPAC.…

Dairy processors have expressed their concern regarding a 2.76% increase in the minimum price for butter and skimmed milk powder sold in Canada. Imposed by the Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC), this came into effect on September 1. The Dairy Processors Association of Canada (DPAC) has voiced its apprehension to the CDC: “We expressed our concerns with a mid-year increase, and presented the potential impact of this not only for processors, but for the market and ultimately consumers,” said Jacques Lefebvre, president and CEO of the DPAC.…

THE UK’s vote on June 23 to quit the European Union (EU) creates deep uncertainty over the shape of future electricity industry regulations in Britain, and the UK’s regulatory relationship regarding power supplies with countries remaining in the EU.

Victory by the ‘Leave’ side in Britain’s in-out referendum enables the UK government to kick off an exit process by invoking Article 50 in the Treaty on European Union, which gives notice that member state wishes to leave.…

THE CANADIAN government has welcomed a European Commission ruling that should see the European Union (EU) Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), negotiated in 2014, finally on its way to ratification. Brussels has agreed, after months of legal arguments, that CETA is a ‘mixed’ agreement, including trade and non-trade regulatory aspects.…

The Canadian meat industry is optimistic that healthy sales will follow after it resumes exporting beef to Taiwan following its government lifting a beef import ban on Friday, July 8. Taiwan had imposed a temporary suspension of Canadian beef imports in February 2015, after a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) had been discovered in Alberta earlier that month.…

CANADA’S beef sector has warned that labour shortages in its industry are a problem and could get worse in the coming decade.

Brady Stadnicki, policy analyst at the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) was commenting to GlobalMeatNews after a Canadian government report highlighted a chronic workforce shortage in Canada’s food production sector.…

Regulators from Canada’s three main wine-producing provinces have agreed to remove technical restrictions preventing their winemakers from selling wine to consumers across all these jurisdictions. Until now, red tape has prevented all but the largest winemakers from Québec, Ontario and British Columbia (BC) selling their products to consumers outside their own province.…

Business governance experts in Canada have told Board Agenda how they think companies can maximise the ability and performance of their non-executive board members.

Their comments come as concern about the effectiveness of non-execs in Canada has been piqued by media reports that Pierre Beaudoin, a director of Montréal-based comms and finance conglomerate Power Corp, had 20.28% of shareholder votes withheld at a director election in May – usually such elections proffer 100% support.…

THE UK’s personal care and cosmetics industry faces uncertainty and potential future trade challenges with the European Union (EU) following the 52% to 48% June 23 referendum vote to leave the EU. “No longer being part of a single market for the free circulation of goods and no longer being a key player in the development of legislation governing those goods will be a major challenge to the cosmetics industry as it will be to all other sectors of the UK industry,” Chris Flower, director-general of the UK’s Cosmetic, Toiletry & Perfumery Association (CTPA), told Soap Perfumery and Cosmetics.…

Tough regulation and a willingness for law enforcement authorities to crack down hard on fraudsters seems to be doing its job of curbing mortgage appraisal fraud in both the United States and the United Kingdom as the number of cases is falling.…

THE UK’s vote yesterday (June 23) to quit the European Union (EU) creates deep uncertainty over the shape of future food and drink regulations in Britain. The same applies to market access for companies operating from Britain or seeking to export to its consumers.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s trade directorate general and the United States Trade Representative (USTR) office have said that they will be assessing the impact of Britain’s anticipated exit from the European Union (EU) on the planned EU-US Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP).…

CANADIAN health officials are considering allowing the irradiation of fresh and frozen ground beef sold in their country. A 75-day consultation period opened to the general public on June 17, and will officially end on September 1.

The proposal from the federal ministry Health Canada would allow meat producers and packagers to irradiate this product.…

THE UK’s vote last week (June 23) to quit the European Union (EU) creates deep uncertainty over the shape of future meat and livestock regulations in Britain. The same applies to EU market access for British meat and livestock companies or exporters from the rest of the EU wanting to target British consumers.…

Russia’s decision to extend its import ban on a wide range of European Union (EU), US, Canadian, Australian and Norwegian food exports until December 31, 2017 has met with widespread disapproval from the EU meat industry. “Overall I can say we are very disappointed,” EU farm body Copa & Cogeca spokesperson Amanda Cheesley told GlobalMeatNews.…

THE UK’s vote last Thursday (June 23) to quit the European Union (EU) creates deep uncertainty over the shape of future nuclear industry regulations in Britain. The same applies to EU market access for British nuclear fuel and component companies or exporters from the rest of the EU wanting to target British nuclear operators.…

In 2015, North America’s manufacturing capacity for nonwovens (regarding the United States, Canada and Mexico) grew from 2014 by 2.4% to reach about 2.77 million tonnes, according to a spokesperson for the US-based Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry (INDA). The United States dominates supplies in the region, making up 91% of capacity.…

Demand for milk is outstripping domestic supply in Egypt, the most populous market in the Middle East and North Africa. The sector has been growing at more than 10% a year as Egypt – whose population is at least 82 million – consume more dairy products, especially milk and yoghurt.…

NORTH America’s textile sector – of which technical textiles comprise nearly 70% production by value in the USA and just below 50% in Canada – has grown slowly when compared with global production. And growth within the industry in North America will further slow by 2020 due to competition from the Asia-Pacific region and Western Europe, according to industry analysts at Euromonitor. …

Changes to labelling and advertising laws for halal food in Canada have come into force to better inform consumers and encourage halal meat producers to follow established certification systems. As of Tuesday, April 4, all halal claims – by both domestic and international suppliers – on food labels, packaging and advertising materials sold in Canada must be accompanied by the name of the organisation or person certifying it as halal.…

AT a time when the world is regularly sickened by the web-cast beheadings and civilian bombings by Islamic State (IS), it is perhaps hard to recall when Lebanon Shia militant Hizbullah group was regarded as maybe the world’s most notorious international terror group.…

THE ONGOING legalisation of marijuana in the United States and Canada offers the tobacco industry some significant opportunities. This includes both increased consumption and also investment in tobacco sector suppliers such as vaporiser manufacturers.

As of this March, the US states of Colombia, Washington and Alaska had also legalised recreational use of marijuana and Oregon is well on its way to full legalisation.…

NORTH American confectioners are closely monitoring the growing wave in legalisation of marijuana across the USA and Canada, offering them the opportunity to sell new product, with a particularly edgy and certainly special ingredient.

The new Liberal government in Canada, was elected in October on a promise to legalise marijuana, while in the US, the transition is happening state by state.…

A new bid by the European Union (EU) to open up public procurement contracts in world markets to all competitors has run into immediate trouble in the textiles sector where the US industry has launched a swift and forceful (though hardly unexpected) rejection of the idea.…

Bangladesh’s top textiles makers are racing against time to alter the way they print fabric. The reason is simple: go digital or risk losing a competitive edge.

Vertically integrated textile manufacturing major Noman Group told Digital Textile that it is carefully considering digital textile investments.…

THE OIL and gas industry is preparing itself for regulatory challenges following the agreement on limiting climate change struck in Paris on December 12. In comments following the deal, industry organisations stressed the key role the oil and gas industry will continue to play as a key energy and product ingredient source, even as the world moves towards a lower carbon economy.…

CANADIAN meat industry officials and politicians have redoubled their calls for the US to liberalise its country of origin labelling (COOL) rules for meat and livestock, now the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has delivered a final negative ruling on the American system.…

Much remains to be decided between Argentine and Chinese nuclear bosses over the fuel element to the USD12.8 billion proposed construction of two reactors by the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC). 
Argentina contracted the CNNC in February after a tender to help build the 800 megawatt electrical (MWe) Atucha 3 pressurized heavy water reactor, with construction work scheduled to start in 2016, although with discussions continuing on the plan, this might slip to 2017.…

A USD13 billion deal agreed by China to build two reactors for Argentina hinges entirely on the Chinese side putting up the financing, with a final arrangement on the cash deal to be inked in 2017. That’s according to sources in the Chinese nuclear industry.…

Fort McMurray Airport, the primary air transportation hub of Canada’s economically important oil sands sector, is to be expanded in a Canadian dollar CAD75.5 million (USD62.5 million) project.
The project, slated to finish by December 31, 2019, includes an extension of the main terminal building and apron, plus an extension of the main runway.…

THE PERSONAL care product sector in the European Union (EU) has had to work hard to comply with the 2012 biocidal products regulation, which will have significant implications for the use of preservatives in cosmetics. Manufacturers of biocidal products need to be have their active ingredients registered for assessment by September 1 (2015) for them to be used in the EU.…

Canada’s beef sector organisations have told globalmeatnews.com that they are optimistic about a national programme connecting all key players in Canada’s beef sector for the first time, whose goal is increasing production efficiency by 15% by 2020.
“This is the first time that all of the [Canadian beef sector] organisations have come together and supported as a whole” under a formal strategy  although there have been isolated efforts before, Kevin Boon, general manager of the  British Columbia (BC) Cattlemen’s Association told globalmeatnews.com.…

SEAL meat from Canada produced by Inuit communities could soon be sold in the European Union (EU) after the EU reported progress was being made on resolving the long-running dispute over these imports. Seal meat sales were largely banned in the EU on ethical grounds under a 2009 regulation, but the rule was challenged by the Canadian government at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).…

THE LATIN American paint and coatings sector has been facing tough times in the past year, with sluggish overall economic performance depressing demand for the industry. Even, last summer’s World Cup football fiesta in Brazil, did not give the region’s largest market any motive to celebrate.…

Taiwan is easing its 11-year-old import ban on offal and by-products sourced from United States and Canada-reared cattle over Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) concerns, by planning to classify six types of beef byproducts as “non-internal organs”, effectively clearing the way for their import.…

Mwana Africa’s Zimbabwe subsidiary Bindura Nickel Corporation (BNC) says it is on course to restart its nickel smelter in the first half of this year as the nickel giant moves to increase revenue and cut operating costs. The company plans that it will initially produce high quality nickel cathodes, copper sulphide and cobalt hydroxide, processing 195,000 tonnes of ore per quarter year.…

CANADIAN booksellers are expressing optimism about the national book market after a positive experience during this year’s festive sales period.
“Sales were good, they had good community support, and everyone I’ve talked to has also said they started seeing things pick up and get a little busier a little earlier in the season,” Lesley Fletcher, the manager of the MySTORE Book Industry division of the Retail Council of Canada, told The Bookseller.…

MEXICAN inspectors have visited 15 meat businesses in Spain as trade negotiations between the European Union (EU) and Mexico raise the prospect of greater exports to the Latin American country.

Mexico is already the main non-EU market for Spanish cured, cooked and preserved pork products and hopes are high that pork meat will be included in any deal with the EU.…

RUSSIA’S combined heat and power sector is poised to undergo a radical transformation that will use the open market to rejuvenate and update the industry, according to the country’s energy minister.

Speaking to the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, energy minister Alexander Novak announced last November that creating a competitive market for combined heat and power (CHP) was a key priority.…

Plastic banknotes have been in circulation since their introduction in Australia in 1988 and the consensus so far seems to be that they do an excellent job of a key requirement – reducing counterfeiting. It may be that forgers will gain more expertise in time – faking is considerably more difficult on plastic than on cotton-based paper – but the initial reports from larger countries that have taken this route, such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have persuaded the UK’s Bank of England to follow them.

Plastic banknotes have been in circulation since their introduction in Australia in 1988 and the consensus so far seems to be that they do an excellent job of a key requirement – reducing counterfeiting. It may be that forgers will gain more expertise in time – faking is considerably more difficult on plastic than on cotton-based paper – but the initial reports from larger countries that have taken this route, such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have persuaded the UK’s Bank of England to follow them.

CHINESE President Xi Jinping’s prominent ongoing anti-corruption, anti-money laundering campaign has been worrying mainland Chinese citizens who seek to move ill-gotten wealth from mainland China to China’s Special Administrative Regions Macau and Hong Kong. These two jurisdictions are China’s major conduits for dirty money because, once the money has been moved there, there are no limits on outbound money transfers.…

Rising incomes and a continued tightening of food safety enforcement is boosting demand in China for commercial packaged oils, with consumers moving away from the bulk oils that have dominated past markets.

Overall, while year-on-year growth in global oils and fats production has averaged 3% in each of the past two years vegetable oils sales in China will rise an average 16% per year in the period 2014-2018.…

THE WRITER’S Union of Canada is calling for a number of tax breaks for authors in its submission to the Canadian government’s consultation for framing a federal budget, to ease what it regards as instability and increased industry pressure on writers.…

The request was highly unusual. But, when the ambassador of Haiti to Canada heard that Montreal’s Mirabel airport was to be demolished, his thoughts turned to his country’s Cap Haïtien airport, which was undergoing large-scale renovation. The doomed airport’s equipment, he figured, would be of more use in Haiti than on the scrap-heap.…

AS companies and government organisations implement more stringent fraud detection programmes, they are recruiting the best and brightest anti-fraud experts. Universities in North America, Australia, Europe and Asia are responding to demand for anti-fraud expertise by offering fraud prevention classes in accounting, criminology, and business degrees.…

THE COMPREHENSIVE Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union (EU) will make it easier for both jurisdictions to recognise each other’s nursing certifications. Political leaders celebrated the end of negotiations in September in Ottawa, Canada (Sept 26).…

THE AMERICAN government has complained of delays by the outgoing European Commission that leaves office on November 1 regarding the authorisation of new bio-tech food products and ingredients for use in the European Union (EU). In a strongly worded message to the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) disputes settlement body, the US said that the EU had failed to leave decisions to regulatory committees acting on European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) advice.…

DETAILS of the agreement to mutually open the groundhandling markets of the European Union (EU) and Canada have been revealed upon the end of negotiations over a major trade deal. The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between them goes much further than standard trade deals, offering mutual investment protection, movement of skilled workers and access to service markets.…

THE NEWLY finalised European Union (EU)-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) will give European knitwear manufacturers an advantage over Canadian producers and could encourage European brands to set up operations in Canada, an industry leader in Ottawa has argued.

CETA includes mutual investment protection clauses for EU and Canada companies wanting to establish themselves or finance manufacturing in the other signatory jurisdiction.…

Pharmaceuticals are at the heart of the ambitious trade agreement whose final details have just been agreed between the European Union (EU) and Canada, with both sides agreeing that it will improve market access and facilitate innovation for drug companies on both sides of the Atlantic.…

CANADA will start developing capacity to produce hormone-free meat for the European Union (EU) market following the conclusion of an EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), a senior European Commission official has said. The end of technical negotiations was formally announced on Friday (September 26) during an EU-Canada summit in Ottawa.…

THE EUROPEAN meat and livestock industry is anticipating the imminent lifting of BSE-related restrictions on European Union (EU) beef exports to Canada, as work on drafting an EU-Canada free trade agreement has concluded.

EU trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht told the European Parliament last week that the EU and Canada had completed their Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which will be unveiled on Friday in Ottawa.…

EURATEX, the Brussels-based European Apparel and Textile Confederation, yesterday hailed the completion of negotiations for a European Union (EU)-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, (CETA) adding however that it regrets that origin rules have been weakened for 15 garment clothing products under the deal.…

As anti-money laundering (AML) regulations become more complex and demanding, compliance technology and software providers are updating their solutions to screen more data, more efficiently, and present the results in a comprehensible way. Companies have been honing products to help clients switch to their software, dealing with problems such as incorporating old data from a legacy system; moving such data efficiently and accurately; and minimising errors by staff unused to the system.…

Trade–based money laundering (TBML) must be one of the oldest – and in some respects the simplest – forms of money laundering. You simply fake the invoice of a shipment so that the receiver of the goods gets something far more valuable (or possibly far less valuable, so that the ‘profit’ is made by the sender) than the price reported to the authorities.…

Canadian non-ferrous metal producers will be aided in accessing profitable European Union (EU) markets following Friday’s release of an EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) text in Ottawa, its industry leaders say. 

“Certainly we would welcome the opening of markets,” David Butler, executive director and general counsel at the Nickel Institute, told Metal Bulletin, underscoring the importance of the removal of tariffs and access to European markets for Canadian metal products and ores.…

THE CANADIAN auto industry has welcomed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) now negotiated between the European Union (EU) and Canada, but it may become more significant, if a trade deal is struck between the EU and the USA.

“The biggest issues with CETA, and what we’re excited about, is the removal of the EU 10% tariff,” said Jeffrey Pierce, policy analyst at Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, an industry association, whose members include Canada-based automotive manufacturers.…

THE END of European Union (EU) deliberations over whether to label Canadian oil sands as more polluting than conventional oil sources helped the EU and Canada agree a Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA), including energy policy, the Petroleum Review has been told.…

As farms and agricultural organisations face changing accounting demands from legislatures and financial institutions around the world, accountants face greater pressures to develop specialised agricultural knowledge.

Indeed, accounting services provided to the farming industry within the European Union (EU) are becoming increasingly important, notably because of reforms to the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), experts have told Accounting & Business.…

THE COMPREHENSIVE Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) concluded between the European Union (EU) and Canada in September is expected to significantly promote trade and investment between the EU and Canada. The agreement will scrap tariffs, open service sectors, and guarantee investment.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) oil refining industry is looking at September as the time when the European Commission may propose a new way to implement the bloc’s fuel quality directive (FQD). This would break a deadlock of almost three years, with Brussels tabling its last proposed technical rules on how the 2009 law should work in October 2011.…

Market dynamics are shifting east to west for the Canadian steel industry as demand from the country’s flourishing oil and gas industry outstrips traditional manufacturing.

Requiring CAD4 billion’s (USD3.76 billion) worth of steel annually, the country’s energy industry, overwhelmingly based in western Canada, currently represents more than a quarter of country’s demand for steel, which totals CAD14 billion (USD13.17 billion) annually, according to the Canadian Steel Producers Association (CPSA).…

Regulators participating in the International Cooperation on Cosmetics Regulation (ICCR) met in Ottawa, Canada for their annual meeting (July 8 – 10) to discuss how member countries could better harmonise regulatory requirements and standards, promoting trade, among their cosmetics and personal care industries.…

The Canadian book industry’s increasing reliance on best-selling “blockbuster” titles is causing significant rise and fall in yearly sales, according to the CEO of Canadian book sales service not-for-profit group BookNet Canada.

Noah Genner was speaking after Canada’s largest book retail chain Indigo felt the effects of there being no major selling title in 2013 – the company recently reported a significant net loss of CAD31 million in 2013, compared to profits of CAD4.3 million the year before.…

THE COMPREHENSIVE Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union (EU) and Canada has prompted hopes within the Canadian personal care industry that it can seize more future sales in Europe’s huge market. Industry figures told Soap Perfumery & Cosmetics that while they welcomed the duty reductions arising from the deal which was agreed in principle last October, what really encourages them is the prospect of regulatory harmonisation between the EU and Canada.…

LIVE pigs imported from the USA and Canada will henceforth be tested for porcine epidemic diarrhoea (PED) to prevent the disease being introduced to Europe from north America.

The controls have been approved by the European Union’s (EU) standing committee on the food chain and animal health (SCOFCAH).…

US-based Baker & Taylor and Canada-based Whitehots Inc have agreed to cooperate in offering Canadian libraries and schools a one-stop, cloud-based platform to acquire and distribute print and digital material. “What was missing in the [Canadian] market was a Canadian company that was able to sell both print and digital materials to Canadian public and school libraries,” said Russ Culver, CEO of Whitehots.…

CANADA’S Torstar Corp has told the Bookseller that it was not looking to sell its stake in romance novel publisher Harlequin Enterprises Limited, but the offer from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp was too good to pass up.

Torstar spokesman Bob Hepburn said yesterday (Tuesday): “Torstar had not been looking to sell (Harlequin), it has been and remains profitable.”…

A FREE trade agreement signed between Canada and South Korea could see increased investment by the nuclear fuel hungry Korea in Canada’s abundant uranium resources.

The agreement – inked on March 11, and Canada’s first with an Asian country – lays down rules on how South Korean investments should be made in Canada, with a focus on boosting transparency and predictability, according to a note from the Canadian government Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).…

ONE of the warmest fibres used in knitwear across the world is also – unsurprisingly – one of the rarest and most expensive, making the manufacturing of ‘qiviuk’ garments from musk ox wool a true art. Harvested from the soft underfur of this High Arctic musk ox, qiviuk fibre is long, does not shrink when washed and lacks the scales that makes sheep wool itchy.…

EUROPEAN and Canadian groundhandlers stand to benefit from the free trade agreement concluded between the European Union (EU) and Canada last October (2013).

While some technical details are still being ironed out, the European Commission, which handles trade negotiations on behalf of the 28 EU countries, announced that the EU had managed to boost access for EU groundhandlers to the Canadian airport market by opening up the country’s public procurement procedures to EU bidders.…

An official at the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA) has predicted to Steel First that the trade agreement struck between Canada and South Korea on Tuesday could increase demand for Korean-made steel.

The official, who had worked on the trade deal talks, explained that there were currently “no fixed plans” to create Korean car plants in Canada and also that any increased demand for Korean cars in Canada arising from the deal would probably not be met by the two Korean-owned plants in the USA (in Georgia and Alabama.)…

A TRADE agreement struck between Canada and South Korea this week (Tuesday March 11) has raised fears in the Canadian automobile about a potential increase in South Korean automotive exports.

Upon the agreement’s ratification (which may happen within a year), South Korea will remove all existing tariffs, including on all passenger cars and light trucks (8%) and all automotive parts (3% to 8%) exported from Canada.…

DINA O’MEARA, in Calgary

 …

EDUCATION institutions in Canada have interpreted changes to the nation’s copyright laws with impunity, threatening the sustainability of the publishing and creating industry, charges publishing and author representatives. Universities, colleges and schools are taking the inclusion of “short excerpts” in 2012 amendments to the Canada Copyright Act as allowing 10% of published material to be copied without licence, noted Carolyn Wood, executive director of the Association of Canadian Publishers.…

CANADIAN industrial mineral producers look set to benefit from a new free trade deal signed by their government with South Korea. Canada’s key potash sector is welcoming the agreement.

With South Korea being a key developed target market, lacking many mineral resources and needing to fertilize a strong agricultural sector, Canada already has a healthy industrial mineral trade with South Korea.…

The Aluminium Association of Canada has welcomed the striking of a Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement, saying it will help its industry boost sales to South Korea.

Once the deal has been ratified (probably within a year), 98.7% of tariffs levied on metal and minerals traded between the two countries will be eliminated.…

CANADIAN meat exporters have welcomed a Canada-South Korea free trade agreement announced yesterday (March 11), saying it will boost trade and help them compete for sales in South Korea’s often wealthy markets.

“The absence of an FTA [free trade agreement] with Korea was causing substantial and growing prejudice to the Canadian pork industry due to the tariff rates since all of our key competitors in South Korea have FTAs in place,” said Jean-Guy Vincent, chair of the Canadian Pork Council.…

THE USA’s Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are to combine efforts on pharmacovigilance, establishing a regular liaison system. An FDA note said discussions on shared pharmacovigilance issues will now take place between the agencies each month by teleconference.…

CANADIAN rapeseed oil and European olive oil stand to benefit the most from the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) concluded between the European Union (EU) and Canada last October (2013) experts predict.

The reason is that these are the two main products with major trade significance between the two when it comes to oils and fats, stressed an EU official.…

CANADIAN aviation technology company PolarSat and Germany’s BAY-SAT have been working together to update Sudan’s air traffic control network using a PolarSat satellite IP communications network.
The companies are currently in Sudan, installing the network in 12 airports, as well as the country’s new central air navigation centre in the capital city of Khartoum.…

POOR building construction and inadequate fire safety infrastructure are still putting Bangladesh garment factory workers at risk, according to initial inspections led by Brad Loewen, chief safety inspector for the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. Mr Loewen, a Canadian, is set to lead a team to inspect 1,500 factories this year, identifying ways that brands and factory owners can improve workplace safety in an industry plagued with factory fires and collapses.…

Canada’s higher education sector has welcomed a comprehensive strategy released by the Canadian government for recruiting more foreign students into its institutions.

Announcing a new International Education Strategy on Wednesday (Jan 15), the country’s international trade minister Ed Fast accepted that Canada could profit more from the lucrative global international student market.…

EUROPEAN carmakers, represented by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) in Brussels, want the standard of fuels available for sale in Europe to be maintained beyond 2020, when a European Union (EU) law on fuel quality may be weakened or scrapped.…

WITH the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) agreeing that all Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) it holds on its ELMER database will be deleted once they are older than six years, a long British debate balancing the needs of law enforcement and privacy has come to an end (at least temporarily).…

CANADIAN beef exporters are applauding Taiwan’s announcement last week that it will accept more Canadian beef imports, a decade after an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) – mad cow disease – sparked health concerns and closed markets to Canada. 

“We’re very happy to have this step.…

CANADA is making it easier for foreign nurses, including from Britain, to apply for licences by harmonising diverse requirements from its 10 provinces and three territories. This is the key goal of a National Nursing Assessment Service (NNAS) (http://www.nnas.ca/), set to launch August.…

WITH Canada and the European Union (EU) fleshing out details of a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), announced in October, paints and coatings trade between the two could experience long-term growth thorough the removal of key trade barriers – both tariff and regulatory measures.…

WITH Canada and the European Union (EU) fleshing out details of a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), announced in October, paints and coatings trade between the two could experience long-term growth thorough the removal of key trade barriers – both tariff and regulatory measures.…

WINNERS AND LOSERS

RETAIL

WINNERS

ASOS

Fashion retailer ASOS showed online convenience and price are still a winning combination with shoppers. The UK-based online retailer continued its impressive trajectory this year, announcing pre-tax profit had reached GBP54.7m (US$88.3m) for the year ending 31 August, compared to GBP40m in the same period of last year, with retail sales jumping 40% to GBP753.8m, up from GBP537.9m last year. …

BRANDS and environmental groups are calling on the apparel and textile industry to use alternatives to wood pulp-based fibres such as rayon and viscose sourced from endangered forests as demand for these fibres is expected to explode.

Forest-based fabrics make up about 5% of total textile industry inputs, but demand is expected to increase by 112% in the next 40 years, said Nicole Rycroft, executive director of Canada-based non-profit organisation, Canopy.…

THE GOVERNMENT of Québec has confirmed it will table legislation in the New Year expected to limit discounts on new books to 10%. And while the move would address an important challenge facing independent booksellers, it would hurt the sector in general, said the Canadian bookselling industry.…

THE EXPLOITATION of virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Peercoin and Namecoin, to name but a few, by money launderers is an emerging concern amongst anti-money laundering (AML) regulators. They may not be legal tender, but they are convertible if owners can find institutions or people willing to turn them into fiat currency.…

Cameco – Canada’s leading uranium producer – has given a cautious welcome to the prospect of eased restrictions on European investment in Canada’s uranium industry as part of the recently agreed Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union (EU).…

THE RECENTLY concluded Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union (EU) and Canada may bring opportunities for European producers of Oriental tobacco, Antonio Abrunhosa, chief executive of the International Tobacco Growers’ Association (ITGA) has told Tobacco Journal International.…

International trade agreements might seem of little importance to the world of nursing – think again. The European Union (EU) has recently struck a comprehensive deal with Canada and is negotiating one with the USA that goes far beyond the usual scope of reducing tariffs on goods.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Canadian paints and coatings exporters are to benefit from a new free trade deal struck between the EU and Canada. Once the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) has been ratified (probably in 2015), it will lead to all existing non-food duties imposed on good traded between the parties being scrapped.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Canadian oil exporters are to benefit from a new free trade deal struck between the EU and Canada. Once the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) has been ratified (probably in 2015), it will lead to all existing non-food duties imposed on goods traded between the parties being scrapped.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) pharma companies are set to benefit from a new free trade deal struck between the EU and Canada, with Canada liberalising its patent protection rules. Once the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) has been ratified (probably in 2015), Canada will lock its practice of providing eight years’ market exclusivity, with a six year block on applications for generic drugs, and a two-year ‘no-marketing’ period when generic manufacturers can prepare medicines for sale.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Canadian plastics exporters are to benefit from a new free trade deal struck between the EU and Canada. Once the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) has been ratified (probably in 2015), it will lead to all existing non-food duties imposed on good traded between the parties being scrapped.…

CANADA’S international environmental reputation has taken a beating in the past decade, dropping out of the Kyoto Protocol and developing emissions-rich production oil sands for a world that is hungry for its energy products. But Canada’s Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) is seeking to address that problem by encouraging environmental reporting, helping to set fiscal terms of reference for the country’s emerging clean energy economy.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Canadian confectioners can look forward to increasing their trans-Atlantic trade once a new free trade agreement between the EU and Canada comes into force, probably in 2015.

The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), announced on October 18, will remove most tariffs for confectionery and sweet bakery products imposed by both sides on each other’s exports.…

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has provisionally recommended that exposure levels to food consumers from the plastic packaging chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) be lowered sharply. This follows a review of more than 450 studies, which identified “likely” damage to consumers’ livers, kidneys and potential harm to mammary glands “linked to exposure to the chemical.”…

The European and Canadian steel industries have welcomed the recently agreed free trade agreement between Canada and the European Union (EU). Senior officials from both sides say their steel exports should rise as a result, especially from the mutual liberalisation of public procurement contracts.…

Given its location, political actors and recent history, Lebanon has long been under the international regulatory spotlight. The US Treasury’s fingering of the Lebanese Canadian Bank in 2011 for money laundering concerns rocked its financial sector. Beirut has since been scrambling to address any short-comings, while at the same time dealing with sanctions on neighbouring Syria.…

Canadian mineral products exporters are optimistic that the free trade agreement struck between Canada and the European Union (EU) last Friday will increase sales of Canadian minerals to Europe. The Mining Association of Canada supports the deal in principle, said its spokesperson Johanne Senécal.…

Canadian non-ferrous metal and metal product exporters are optimistic that the free trade agreement struck between Canada and the European Union (EU) last Friday will increase sales of Canadian metal to Europe.

Jeffrey Pierce, policy analyst for the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters organisation told Metal Bulletin: “To be able to remove tariffs and open a market of 500 million new consumers for Canadian mining and mineral organisations, that’s a tremendous opportunity,” he added.                                                                                                     …

For manufacturers looking for a cost effective fibre in current global markets, cotton prices are at last stabilising following the last few years’ price distortions and increases, said Mark Messura, US-based Cotton Incorporated’s senior vice president of global supply chain marketing.…

THE RECENTLY agreed free trade agreement between Canada and the European Union (EU) could spark a major increase in European apparel exports to Canada competitors, Bob Kirke, executive director of the Canadian Apparel Federation, has told just-style. “It could have a significant impact,” he said.…

The free trade agreement struck between the EU and Canada will remove a requirement that Canadian spirits companies only import bulk spirits from the EU for blending with domestic spirits. The Canadian government yesterday (Wednesday) announced “the removal of the federal blending requirement for imported distilled spirits,” would be part of the agreement, announced October 18.…

THE FREE trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and Canada concluded last week (CETA) will open the Canadian market for airport groundhandling services to European providers, according to an EU source participating in the negotiations.

“We have not only regained a level-playing field with Canada’s NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement] partners, but we have also been able to exceed that in some areas, such as groundhandling services in airports,” the official explained to Jane’s Airport Review at a background briefing in Brussels.…

THE SCALE of the European Union (EU) market access secured for Canadian meat exporters within the free trade agreement struck between the EU and Canada has been made clear by the the Canadian government. It yesterday (Wednesday) revealed details of the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), announced October 18.…

EUROPEAN AND Canadian meat traders are looking to boost overseas sales after today’s formal announcement of the widely anticipated Canada-European Union (EU) Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

Speaking in Brussels, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said: “We were able to strike a very good balance between our offensive and defensive interests [in agriculture],” while noting that this area was particularly sensitive during the negotiations.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) regulators are tangling with the difficulty of tightening rules-of-origin for meat products, given the potentially significant number of manufacturing stages required. The European Commission and European Parliament have been considering their response to the horse meat labelling scandal.…

THE INSURANCE risks involved in oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) are rising in line with growing industry complexity and the move into deeper, remoter and more environmentally sensitive environments.

This is placing ever greater demands on the need to identify, quantify and insure against risk, particularly when the financial and reputational repercussions of getting it wrong are escalating too.…

Calls to streamline and coordinate the myriad initiatives taken to prevent another factory fire or collapse in Bangladesh dominated a two-hour debate on the aftermath of the Rana Plaza disaster in April held by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development last month (June  26-7).…

A PUSH by the G8 group of the world’s seven most industrialised nations plus Russia to improve extractive industry transparency and openness can help industrial minerals companies manage the payments they make in developing counties, as they will only have to follow one set of rules, according to Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh.…

THE CANADIAN industrial minerals sector has told its government how it wants upcoming extractive industry transparency rules to be written. Its advice follows a promise by the country’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper to table legislation fighting mining industry corruption, made at the recent G8 summit in Northern Ireland.…

THE PLANS of Canada’s conservative government to record conversations in specific areas of certain airports are on hold pending a review from the country’s privacy commissioner, following a public backlash over privacy concerns.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is currently waiting on the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to submit a privacy impact assessment of its plans before conducting a review, said Scott Hutchinson, spokesperson for the commissioner.…

While the American civil aviation sector has its problems, the long term future is bright, according to the USA’s Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA). In a groundbreaking forecast released last March (2012), it predicted the US industry would grow steadily over the next 20 years, reaching 1.2 billion passengers flying commercially by 2024, compared to 731 million in 2011.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a detailed action plan designed to boost energy innovation and new technology across the European Union (EU). Written as a ‘communication’ policy paper, it stresses: “EU energy technology and innovation strategy is an integral part of the EU energy policy.”…

THE CANADIAN government has announced that from November 8, pharma manufacturers within Canada will have to abide by global good manufacturing practice (GMP) standards for their active ingredient production. 

Based on the International Conference on Harmonisation’s (ICH) Q7 Guidance, which has thus far been voluntary within Canada, the new rules would, claimed Canadian health minister Leona Aglukkaq, mean “the current high standards of drug safety in Canada are getting even stronger.”…

THE RECENT industrial accidents that have marred the reputation of Bangladesh’s knitwear outsourcing industry have increased the pressure on the small firms in the sector to merge so they can improve investment in equipment and premises.

Last year’s Tazreen Fashions fire and the factory collapse in April have prompted questions in the global knitwear sector about its “race to the bottom” low cost gambit, unleashing public outrage and calls for improved factory conditions and better safety regulations.   …

Drinks packaging design has always been about communicating with consumers – whether it is broadcasting a brand image or delivering information. And with new technologies aiding communication in many ways, interaction is a key theme with international beverage packaging designers today.…

AT a time when the world seems increasingly led by lifelong politicians, it is perhaps refreshing to hear from a political leader who has a solid background in business, and such is former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Speaking to Accountancy Futures, he showed how more than half-a-century of business and public life can be brought to bear in financial and commercial mentorship.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) recent decision to impose antidumping duties on imports of bioethanol from the United States is triggering fears that trade remedy measures may become the new tool of choice for protecting domestic biofuel producers from foreign competitors.

EU ministers decided on February 18 to impose a definitive (long-term) antidumping duty of Euro EUR0.63 cents per metric tonne on US bioethanol imports in response to a complaint from the European Renewable Ethanol Association (ePURE).…

EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) farmers association Copa-Cogeca has warned today (Friday) that the EU beef sector is “catastrophic situation”, arguing that it was no time to increase access to EU beef markets through bilateral trade talks.

Negotiations with Canada are close to completion and the Canadian government is pushing for better EU market access for its beef exporters.…

NICHOLAS Hoare, Canada’s specialist British book retailer is closing for good, after its eponymous 70-year-old founder decided to retire and move to a stately house in rural Nova Scotia, in eastern Canada.

The chain has been contracting, closing its Ottawa store last April and its Montreal branch on New Year’s Day, and finally its Toronto flagship outlet on April 1.…

SUCCESSION issues are a significant and growing challenge for companies and could be an opportunity for qualified accountants who may step up internally or be drafted in to even become the next CEO or CFO.

“Many businesses spend very little time, if any, thinking through who will lead the various aspects of their business in the future,” said Karen Young, a director for the senior finance section of global recruitment experts Hays, and whose remit includes qualified accountancy jobs including finance director, financial controller, management accountant, financial accountant, or practice accounting.…

A REGIONAL airport on Vancouver Island, British Colombia, has received Canadian dollars CAD1.3 million (USD1.26 million) in Canadian federal government funding to make lighting safety improvements. The money will fund new apron and taxiway lighting plus runway edge lighting circuits at Campbell River Airport.…

A golden age of mobile communications is dawning, with consumers worldwide spending more money on hand-held comms devices than ever before. But service providers beware. They must be smart to capture new revenue streams from apps, audiovisual delivery, social media and data services, lest these new riches are diverted into the hands of content owners and OTT service providers.…

CHINA is poised to promote the collection and utilisation of fly ash generated from coal power plants.

The government urban mining plan, which comes into effect on March 1, overhauls an existing fly ash management strategy that has been in place for almost a decade, said a communiqué from the powerful National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).…

THE INTERNATIONAL mining community may have to negotiate harder and pay more to secure mining concessions in mineral-rich Greenland after the opposition won the autonomous territory’s general election on Tuesday.

The left-leaning Siumut party is now expected to head a new ruling coalition in partnership with the centre-right Atassut and green-tinged Partii Inuit.…

WHILE Alaska’s mining industry has seen impressive growth in output through 2012, with high commodity prices for gold and silver in particular boosting exploration and production, experts predict a relatively flat performance in 2013.

At the lowermost rung of the value ladder is coal, a sector adversely impacted by both slack global demand and increasing competition from alternative fuel sources.…

IT is every telecoms customer’s bad dream. Something has gone wrong with a phone or an app; a bill has an unexpected and thoroughly irritating additional charge. A call to the customer care centre is made – and replying (after a long wait) is an ill-educated, dense company representative, whose only goal – it seems – is to get you off the line.…

ARE people working in industries targeted by organised crime – such as financial services and shipping, more likely to engage in criminal activity than others – and if so, why? Are criminals attracted to certain vulnerable structures in those industries or are some industries more likely to attract dishonest employees than others?…

FOR critics who claim financial reporting is boring – accounting professionals should point to Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page. He has created a unit with a limited staff and budget, taking on a government with a taste for secrecy, and still released reports revealing cost assessments that have made headlines.…

COUNTERFEIT cash can be a most useful tool for money launderers. When made properly, high value notes can be moved around the world and spent without recourse to banks, credit card operators and other financial institutions.  And with the increasing sophistication digital counterfeiting technology, this criminal industry is today a truly global enterprise: high quality banknotes can be faked almost anywhere in the world.…

ETHIOPIA’S potential as a source of industrial minerals is beginning to be realised, with a growing number of exploration and mining projects underway, and rapidly increasing foreign investment.
To date, its Ministry of Mines has granted 72 industrial minerals exploration licenses – 61 to foreign companies, eight to Ethiopian/foreign joint ventures, and three to local companies; and 52 mining licenses – 28 to foreign companies, 17 to Ethiopian/foreign joint ventures, and seven to local companies.…

Free trade talks between the European Union (EU) and Canada have hit a last minute impasse, with the EU demanding more access to Canadian dairy markets and Canada wanting to sell more meat products in the EU.

Milk, poultry and eggs are subject to production marketing controls in Canada and so the Canadian government is only offering small import quotas in dairy products for European exports, while demanding significant EU meat import quotas.…

SHIFTS in mine developments in the far north of Canada has led to some sharp swings in traffic to remote airports without air traffic control. Data from Statistics Canada, the national statistical agency has shown that for August 2012, the number of take-offs and landings for 132 Canadian airports without air traffic control towers reached 70,236 movements: Peterborough, Ontario (3,862 flights) and Goose Bay, Newfoundland & Labrador (3,486) were the most active.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

WINNERS

Bangladesh

Despite its well-trailed labour and environmental problems, analysts still backed Bangladesh as having the potential to become a long term apparel sourcing hotspot. Indeed, ready-made garment exports could triple within a decade, as buyers move sourcing away from China, according to research by McKinsey & Company.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, RAGHAVENDRA VERMA AND KITTY SO

THE DEMAND for eco-friendly additives is growing and will continue to, as long as the paints and coatings incorporating them have a similar price and functionality those with regular additives, according to Carine Lefèvre, general manager at the Belgium-based Coatings Research Institute (CoRI).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Japanese plastics exporters could benefit from a future free trade deal, with the European Commission announcing that formal trade talks between these two developed world giants will go ahead. Brussels’ directorate general for trade is stressing that Japan must make offers to remove its notoriously tough non-tariff barriers – such as trade licensing, declarations, inspections, labelling, certification, port clearance and other red tape and other red tape – for the talks to succeed.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

IF a man can make a better mousetrap than his neighbour, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, the American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson was (erroneously) quoted as having written in the nineteenth century. Solar power researchers in the USA and Canada claim to have built not just one, but two better ‘mousetraps’ by coming up with a paradigm-shifting approach to improving both the electrical and thermal efficiencies of thin-film hybrid photovoltaic thermal (PV/T) devices.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS, IN CALGARY

A SHORTAGE of nurses in Canada following several years of health care restructuring and hospital downsizing could mean an abundance of opportunities for British professionals, who are willing to make the hop across the pond.

"In certain regions of the country there’s an acute shortage of medical doctors, nurses and other practitioners, and those shortages will only grow as our population ages.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS, IN CALGARY

Dr Tarnia Taverner, assistant professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Nursing knows the transition from British to Canadian nursing is not seamless. She came to Canada from England 10-years-ago as a clinical nurse, when her British army officer husband was posted in Alberta.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, IN TOKYO

THE JAPANESE government has signalled that it will relax its rules on beef imports in the early part of 2013.

After hearing the opinions of a 13-strong expert panel, ministers said they would raise the age limit on livestock used to source beef imports to 30 months from the present 20 months.…

BY KITTY SO, IN OTTAWA

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has agreed to drop demands to introduce criminal sanctions to pharmaceutical copying similar to those proposed in the stalled Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) within its ongoing free trade negotiations with Canada, Manufacturing Chemist has been told.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

STATE-of-the-art fraud detection and prevention tools are being developed worldwide, but while these work overtime to generate fraud alerts and flag suspicious behaviour, investigation and case management is struggling to cope with these new sophisticated technologies.

Douglas Russell, director of UK-based fraud and security risk management consultancy DFR Risk Management Ltd, agreed if there are insufficient skilled personnel to follow up alerts, then the full benefits of these systems cannot be realised: "While appropriate responses will vary depending upon what has been highlighted by the systems, best practice includes not only prioritising…high value/high volume fraud categories but also those incidents which may be considered novel or previously undetected," he said.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN, IN EDMONTON

THE CANADIAN government and the country’s meat industry have announced a joint action plan to enable hard-pressed pig farmers survive a perfect storm of low prices, high feed costs and trade problems, including the strong Canadian dollar.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN, IN EDMONTON

CANADIAN beef producers have welcomed the resumption of work at the XL Foods Inc. Lakeside plant, which had been closed in September, following an E-coli outbreak. The Brooks, southern Alberta, plant received a new operating licence from Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) last week.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

THE CANADIAN government has confirmed that it will not interfere with the Québec government’s plans to close down the province’s asbestos mining industry, declaring the country’s controversial trade to be at an end. Instead, Ottawa plans on supporting international efforts to list asbestos as a hazardous material under a global agreement to warn importers of potential dangers of the product.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

September 11, 2012

A THREAT by the Parti Québécois (PQ) – the newly elected separatist government of Canada’s Québec province – to withdraw a USD58.8 million loan to the last Canadian asbestos mine has left the mining community feeling marginalised and concerned for the future of the chrysotile operations.…

BY DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS

THREE years ago, the Group of Twenty (G20) finance ministers and central bank governors stated the organisation’s intention was to "rationalise and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption".…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS, IN CALGARY

DESPITE an expanded list of recalls announced this week by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), on beef products from Alberta-based XL Foods, the industry does not expect Canada’s largest-ever beef recall damage domestic and foreign consumer demand.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

DESPITE the hype around the growing popularity of electronic books (e-books) in recent years, a new study published today (October 10) has found that the majority of Canadians still prefer their books in print format – at least for now.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN, IN EDMONTON

CANADA’S federal food inspection agency has released a new set of standards for biosecurity in beef products, which will aim to minimise the spread of endemic and infectious foreign diseases while strengthening the Canada’s beef industry.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

INTERNATIONAL travel in the last decade has become exponentially more secure, with countries all around the globe having reformed their systems to cope with transnational crime in a post-9/11 world – largely, through the increased collection, processing and legislation of passenger information.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN RIO DE JANEIRO

THE WORLD’S energy ministers are pondering policy responses to ‘The Future We Want’, a document summarising recommendations from the United Nations (UN) Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) which ended June 22 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

AT a time where concern is increasing about the transmission to new generations of regional languages across North America and worldwide, in southeastern New Brunswick, young people are embracing a hybrid dialect called ‘Chiac’ – and they find it "right dla fun".…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

The Canadian government’s long-awaited copyright reforms have finally been passed by the country’s House of Commons, and there are concerns that the legislation could deter publishers from providing books to Canada’s universities and colleges.

The new law adds ‘education’ – the term is otherwise undefined – as a purpose under ‘fair dealing’, which, according to Carolyn Wood, executive director of the Canadian Association of Publishers, means "copying need not be compensated if the purpose of the copying is education."…

BY BILL CORCORAN, IN CAPE TOWN

SOUTH Africa has deposits of rare earth elements (REEs) to rival that of Australia, and the country is poised to take advantage of this increasingly strategic resource, according to Mintek, the government’s mineral technology organisation.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

OPERATIONS at Canada’s largest open-pit asbestos mine will be re-starting shortly, with exports of chrysotile set to begin within a year, following the signing of a financing agreement between the Québec government and a consortium of shareholders.

Mine Jeffrey’s Canadian dollar CAD83 million (USD 81.45 million) financing agreement to restart operations – which includes a CAD25 million investment from shareholders of the mine, and a CAD58 million loan bearing 10% interest – will help the Asbestos, Québec, mine complete the construction of its underground infrastructure, rendering the mine productive for the next 20 years, at least.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN, IN EDMONTON

WHEN Percy Henry was a young boy, there was no TV or radio for his childhood entertainment. Instead, the resident of Dawson City, Yukon, remembers working at the community’s sawmill, where he was rewarded for his hard work with stories told by elders.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

Similar to the majority of other industries in today’s gloomy economy, the food sector is faced with the need to cut costs and improve efficiency across the board – something which ERP systems can help companies realise. However, the idea of implementing a brand new management system in an already delicate financial environment can make some companies wary, as choosing the wrong system could mean a huge loss in terms of investments, training time and a company’s bottom line.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

Food manufacturers, distributors and suppliers worldwide are looking to enterprise resource planning (ERP) computer systems to help streamline their businesses, and make the shift from using basic, disconnected food industry software. A holistic ERP system can replace multiple databases with a single, centralised data source, with information relating to products, services, customers and suppliers accessible by anyone in a company.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN, IN EDMONTON

EXPERTS, industry and provincial and municipal governments met this month [June] to discuss progress and improvements to a set of detailed guidelines for planning, defining, and integrating intelligent transportation systems specifically for Canada’s needs. ‘The ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems Architecture for Canada 2.0’ is the country’s second such set of detailed guidance.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

Although ERP systems have long been present in the food industry – at least for large multinational companies – the sector’s increasing competitiveness, and focus on regulation and traceability is really propelling the adoption of these systems. And as ERP systems continue to become an integral part of food sector, experts in the industry are predicting the emergence of certain trends.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

Food manufacturers, distributors and suppliers worldwide are looking to enterprise resource planning (ERP) computer systems to help streamline their businesses, and make the shift from using basic, disconnected food industry software. A holistic ERP system can replace multiple databases with a single, centralised data source, with information relating to products, services, customers and suppliers accessible by anyone in a company.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

Similar to the majority of other industries in today’s gloomy economy, the food sector is faced with the need to cut costs and improve efficiency across the board – something which ERP systems can help companies realise. However, the idea of implementing a brand new management system in an already delicate financial environment can make some companies wary, as choosing the wrong system could mean a huge loss in terms of investments, training time and a company’s bottom line.…

BY ANDREW MARAMWIDZE, IN GABORONE

Canadian metals miner Hana Mining has told an international mining conference in Botswana that it is projecting 3.6 million tonnes of ore production from its planned second copper-silver mine in Botswana’s Kalahari Copperbelt. Speaking to the on-going Botswana Resource Sector Conference in the capital Gaborone today, Johannes Tsimako regional manager for the Vancouver-based company, said: "The project is getting bigger, there is a lot of potential that is still untapped."…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

Although ERP systems have long been present in the food industry – at least for large multinational companies – the sector’s increasing competitiveness, and focus on regulation and traceability is really propelling the adoption of these systems. And as ERP systems continue to become an integral part of food sector, experts in the industry are predicting the emergence of certain trends.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The European Commission and Greenland have signed a letter of intent that could increase the role of European Union (EU) metal and mining companies in the development of Greenlandic metal and other mineral resources.

The autonomous north Atlantic territory has a wealth of deposits being explored.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

European Commission signs today agreement of cooperation with Greenland on raw materials

To improve access of EU industry to raw materials at an affordable price, the European Commission wishes to intensify cooperation with Greenland benefitting both sides, such as joint infrastructures and investments or capacity building in exploration and exploitation of raw materials.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The European Commission and Greenland have signed a letter of intent that could increase the role of European Union (EU) mining companies in the development of the autonomous territory’s considerable mineral resources.

EU industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani and development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs have struck a deal with Greenland Prime Minister Kuupik Kleis over future EU involvement in exploration and exploitation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The European Commission and Greenland have signed a letter of intent that could increase the role of European Union (EU) industrial mineral companies in the development of Greenlandic mineral resources, including rare earths.

EU industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani and development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs have struck a deal with Greenland Prime Minister Kuupik Kleis over future EU involvement in exploration and exploitation.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN, IN EDMONTON

WINTER is a dangerous time for Canadian drivers. Sleet, hail, snow and ice are threats from November to late March, depending on the region. Parts of the east coast province of Newfoundland experience an average 4.43 metres (14ft 6ins) of winter snowfall.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN, IN EDMONTON

GOOD roads and bridges are so vital to efficient transportation in industrialised countries that central or federal governments often assign annual budgets to them.

Canadians need look no further for an example than the USA, where the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) dispenses financial assistance to support state and local governments in building, maintaining and improving highways.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS, IN OTTAWA

AS regards Francophone Canadian literature and English Canadian literature, the ‘two solitudes’ are often present in the context of the country’s book market – with clear divides between English and French publishing houses, retailers and distributors – but what about within the literature itself?…

BY KITTY SO, IN OTTAWA

BRITISH nurses are not alone in receiving wider prescribing powers that would include special classes of government regulated drugs, considered prone to greater potential for abuse: Canadian nurses are also gaining similar responsibilities.

The UK government changed legislation in April, to expand the prescribing and drug mixing powers of pharmacists and nurses to cover ‘controlled drugs,’ which the government falling under two legislations: the Medicines Act, managed by the UK Department of Health, and the Misuse of Drugs Act, which is controlled by the Home Office.…

BY KITTY SO, IN OTTAWA

Scrap metal dealers in the Pacific coast Canadian province of British Columbia will face tighter regulations from July 23, as its government struggles with widespread thefts of high-value metals. Henceforth, British Columbian dealers trying to sell metals including aluminum, bronze, brass, lead, nickel, zinc and magnesium – often targeted by thieves – will need to provide identification.…

BY KITTY SO, IN OTTAWA

The Canadian minister of the environment has established a three-member review panel to assess, for the second time, the environmental impact of a proposed project at one of Canada’s largest undeveloped gold-copper deposits.

Its probe will consider a proposed 20-year development of the New Prosperity Gold-Copper Mine Project in British Columbia, located north of Vancouver about 125 km southwest of Williams Lake, by Vancouver -based mining company Taseko.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS, IN OTTAWA

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is initiating investigations into alleged "injurious" dumping and subsidising of certain steel piping manufactured in or exported from China.

The probe follows a complaint issued by Ontario’s Atlas Tube Canada Inc.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

IT is now 30 years since Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into being – and the rights it entrenched for Canadian citizens are still being used to defend minority language communities. Only this year, the Prince Edward Island French language school board has used its language provisions to support a lawsuit it has filed against the provincial government.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS, IN OTTAWA

FOR a stranger living in a strange land, Louise Penny does not feel so out of place – the Toronto-born, Anglophone writer cannot imagine calling anywhere home then Québec’s Eastern Townships.

Penny, the author behind the successful Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mystery series (set primarily in the fictional Québec village of Three Pines) has drawn on her own experience as an Anglophone living in a primarily Francophone community to paint a backdrop for the majority of her works.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

IN comparison to larger publishing hubs such as France, the USA or Britain, Canada’s literary market has always been regarded as relatively small in global terms. And at a time when the hard copy publishing industry is struggling as a whole, there have been some concerns that Canada’s two official languages – which effectively split an already undersized book market – could be further exacerbating pressures.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

CANADA’s food industry is putting on a brave face after the sacking of approximately 100 government food inspectors this week due to major federal government budget cutbacks, telling just-food that high health standards will be maintained.

"Our food safety system includes robust screening and monitoring by both government agencies and industry," said Susan Abel, senior director of product safety and trade regulation at industry association Food and Consumer Products of Canada, in response to the cuts.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND KITTY SO, IN OTTAWA; AND CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

KNOWING how to speak two languages in a country where there are two official languages is always going to be a good bet. But as well as the delights of knowing you peanuts from your arachides and your gelée from your jelly, there are whole host of additional cognitive advantages to mastering two tongues rather than one.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS, IN OTTAWA

AFTER a week of media speculation that independent Canadian bookseller Nicholas Hoare would be closing the doors of his namesake stores in Ottawa and Montreal, it has been confirmed that both locations will be shutting down, largely due to huge rent increases.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

While Ontario’s tobacco growing industry has faced hard times in recent years – with production reaching an all-time low back in 2008 – the sector is now gaining back some of its lost momentum. Tobacco leaf production has stabilised since the removal of the tobacco quota system back in 2009, and the industry is now seeing rising production numbers and renewed interests from the export market.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE US government is appealing against a World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruling that its country-of-origin rules for various foodstuffs are so tough, they break global trade agreements. Canada and Mexico had successfully brought dispute proceedings against the US over America’s COOL (country-of-origin labelling) rules.…

BY MEGAN DETRIE, IN CAIRO

A YEAR after the break out of the civil war in Libya which ousted Colonel Muammar Gaddafi from power – but paralysed the economy – the north African country’s airports are just now beginning to reopen, with construction projects likely to resume in the coming months.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

AFTER five years of work – not to mention delays and complications – the New Quito International Airport is finally poised for completion this coming October, and is set to pave the way for significant increases in trade and tourism in Ecuador’s capital city.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN, IN EDMONTON

CANADA’S diamond industry is blossoming into a world leader as the third largest producer of rough diamonds, after Botswana and Russia. But ready profits from valuable natural resources can encourage crime, specifically money laundering. Leah Germain investigates the country’s current legislation and precautions taken by the industry to prevent the laundering of assets through the purchase of diamonds.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN, IN EDMONTON

CANADA’S smaller iron ore producers stand to benefit from the recent announcement by the Canadian federal government to fund modernisations at an important shipping port in northern Quebec. A project to improve the Port of Sept-Îles will do ahead with a Canadian dollar CAD55 million public investment, matching similar investments from the port authority in a CAD220million expansion project.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) is establishing a disputes panel to rule on whether feed-in tariff systems can limit their subsidies to electricity produced by locally-made technology – or whether such conditions break global commerce rules. That is the view of the European Union (EU), which has brought this case against Canada.…

BY KACI RACELMA, IN TIZI OUZOU, ALGERIA

ALGERIA: Ongoing reforms transform the north African country’s research and education landscape

Kaci Racelma

Significant education reforms are on the horizon for Algeria’s higher education sector, with the latest push being the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers’ approval of a scientific and technological agreement with this north African country.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS, IN OTTAWA

DESPITE the growing popularity of e-books sales worldwide, Canadian physical book sales held up this Christmas. "Over the holiday season, the Canadian print book market saw a very slight decrease in sales," said Samantha Francis, spokeswoman for not-for-profit agency BookNet Canada, which tracks the sales of 75% of print books in Canada.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN, IN EDMONTON

CANADA’S Lomiko Metals Inc. has launched the latest campaign to explore southwestern Quebec’s rich natural graphite reserves with its January 5th acquisition of the Quatre Milles graphite property.

Vancouver-based Lomiko purchased the property, located 175 km northwest of Quebec’s capital, Montreal, from fellow Canadian miners Zimtu Capital Corp.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

WHILE the thought of bundling up in big knit sweater to brave the cold is how knitwear is usually marketed around the world, over in Canada – where winters are trite with snowstorms, and temperatures drop well below zero degrees Celsius – wearing a wool jumper in a blizzard to clean 10 centimetres of snow and ice off your car is not exactly practical.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

A KEY cosmetics ingredient has secured a clean bill of health in Canada despite a 14-month review over environmental health concerns. The country’s environment ministry concluded that Siloxane D5, which helps blends and formulate cosmetics, is safe and its use should be unrestricted.…

BY LEAH GERMAN

DESPITE this week being awarded the mining rights for a major iron ore deposit in Afghanistan, Canadian company Kilo Goldmines Ltd has announced that it will step down as leaders on this project but retain a 20% interest in the venture.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed its long-awaited package of measures designed to prevent major oil or gas rig accidents that could pollute European Union (EU) waters. They have been collated into a proposed regulation, which would have to be followed to the letter by member states, if the proposal is approved by MEPs and EU ministers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) has ruled American beef and pork product origin labelling rules are so tight they breach a global trade agreement. A WTO disputes panel has backed a Canadian complaint about US rules insisting pork or beef products sold in America must be born, raised and slaughtered in the United States to carry a ‘made-in-the-USA’ label.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

THE DIRECTOR for the United Steelworkers Union (USU) in Ontario and Atlantic Canada has welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada to reject a constitutional appeal by US Steel against the Canadian government in a row about a steel plant takeover.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

The recent 100% acquisition of UK voice and data communications company Airwave Solutions by Australian-based banking group Macquarie Group is the latest example of an investment company taking over a telco, writes MJ Deschamps. The Australian group’s Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund II (MEIF II) already owned just over 50% of Airwave, and is now buying all the stock.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS

A spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of a possible Greek Euro exit and default. GrExit, as it has been termed, could have catastrophic repercussions for European and possibly the global economy or it could provide some kind of solution for the troubled Eurozone and the heavily indebted country.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Trade Organisation’s (WTO) disputes settlement panel will assess whether a feed-in-tariff favouring renewable energy production in Ontario, Canada, breaks global commerce rules banning governments giving certain special treatment to domestic businesses. Japan brought the case complaining long-term pricing guarantees offered by the Ontario’s system depend on a proportion of green energy being produced in Canada.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

The Québec provincial government has decided to grant yet another funding

extension to the consortium of investors trying to breathe life back into one

Canada’s last remaining asbestos mines.

Guy Versailles, spokesman for the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, Québec, said that he

is "confident" that the financing needed to go ahead with the planned

underground expansion of the mine will be in place by 1 October.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

GROUP buying’ is the new Internet-based system for food manufacturers that allows them to sell direct to consumers, potentially bypassing retailers altogether. Offering bargains appealing to post-recession frugality and tapping into the popularity of social media, ‘group buying’ deal-of-the-day websites such as Chicago-based Groupon and Washington DC-based LivingSocial are becoming increasingly popular for all consumer goods and services in Europe and north America, and spawning niche imitators specialising in food and drink.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

STIFF competition both domestically and abroad, paired with mature markets in western economies, explain lacklustre first half financial figures from mobile telecommunications manufacturers and from telecoms equipment vendors, analysts say.

Selected results for H1 2011 illustrate what happens when manufacturers fall behind in introducing competitive mobile phones.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

IN a drive to combat the illegal exploitation of conflict minerals and create greater transparency of money flows between mining companies and governments, the European Commission is to table a new European Union (EU) law this autumn. It will ask large mining companies to reveal detail about their mining activities and associated financial transactions to shareholders.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

THE CANADIAN federal government is planning to scrap the legal monopoly operated by Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) for grains grown in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and parts of British Columbia. The legal requirement that farmers in this area sell wheat and barley to the CWB would disappear on August 1, 2012.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CANADIAN oil and gas company has fallen victim to the first major conviction under the country’s international anti-corruption laws. Calgary-based Niko Resources pleaded guilty to bribing a Bangladeshi energy minister. Niko CEO Ed Sampson said the company had appointed a chief compliance officer "to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CANADIAN oil company has been subject to the first major conviction under the country’s 1999 Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act. Calgary-based Niko Resources pleaded guilty to bribing a Bangladeshi energy minister, being fined Canadian dollars CAD9.49 million (USD9.99 million).…

BY MARK ROWE

CO-GENERATION (or combined-heat and power – CHP) plants operate using a variety of technologies: gas turbines, fuel cells, Stirling engines, gas or diesel engines and combined cycle gas turbines. According to the Joint Research Centre (JRC) – the European Union’s (EU) scientific and technical research body – natural gas is currently the preferred fuel across Europe for co-gen, with combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) and gas turbine plants expected to become the predominant future technology for large-scale units.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

CANADIAN publishers have attacked the decision by the country’s biggest bookshop chain Indigo Books & Music Inc, to stock fewer books and evaluate returns on a shorter timeframe. They claim it is putting extra pressure on the publishing industry when digital technology is already imposing major challenges.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE

Airport security operators may soon be using a new breed of scanning technology if innovation from Canadian technology company VOTI is approved by authorities.

At the Dubai Airport Show, VOTI told Jane’s Airport Review that its scanners were already being piloted at some courthouses and prisons in Canada, with good results.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CANADIAN government has been attacked by environmentalists for blocking an international agreement over the notification of exports of asbestos to importing countries. At a Geneva meeting this week of the fifth conference of parties to the Rotterdam Convention on hazardous chemicals, Canada has opposed placing chrysotile asbestos on the agreement’s Annex III.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

WHILE Japanese engineers have built robots over the years that resemble pets, play football, and mimic human facial expressions, when the Fukushima nuclear plant starting emitting radioactivity after the recent tsunami, Japan had to look overseas for robots to help heal the damaged plant.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

THE CANADIAN government’s support for its national asbestos industry could possibly derail Canada-European trade talks if Ottawa does not abandon its laissez faire backing for its lucrative asbestos sector.

While welcoming the progress in negotiations for a broad-based Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union (EU) and Canada, MEPs on Wednesday June 8 voiced their concerns at a European Parliament debate on the deal.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CONSULTANTS report for the European Commission on the impact of biofuel expansion has warned that a reliance on bioethanol could damage the European Union’s (EU) fossil fuels security of supply.

Written by experts from Wood Mackenzie, Ricardo and Celeres, the paper – just released by Brussels – says that with bioethanol sources focused on Brazil and a few other countries, "there is a risk of a high degree of reliance on few sources of ethanol supply."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ENERGY companies and non-government organisations (NGOs) participating in the development of a European Union (EU) long-term energy plan to 2050, have identified fossil fuel costs as the main motor of change in future public policy. In consultation staged by the European Commission for developing an ‘Energy Roadmap to 2050’, about half of all respondents believed "global fossil fuel prices in relation to costs of domestic energy resources and long term security of supply will be the most likely key drivers…" This conclusion comes in a summary of responses released by Brussels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

European Union (EU) member states have been asked to approve extending import duties on US-made biodiesel after hearing evidence that US exporters had been evading special EU import tariffs imposed in 2009 by shipping via Canada or mixing it with weaker blends.…

BY JOHN PAGNI

FINLAND is bucking the post-Fukushima trend of abandoning nuclear power, pushing ahead with its reactor construction programme.

The cost of building Olkiluoto 3, the 1,600MW European pressurised water reactor nuclear power plant is currently Euro EUR3.2 billion. Although four years behind schedule, project supporters remain positive: "Once we were told it would be delayed, the timetable didn’t matter.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CANADIAN environmental group claims to have discovered heavy metal toxins in 10 cosmetics products commonly used in Canada. Environmental Defence sent powders, blushes, foundations, concealers, bronzers, mascaras, eyeliners, eyeshadows, lipsticks and lipglosses to an accredited laboratory. It claimed nickel was found in all products, lead in 96%, beryllium 90%, thallium 61%, cadmium 51%, arsenic 20% and selenium 14%.…

BY MARK GODFREY

IF uranium suppliers are looking for reasons to feel confident that China will continue its hunt for nuclear fuel supplies worldwide, they should remember how deeply the country is invested in this process. Indeed, it has been a sign of how hungry China has become for uranium that even private firms in this officially communist country are being allowed to hunt for overseas uranium assets.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

EARLIER this year, the Lebanese-Canadian Bank (LCB) was designated by the United States as a prime money laundering concern, for alleged connections to drug traffickers and acting as a financial conduit for Lebanese political party Hezbollah, which Washington considers a terrorist organisation.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

UNDER the United Nations’ Al-Qaeda and Taliban sanctions regime, more than 30 states have frozen at least US dollars USD90 million in assets as of September 2010. But Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other designated terrorist groups in the Middle East and Central Asia continue to receive funding despite the region’s widespread adoption of international regulations on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CTF).…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

For some it was a total disaster, for others a bump in the road, but the recession left no part of the clothing and textile retail sector unscathed. World Trade Organisation (WTO) statistics from 2009 show that while globally important manufacturing jurisdictions such as China and the European Union (EU) suffered 11% and 15% drops respectively in clothing exports, countries such as India, Vietnam and Bangladesh lost just a couple of percentage points and in India’s case, exports remained stable.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

FROM greater ease-of use to less waste, to brilliant colours, there are many benefits to solid ink printers over laser jet ones – yet, printer and printing inks manufacturers have not rushed to jump on the solid inks bandwagon.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

At first sight the World Health Organisation (WHO) might be thought a tad hypocritical in waging a campaign against tobacco smoking through its Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) but leaving out of it any action against the smoke from open fireplaces in bars, hotels and restaurants.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CANADIAN government agencies have announced seven research projects on regenerative medicine and nanomedicine will received Canadian dollars CAD16 million (US dollars USD16.2 million) in public funding. The studies will be co-funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canadian Space Agency – they will focus on multiple sclerosis, cancer, diabetes, spinal cord injuries, strokes and vascular diseases.…

BY MARK GODFREY

IT is a sign of how hungry China has become for uranium that even private firms here are being allowed hunt for overseas uranium assets. New to the uranium market, Sichuan-based conglomerate Hanlong Energy joined a string of state-run procuring companies late last year when it invested US dollars USD5 million in Australia’s Marenica to dig for uranium in Namibia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CANADIAN scientists have produced an adaptable high-grade nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) using a novel environment-friendly extraction process, which can be scaled-up for industrial applications. The country’s National Research Council’s (NRC) Biotechnology Research Institute, in Montréal, sought a new method of separating this nanomaterial from standard cellulose.…

BY WACHIRA KIGOTHO

CLASSIFIED as a failed state, Somalia is one of the world’s poorest countries, but oil production could change its fortune. Indeed, politically fractured Somalia is being touted as a potentially rich oil and gas producer. Given security, Somalia is increasingly regarded as economically strategically-located, a view fuelled by recent interest by Chinese and western nations’ oil and gas investment companies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE RELATIONSHIP between levels of duty and the demand for tobacco products on which these taxes are levied is at one level simple, and another complex. Obviously, if taxes were so punitive, most smokers simply could not afford a cigarette, then it would have an impact on demand.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

USA/CANADA: Endowment returns recover for north American universities

MJ Deschamps

The recession seems to be over for American and Canadian higher education institutions, with a report on the returns from their endowment funds showing a sharp increase in income for the 2010 fiscal year compared with 2009.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CANADIAN-owned Greek mining company will have to pay EUR15.3 million, plus interest, to the Greek government, after the European Commission decided it had been originally privatised on the cheap. Brussels has ruled that Ellinikos Xrysos paid too little when it bought gold, copper, zinc, lead and silver mines in the Cassandra area, Chalkidiki region, northern Greece.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INVESTIGATORS from the European Commission and the European Union’s (EU) anti-fraud office OLAF should report on May 11 about whether American biodiesel exporters are illegally evading EU countervailing and anti-dumping duties on their product. A probe will examine whether US biodiesel is being illicitly routed through third countries, especially Canada and Singapore, to avoid paying the duties: between Euro EUR211.20 and EUR237/tonne for the countervailing (antisubsidy) duties and EUR23.60 and EUR208.20/tonne for the anti-dumping tax.According…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

POLICE in Montreal, Canada, have seized 2,700 photocopied textbooks and digests of textbooks that were being sold illegally to university students, arresting 13 suspects in raids on four photocopying stores. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the total value of the haul was Canadian dollars CAD540,000 (GBPounds 342,000).…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

Ontario’s main beer retailer The Beer Store has rejected claims it is partly responsible for Calgary-based Minhas Craft Brewery abandoning plans to build a new brewery in Hamilton, near Toronto. Minhas, which has a brewery in Wisconsin, USA, claimed to Canadian newspapers The Beer Store – owned by major Canadian brewers Molson Canada, Labatt and Sleeman – was slow selling its new Boxer lager.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

HAS the world found the means to drive rapid growth of distributed power generation in the rural areas? Yes, believes a group of young entrepreneurs in India who are using the rice husk-fired gasification process to operate small generation units in off-grid remote villages.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

WHILE the failed takeover bid for Saskatchewan’s Potash Corporation by BHP Billiton would have provided many long-term benefits to the Canadian province, a senior think tank in the country has this week suggested the federal government blocked the deal over concerns over short-term tax revenue losses.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

CANADA and India-based businessman Baljit Chadha, president of international trade and marketing firm Balcorp Ltd., is standing behind his decision to invest in the controversial underground Jeffrey Mine asbestos expansion project according to his senior spokesman Guy Versailles.…

BY WANG FANGQING, ALAN OSBORN

Tainted tobacco leaves generate China push to restore polluted soil

A new report has warned that Chinese tobacco plants are sucking up heavy metals from contaminated soils. The Chinese tobacco industry is challenging the findings, and analysts predict sales will not be weakened.…

BY DANIEL PRUZIN

Quotes:

Q: How would you rate the results of the COP-4 meeting? Did the WHO achieve the goals it set out for the meeting? And who came out "better" from the results – the WHO or the tobacco industry?…

BY EMMA JACKSON, MJ DESCHAMPS

Political sensitivities over native reserves help fuel US-Canada tobacco smuggling

Illicit tobacco manufacturing on Mohawk territory that spans the US-Canada border between Montreal and Toronto is helping fuel smuggling, claims the Canadian police. Native authorities call on tobacco consumers to avoid contraband tobacco, because it strengthens organised crime.…

BY MARK GODFREY

THE CEO of a Canadian mining company in litigation with the Mongolian authorities over the alleged expropriation of uranium rights has told World Nuclear News: "Uranium exploration and development in Mongolia is going nowhere at the moment." CEO of Toronto-based Khan Resources Grant Edey argued Mongolia’s Nuclear Energy Law, passed in 2009, is a "disincentive to invest and our experience has raised the question of tenure of assets with all other players."…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

THE CONSORTIUM of international investors looking to re-start production at one of Canada’s last remaining asbestos mines has finally come through with firm offers of financing and letters of intent; meeting the Québec government’s latest funding extension deadline of October 1.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

Just days after the Canadian government added Bisphenol A (BPA) to its national list of toxic substances, it has now proposed new risk management regulations that would control the chemical’s use in industrial processes and products, such as plastic drink packaging.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

THE CANADIAN government has added plastics drinks packaging additive Bisphenol A (BPA) to its national list of toxic substances, claiming this is the toughest action taken against the chemical internationally.

Despite protests from China and a positive recent health assessment from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Canada’s health and environment ministers have added BPA to its list of toxic substances under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA).…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

A COOPERATIVE of 450 current and former workers at the Jeffrey Mine, Québec, Canada, voted Monday to approve an offer made by an international consortium of financiers and construction material manufacturers to invest in expanding its underground asbestos mining operations.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

CANADA presents an almost unique challenge for providing nursing services. The second largest country in the world, with a population of just around 33 million, it has a population density of only 3.3 people per square kilometre. Given most Canadians live in southern urban centres close to the US border, expansive swaths of land are virtually unsettled and isolated from modern amenities.…

BY WANG FANGQING

CHINA’S leading brewer Tsingtao has launched a premium beer – Yi Pin, telling just-drinks that it will be trialled in China’s domestic market. "It will be only available in high-end restaurants," said a Qingdao-based spokesperson, targeting urban elites.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Organisation for Standardization (ISO) is developing standards for natural gas fuelling stations to help promote vehicles using this alternative fuel. A new committee ISO/PC 252 will coordinate the work, developing two standards: on fuelling stations for compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG).…

BY ALAN OSBORN

‘RELOADING’ is a double scam that exploits human psychological weaknesses to give criminals a second bite at some unfortunate victims after ripping them off initially with bogus time-share, investment and other offers. Alan Osborn reports.

THE INCREASING ubiquity of personal information through social media services have encouraged 419 or advance fee frauds.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank is investing Canadian dollars CAD 7.3 million (US dollars USD 7 million) in Vancouver-based Argentex Mining Corporation to support polymetallic mineral exploration in Argentina.

Argentex’s Pinguino project in the southern province of Santa Cruz, in Patagonia, has uncovered sulphide-rich polymetallic deposits veins.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

MORE than a year after Canada announced new volatile organic compound (VOC) regulations for architectural coatings, the industry is settling into its new obligations, which formally came into force on September 9.

The regulations, part of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) and called the Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Concentration Limits for Architectural Coatings Regulations, set mandatory VOC limits for 53 categories of architectural coatings (including indoor coatings), covering all infrastructure coatings including traffic markings.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HOUSTON, Texas, and Vancouver, British Columbia-based oil and gas company EnerGulf Resources is selling 10 million shares to raise Canadian dollar CAD4 million (USD3.89 million). This will finance hydrocarbon exploration of the onshore Lotshi Block (western Democratic Republic of Congo), the offshore ‘Block 1711’ (Namibia) and working capital.…

BY MARK ROWE

INNOVATIVE packaging is transforming the drinks industry. Heavy tins and bottles are being replaced by lighter composite and biodegradeable materials; hi-tech cartons are being manufactured that tell consumers if the milk’s gone off; and RFID (radio frequency identification) tags are being embedded with temperature sensors.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

SUSTAINABILITY is becoming increasingly important in the beverage industry, and worldwide companies have been embracing environmentally conscious initiatives.

In the province of Ontario, in Canada, The Beer Store (TBS), a protected retailer under Canada’s highly regulated drinks sales system, collects empty packaging, and has boasted of a return rate of 94% between 2008 and 2009.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

THE SUNFLOWER family is joining the ranks of other genetically sequenced oil crops, as a Canadian-led project maps the sunflower genome, part of the largest flowering family on the planet – with significant potential for commercial benefit for the oils and fats sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank is to invest about Canadian dollars CAD2.1 million (US dollars USD2 million) in Edmonton, Alberta-based Mindoro Resources Ltd to support a nickel exploration project in the Philippines.

Mindoro, a Canada-based mining exploration company, will use the IFC’s investment to explore for nickel at Agata, in the Surigao district on Mindanao Island.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and ALYSHAH HASHAM

CANADA – long a difficult jurisdiction for the tobacco sector – became tougher still on July 5, when a national ban on manufacturing and selling most flavoured cigarettes, cigarillos and blunt wraps came into force.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

ON Canada Day – July 1 – Apple Inc launched the Canadian version of its iBookstore application, compatible with the iPad and other Apple products – but the enthusiasm from Canadian publishers has varied.

HarperCollins Canada was quick to get on board: beginning that day, thousands of Canadian titles from the multinational publisher were available through the application.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

THE FOUNDER and CEO of Canada’s book retail giant Indigo Books & Music Inc Heather Reisman has told The Bookseller she firmly believes paper books will survive and thrive in an increasingly digitalised world of bookselling, despite predicting ebooks will take a whopping 20% of the book market in the future.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN ALBERTA court has approved the takeover of Calgary-based Canadian oil firm Ryland Oil Corporation by Crescent Point Energy Corp, with whom it is working to develop the Flat Lake Bakken area in southeast Saskatchewan. Ryland shareholders are to receive Crescent shares in the deal, involving the transfer of Canadian dollars CAD121.8 million (US dollars USD115 million).…

BY KARRYN MILLER,EMMA JACKSON and ALAN OSBORN

BY KARRYN MILLER, in Washington DC, EMMA JACKSON, in Ottawa, and ALAN OSBORN, in London

CONVENIENCE stores are a dynamic part of the food retail sector worldwide. In short, as consumers gain wealth, they lose time – making convenience retail increasingly attractive.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

FORMER Penguin International CEO David Davidar has released his side of an ongoing sexual harassment case, with a statement outlining that he and a former Penguin Canada employee had "a consensual, flirtatious relationship." Lisa Rundle, 37, filed a statement of claim for sexual harassment against him on June 9, one day after Penguin fired Davidar because of the accusations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CANADIAN company exploring for metals and diamonds in northern Botswana is receiving Canadian dollars CAD5 million in investment from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank. Tsodilo Resources Limited has licences to explore for metal deposits surrounding the globally-renowned Okavango Delta nature conservation area.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MONOPOLY spirits retailer in the Canadian province of Ontario has promised to maintain a retail sales ban on a vodka produced by a local film star because its bottle is skull-shaped. Ontarian Dan Akroyd, most famous for his roles in 1980s classics ‘Ghost Busters’ and ‘The Blues Brothers’, has become a successful wine producer and last year released Crystal Head Vodka, a premium vodka sold in a clear glass skull bottle.…

BY ALYSHAH HASHAM

AN UNEXPECTED landslide in the heart of western Canada’s wine country has damaged vineyards, says the British Columbia Wine Institute. Its communications manager Lindsay Anders told just-drinks a damage assessment is currently being undertaken, but already she confirmed at least two wineries have lost vines following Sunday’s mudslide.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE TOWN of Asbestos in French-speaking Québec, Canada – named after the mineral that underpins its economy – is waiting to see whether its provincial government will approve a Canadian dollar CAD58 million (US dollar USD56 million) loan enabling an underground mine to tap an immense deposit.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HEAVY road vehicles operating in Canada are to become subject to tougher emissions standards from 2012, the country’s federal government has announced. Mirroring similar moves in the USA, the Canadian regulations will be released this autumn and cover lorries, pickup trucks, delivery vehicles, buses, dustcarts and construction vehicles.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and MARK GODFREY

A CANADIAN company seeking to develop Mongolia’s largest uranium deposit is pushing ahead with legal action against the country’s government, which it accuses of illegally expropriating its mining licences. Accusations of favourtism towards Russia have soured relations between the Mongolian government and Toronto-based mining firm Khan Resources.…

BY MARK ROWE and GERARD O’DWYER

CONCERNS over climate change often refer to the potential thawing of the Arctic permafrost, where large-scale releases of methane could significantly accelerate global warming. Yet at the same time, governments and energy companies are weighing up the potentially lucrative reserves of methane lying below the permafrost that covers the Siberian continental shelf, and extends up to 1,000 kilometres into the Arctic Ocean.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A REVIEW of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) compulsory licensing system for generic medicines in health emergencies will be staged this October. The chair of the WTO’s TRIPs council (trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights) is consulting member countries about whether to hold a preparatory workshop on the issue.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

THE CANADIAN book industry has said it is "disappointed but not surprised" after the Canadian government approved US-based Amazon’s proposal to establish a physical presence in Canada, opening a warehousing and delivery centre.

Canadian Booksellers Association executive director Susan Dayus told The Bookseller: "I don’t think that it was a surprise", citing "the way the government spoke…about free trade and opening our doors" during a recent opening of a parliamentary session.…

BY CRAIG HOWIE

WITH the long-battle over American health care reform finally over, nursing specialists are predicting increases in demand for foreign nurses in the USA because patient care should increase because of expanded health coverage for the poor.

Michael Lighty, policy director at the California Nurses Association told the Nursing Standard there could be a shortage of trained American nurses, creating openings for British nurses in the USA.…

BY MARK GODFREY and KEITH NUTHALL

ACCUSATIONS of favourtism towards Russia have soured relations between the Mongolian government and the Canadian developers of the country’s largest uranium deposit. An ongoing spat between Toronto-based mining firm Khan Resources and the Mongolia Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) is headed to the courts, with Khan claiming Russian pressure is behind the agency invalidating the firm’s licence for the Dornod mine, Mongolia’s largest uranium deposit.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank, is to buy CDN$7.5 million of equity in Canadian-owned Antares Minerals Inc to back a copper exploration project in Peru, where it plans to establish a mine. The money will fund pre-feasibility studies, plus environmental and social programmes and assessments for Toronto area-based Antares’ Haquira project, in a remote part of the Apurimac region, southern Peru.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

Controversial American right-wing political pundit Ann Coulter has said she will file a human rights complaint in Canada after a 1,500-strong protest at the University of Ottawa forced her to cancel a lecture scheduled for that evening.

Coulter said the university’s vice-president François Houle is partly to blame, after he sent her an email on Friday advising her to "educate yourself, if need be, as to what is acceptable in Canada and to do so before your planned visit here."…

BY ALAN OSBORN, EMMA JACKSON, PAUL COCHRANE and JULIAN RYALL

INTRODUCTION

Professionalisation is a key trend in today’s drinks sector, particularly as export markets are growing fast in emerging markets. With brand loyalty up for grabs, it is critical for alcoholic drinks producers especially to maintain and raise quality.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN and KEITH NUTHALL

The vice-president of a Canadian university is being blamed for inciting more than 2,000 protestors to force outspoken US conservative Ann Coulter to abandon a speech tonight. The University of Ottawa’s vice-president and provost, Francois Houle sent Coulter an email on Friday advising her to "educate yourself, if need be, as to what is acceptable in Canada and to do so before your planned visit here."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON and MIRIAM ELDER

THE CANADIAN government has denied using its security forces to intimidate and terrorise a Russian immigrant, who later fled to Britain and committed suicide this week, jumping with his family from a Glasgow tower block.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

ONLINE book giant is Amazon is preparing to set up a physical sales infrastructure in Canada, the Bookseller can reveal. The Canadian government has called in the proposal for a confidential inquiry, which will assess whether the move breaks Canada’s tough cultural protection rules.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CANADA – the world’s second largest country by geography – was created because of luxury clothing: the fur trade drove French and British explorers to its remote interior, creating ports and processing hubs, now major cities, such as Montréal and Toronto.…

BY GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE

A CONTINUING flow of seriously injured people continue to provide deep challenges to nurses at the Port-au-Prince’s barely functioning hospitals, nearly two weeks after a massive earthquake overwhelmed medical staff.

We try to do the best we can," said Enid Paret, a nurse at the University Hospital, the Haitian capital’s largest, which was damaged by the quake but still operates.…

BY ALAN OSBORN,ANCA GURZU and KEITH NUTHALL

THE GLOBAL trade in illicit tobacco is huge and growing and a significant source of dirty money worldwide. Tobacco multinational British American Tobacco (BAT) estimates that 6.3% of cigarettes worldwide are illicit products (either counterfeit, smuggled or sold domestically on the black market), which makes 332 billion sticks, and that is a lot of cigarettes.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

CANADA’S 1,197-kilometre Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline has taken a major step towards being built, with a Canadian government joint review panel concluding it would be economically beneficial and "avoid significant adverse environmental impacts". Its recommendations make it more likely Canada’s National Energy Board will approve the Northwest Territories to Alberta link.…

BY MARK GODFREY

IT has not traditionally featured on prospectors’ radar but Mongolia is quickly emerging as an Asian oil exporter. Thanks to rising oil demand from China, the Petroleum Authority of Mongolia has inked production-sharing agreements on 12 oil fields with explorers from north America, Australia and China.…

BY GEORGE STONE

GHANA, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are Africa’s latest upstream hotspots as major energy firms seek new provinces outside of regional heavyweight oil producers Nigeria and Angola. But jockeying for position has already led to friction between governments and the industry.…

BY CRAIG HOWIE

GERI Jenkins has seen more than most in her 32 years as a registered nurse in California.

Recently, she said, an uninsured patient was admitted to San Diego Medical Center suffering from acute respiratory failure. Rather than demand immediate care, the desperately ill patient requested that his treatment wait for a week – until he turned 65 – when it would be paid for by the government’s medicare programme for senior citizens.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON and ERIC LYMAN

THE COPENHAGEN climate change conference ended on December 18 with an accord where key world economies promised to make binding agreements to cut carbon emissions. But detail on exactly how much will be settled at a later date, meaning its long term effects on the oil and gas industry are unclear.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA and KEITH NUTHALL

JUST two weeks after Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited India, he and Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh have announced that they have struck a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement. Strangely this revelation came outside both countries, in Trinidad & Tobago, where both men were participating in the 2009 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

A TRADEMARK dispute has erupted between Canadian retailer the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) and the Cowichan First Nations group in British Columbia, which claims HBC stole their traditional knitted sweater design for its Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics clothing.…

BY ANCA GURZU

A NEW Canadian law banning the sales of cigarettes and cigarillos containing any flavourings and additives is the most recent in a series of restrictions imposed by Canadian public authorities on tobacco companies. This latest rule – an amendment to the federal Canadian Tobacco Act, received royal assent on October 8, 2009, after approval of a Bill C-32.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

THE GLOBAL recession has left many industries in ruins, but the Canadian book industry has remained fairly insulated, reporting year-over-year increases in the first three quarters of 2009, according to BookNet Canada. This is a market research organisation analysing and tracking about 75% of Canadian book publishing sales.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TIME was when video games were simple pastimes, basic computer fun with classics such as ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘Asteroids’. But that is ‘so 1980s’. In the 21st century, the games of choice are interactive and involve spending money – the name is massively multiplayer online games (MMOG).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

US-CANADIAN company EnerGulf Resources Inc is working with the China National Administration of Research Institute of Coal Geophysical Exploration to conduct oil and gas seismic surveys in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Studies were scheduled for September in EnerGulf’s Lotshi Block concession off the DRC’s 37km west Africa coastline.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

REAPPLYING perfume ten times a day may not count as an addiction, but the ingredients found in your favourite scent could certainly lead to one: cosmetic ingredients have been historically targeted by clandestine drug manufacturers as sources of chemicals used to produce illicit street drugs such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and MONICA DOBIE

THE CEO of Canada’s Brick Brewing Company says his business will "aggressively defend" an intellectual property case brought by rival major InBev AB. It has lodged a claim at the Canada Federal Court claiming Brick has infringed its Bud Light Lime trademark by selling its Red Baron Lime beer brand in Ontario, depreciating its goodwill, with consumers confusing the two brands.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WHITE knight deal – sweetened by around Euro 4.5 billion (US$6.5 billion) in German government subsidies – to transfer control of Opel-Vauxhall to a Canadian-Russian consortium, is under fire. Britain’s business secretary Lord Mandelson has advised that alternative agreements are sought to save the ailing GM-controlled car maker, calling for a "commercially-based outcome rather than one determined by political intervention and subsidies".…

BY MONICA DOBIE

CANADA will continue to import cat and dog fur despite a ban adopted by the United States and the UK, to avoid undermining support for the country’s seal hunt.

An internal government document obtained by a Canadian news agency under the Access to Information Act – now widely disseminated by Canadian media – says government officials urged Gerry Ritz, the agriculture minister, not to instigate a ban.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE SALE of General Motors’ European auto-manufacturing subsidiary Opel to a Canadian-Austrian-Russian consortium is developing into a bitter dispute over how job losses arising from the deal are allocated between European Union (EU) member countries and who provides the funds for Opel’s restructuring.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

CANADA will continue to import cat and dog fur despite a ban adopted by the United States and the UK, to avoid undermining support for the country’s seal hunt.

An internal government document obtained by a Canadian news agency under the Access to Information Act – now widely disseminated by Canadian media – says government officials urged Gerry Ritz, the agriculture minister, not to instigate a ban.…

By Leah Germain

The threat posed to research teams by some environmental activists was starkly illustrated by a recent potentially dangerous interference with an experiment involving explosives in Canada. A joint Canadian and American research study was nearly derailed last month when a campaigner attempted to prevent a major seismic experiment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THERE is much work required by the United States government and the European Union (EU) to disarm trade barriers impeding EU auto exports, a new European Commission report has claimed.

The EU executive highlights three particular grumbles with existing US legislation, it claims gives American (and Canadian) automakers unfair advantages over European rivals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Canada are about to embark on detailed negotiations to upgrade their existing long-standing nuclear cooperation agreement. A key aim of the talks, European Commission and Canadian officials told World Nuclear News, was the authorisation of widespread nuclear technology transfers between the EU and Canada, which are currently tightly restricted.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CANADIAN province of Québec will push ahead with four strategic environmental assessments of the potential impact of exploratory oil and gas drilling in the the lower St Lawrence estuary and the Gulf of St Lawrence. Seismic testing with explosives have been suspended in these areas since 2004 amidst concerns about its effect on whales.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

CANADIAN book publishers have been reporting higher levels of returns than normal this summer from Indigo Books and Music, Canada’s dominant book retailer, and they say the effects have been damaging.

Toronto-based ECW Press publisher Jack David said returns skyrocketed between May and July, although he did not make statistics available.…

BY JAMES BURNS

REDEVELOPING major international airports is always a challenge – especially when they have grown incrementally. Sometimes the best plan is to rip it up and start again, to quote a popular 1980’s pop song. And that is what happened at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport – Canada’s largest hub.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, in London; RUSSELL BERMAN, in Washington DC; JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo; RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi; BY WANG FANGQING, in Shanghai; EMMA JACKSON, in Ottawa; KARRYN MILLER; and KEITH NUTHALL

THE AUTOMOBILE sector maybe one of the most globally integrated manufacturing industries on the planet, but national governments (or continental bodies in Europe) still hold sway regarding regulation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and MONICA DOBIE

CANADIAN single malt whisky producer Glenora Distillers is celebrating victory in its long legal battle with the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) over its trademark ‘Glen Breton’. Canada’s Supreme Court yesterday (June 11) rejected a SWA application to appeal against a lower court ruling allowing Glenora rights to the name.…

BY MONICA DOBIE and KEITH NUTHALL

THE CANADIAN government will match the automotive emissions standards being introduced by the USA’s Obama administration. Canada’s environment minister Jim Prentice said: "We will work together to ensure we have a single, dominant north American standard for carbon emissions and fuel economy."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CANADIAN oil company Bankers Petroleum Ltd will help clean up southern Albania’s polluted Patos Marinza oilfield, after the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) lent the firm US$50 million to help expand its holdings. Bankers’ work will be assisted by an additional IFC US$5 million special purpose environmental works loan for reducing contamination and pollution.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CORRUPTION begets fraud and fraud begets corruption, and there are few harder crimes to tackle than complex frauds rooted in institutionalised and culturally tolerated corruption. As a result, the work of international organisation Transparency International has been key in fighting fraud worldwide, especially that linked to corruption.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and MONICA DOBIE

THE SCOTCH Whisky Association (SWA) has announced it plans to appeal a Canadian court ruling allowing a Nova Scotia distillery to call its product ‘Glen Breton’. The SWA is petitioning the Supreme Court of Canada to overturn a the Canadian Court of Appeal decision allowing Glenora Distillers, in Cape Breton, on Canada’s Atlantic coast, to use ‘Glen’ in the name of its single malt whisky.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) consumer alert network RAPEX has released a series of warnings about north American personal care products. Notably, it has told of seizures in Italy of a Canadian talcum powder called ‘Spring Fresh’ that contained arsenic, which is banned under the EU cosmetics directive.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THERE is an increasing body of law associated with money laundering regulations worldwide and where there is law, there is – of course – lawyers. So to what extent is an anti-money laundering cadre of legal specialists emerging around the world.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE COUNTDOWN is on for an almost total ban on seal fur and leather sales in the European Union (EU), with the European Parliament approving a new regulation coming into force by next March. This bans all sales of seal products for profit, unless manufactured from seals caught during traditional hunts of Inuit dwellers of the Canadian, Russian, Greenland and Alaskan Arctic and sub-Arctic.…

BY RUSSELL BERMAN

WITH the auto industry in the United States and Europe in the midst of an unprecedented downturn, the international paints and coatings sector has taken a deep hit as well and has been forced to turn to painful strategies in the hopes of riding out the recession.…

By Emma Jackson

The conservative government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised stimulus for almost every sector, but stimulus for post-secondary education has tended to favour – claims the country’s National Post newspaper commentator Don Martin – "buildings over brains."…

BY PHILIPPA JONES

AS the global recession continues, calls for greater transparency in the financial sector have increased exponentially. The recent G20 summit of leaders from the world’s richest economies made this sentiment clear and drew specific attention to the need for all countries to adhere to international standards on anti-money laundering, with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) being asked to "reinvigorate" its assessment of potentially erring jurisdictions.…

BY JAMES FULLER

WHILE the global recession is hitting profits in the oil and gas sector worldwide, the Caribbean’s key producer Trinidad & Tobago remains bullish about the industry bringing it long term financial and economic stability. Indeed, the twin-island country’s minister of energy and energy industries Conrad Enill said this month that both a fifth liquefied natural gas (LNG) train and a new oil refinery are projects which are still firmly on the table for the Caribbean energy powerhouse.…

BY MARK GODFREY

WITH the global recession raging across most of the world, Bangladesh’s knitwear sector is maintaining a strong commercial position and looks better geared to survive the economic downturn than some of its regional competitors. Orders have only dipped marginally say local knitwear producers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR cigarette smuggling boom is being reported in Ireland by customs teams, with a record 135.2 million cigarettes being seized last year, almost twice the amount seized in 2007. Of these, 56.82 million were counterfeits, the country’s Sunday Independent newspaper has reported.…

By Lorraine Mallinder, in Montréal

As the polar ice cap continues to shrink, the five nations surrounding the Arctic Ocean are hurriedly positioning themselves for what is shaping up to be one of the biggest geopolitical brawls of the coming years.

Beneath the thinning ice lies the tantalising prospect of up to a quarter of the world’s untapped oil and gas reserves and the promise of new shipping routes between East and West. It’s enough to turn the heads of even the most placid nations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CANADIAN province of British Columbia has become the first north American province to use a six-in-one vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline called Infanrix hexa, which will allow its children to receive 14 vaccine shots by 18 months, instead of the standard 17.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE PRINCIPLE of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is of course well established amongst energy suppliers: polluting industries, such as coal, would be able to continue to burn fossil fuels, but carbon dioxide, rather than being expelled into the atmosphere, would be harvested in the energy production cycle and securely locked away.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IF the number of notifications received by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) for pre-registering the use of chemicals by businesses making or importing chemicals in Europe is a gauge of success, then the new REACH control system is performing with aplomb.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

IDEALLY, police and other law enforcement officers working against money laundering and terrorist financing will combine the best elements of two different professions: the forensic skills of the conventional police detective and the expert knowledge of an experienced financial practitioner such as you’d find in the larger banks and finance houses.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

CONFECTIONERY does not just taste nice – it could calm babies, Canadian scientists have shown. Researchers at Canada’s Hospital for Sick Children, the University of Toronto, Mount Sinai Hospital and York University studied 240 babies and found their pain reactions after injections were significantly less if they were also given some sugar to eat.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON and ALAN OSBORN

IN the early 1990s the nuclear power industry faced a bleak outlook. High profile accidents such as in Chernobyl and Three Mile Island in, Pennsylvania, the USA, had raised public concern about the safety of the industry to all time high.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

STANDFIRST

Every country has its own food and drink regulatory body or bodies: in the first place to ensure that its citizens eat safely and in the second to help safeguard its position in the rapidly-growing world food trade.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SCOTCH Whisky Association (SWA) is mulling a fresh appeal against the trademarking of Canadian single malt whisky Glen Breton, after Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal ruled that Nova Scotia-based distillery Glenora could use this brand name. The SWA argues the word ‘Glen’ can mislead consumers into thinking the whisky is from Scotland, rather than Cape Breton, eastern Canada, a region heavily populated by Scots from the Nineteenth Century’s Highland Clearances.…

By Keith Nuthall

A major IT company has teamed up with a Canadian open university to establish a research centre that will create bespoke three dimensional virtual learning environments.

Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc. has announced the creation of a new Immersive Technologies for Education Centre of Excellence at Athabasca University, Canada’s Alberta-based open university.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

A STUDY on a groundbreaking universal influenza immunisation programme in Ontario has concluded that mass flu shots dramatically reduce mortality rates and health care costs.

The research published in US-based Public Library of Science compiled hospital data from 1997-2004 from all provinces in Canada.…

BY DAVID ANDERSON

ORGANISED crime is much more low-key in Russia today than in the wild-east days of the1990s. But that does not mean it has gone away. And, as David Anderson reports, the fluctuations in the price of oil are likely to provide plenty of opportunities for further illicit gains.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF, in Lucca, Italy; PHILIPPA JONES, in Paris; DOMINIQUE PATTON, in Beijing; KARRYN CARTELLE, in Tokyo; and LUCY JONES, in Dallas

Where is the best cutting edge research for the textile and clothing industry? Which are the best design schools, the best fabric developers and the best industrial innovators in the sector?…

BY MONICA DOBIE

A SEPARATIST cooperative in Quebec has launched a beer it hopes will further the cause for the French-speaking Canadian province to become an independent nation.

Montreal-based L’Independante is now distributing the locally brewed ale with profits being donated to campaigns calling for Quebec to leave Canada.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

CANADA’S third largest brewer, Sleeman Breweries Ltd, is suing British Columbian microbrewer Dead Frog Brewery for illegally using a clear bottle design that infringes on the Sleeman trademark.

The Dead Frog Brewery is fighting the suit claiming that Sleeman does not own the right to package beer in clear bottles and that the logos imprinted on the bottles are different.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

A MAJOR strengthening of Canada’s regulations and programmes fighting money laundering and terrorist financing has taken place in 2008 and will continue into 2009, going a long way towards erasing the worryingly negative impression left by last year’s report by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DANISH plastic toymaker Lego has lost a legal bid to secure EU trademark rights to a three-dimensional image of one of its plastic red bricks. European Court of Justice (ECJ) judges have ruled the image was too generic and commonplace, so other companies would be unfairly restricted from using pictures of plastic bricks in their marketing.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

THE CANADIAN division of PepsiCo has announced that it will voluntarily disclose the amount of caffeine on all its product packaging including Pepsi, Pepsi Max and Lipton Iced Tea brands.

This new labelling, which has already been introduced for products sold in the USA, will appear on Canada-sold packaging by the end of this year on all Lipton brands sold in the country; Pepsi label redesigns will be completed by mid-2009.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITHOUT uranium mining we would not have nuclear energy, and with the industry experiencing a renaissance because of global warming, demand and prices for uranium is only likely to increase in the medium term. But of course uranium is not the most stable of substances, and digging it out of the ground is never going to be overwhelming popular amongst communities near mine sites.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE GLOBAL market for uranium is booming as climate change gives the nuclear power sector a new lease of life, but given this element’s intrinsic environmental health difficulties, regulatory obstacles for mining companies can be tough.

Maybe nowhere is this more apparent than in the world’s largest uranium producer, Canada: uranium miners’ safety measures have to be doubly secure, lest public opinion prevents work starting in the first place.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, JULIAN RYALL, and PHILIPPA JONES

COMPARED to their counterparts in Europe and Asia, North American men are at the bottom of the league tables for using beauty products, leaving male cosmetics marketers with both a lot of work, and a lot opportunity.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

CANADIAN researchers have found that chocolate lays unbought for months in retailers across Canada. Brock University and Carleton University (both in Ontario) researchers checked 3,206 chocolate bars from eight major retailers in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver. They found on average they sat on shelves for four-and-a-half months, with on average 3% being past their sell-by-date.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

CONSUMERS are getting fatter and more fitness conscious at the same time, prompting confectionery manufacturers to think hard about squaring the circle of health and indulgence when designing and marketing their products.

CAOBISCO, which represents the European Union’s (EU) chocolate, biscuit and confectionery industries, has traditionally taken a robust line about the benefits confectionery can bring to diets, signing up to the EU’s self-regulating plan for curbing obesity, announced last year.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

CANADIAN winery owners in British Columbia have been warned by provincial alcohol monopolies in Ontario and Manitoba to stop direct sales to their residents, citing a law from the prohibition era.

To date, the Mission Hill Family Estate Winery and the Red Rooster winery have been officially informed that they are breaking the Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act of 1928 that faces up to a year in prison after a second offence.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PHILIP Morris International is to acquire 100% ownership of Canada’s Rothmans, Benson & Hedges (RBH) from its parent Rothmans Inc. Philip Morris already owned 40% of RBH, and is now acquiring the rest of the shares for CDN$30 per share, in a deal worth around CDN$2 billion.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has concluded that a chemical widely used in food packaging – chemical bisphenol A (BPA) is safe. This important monomer in the production of polycarbonate has been identified as a potentially dangerous pollutant by US and Canadian health authorities, causing birth defects and damaging the prostate and mammary glands.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IMPERIAL Tobacco Canada and Rothmans, Benson & Hedges (RBH) have agreed to pay together more than CDN$1 billion in a settlement with the Canadian federal government and provinces over smuggling in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The payout will end a long-running Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation into allegations that tobacco products made by both companies had been exported to the USA and then illicitly re-exported to Canada, avoiding the payment of duty.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

Key wild species in the sea waters of the Canadian Arctic are Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossides); pink shrimp (Pandalus borealis); striped shrimp (Pandalus montagui); and for fresh water catches, Arctic Char (Salvelinus alpinus).

Greenland halibut (also called Greenland turbot) has dense, white flesh and a sweet, rich flavour.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

THE AUTOPARTS and automotive industries are calling for far tighter world-wide enforcement against counterfeiting, as influential countries meet in Geneva to thrash out more details of a global Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

First mooted by the Office of the US Trade Representative in October 2007- and pursued aggressively by the US Chamber of Commerce – Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates have since come on board to try to develop ACTA.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

A CANADIAN teenager has made a significant discovery on the decomposition of plastic bags as part of a science project.

Daniel Burd, a 17-year-old student at Waterloo Collegiate Institute in Ontario, found that using two types of bacteria Sphingomonas and Pseudomonas, was most effective at breaking down the polyethylene when combined with some sodium acetate and incubating the solution at 37 degrees.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MAKING a living in the Canadian Arctic is never easy in commercial terms, given the restrictions imposed by the weather, the distances to populous markets and extremely undeveloped transport: there are no roads to and from the territory of Nunavut.…

By Monica Dobie

Canada’s most northerly territory, Nunavut, will have access to an advanced business management diploma programme operated by the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The Nunavut Advanced Management Diploma (NADM) programme will be offered in Rankin Inlet, a community of 2,358 people that serves as a business and transportation hub for central Nunavut, 85% of whose 29,000 population are aboriginal Inuit.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NORTH America’s last regulatory battle between butter and margarine producers will end, with the Canadian province of Québec deciding to lift its ban on yellow margarine. Its strong dairy lobby has long defended a provincial rule preventing margarine resembling butter, instead been sold in unappetising white.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CONCERNS that Norway may reactivate claims over the Sverdrup Islands west of Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, Canada, have surfaced in the Canadian national press. Geological studies have shown the islands to have potential oil and gas reserves. Norway once claimed sovereignty because of a 1900 expedition.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD, in Caracas

LATIN AMERICA has long been notorious for its high levels of corruption, especially through money laundering, bribery and the illicit drug trade. And although the recent years of relative stability and democratisation in the region have brought economic progress, this has also widened the opportunities for fraudulent activities and fuelled an increasing sophistication by which they are performed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN ANGLO-Canadian research team has found microbes living in dried oil tar can be provoked into digesting this petroleum well residue, turning it into natural gas. Scientists from England’s University of Newcastle and Canada’s University of Calgary found the microbes could be provoked into a tar feeding frenzy by supplying them with additional nutrients.…

BY MARK GODFREY, in Beijing

WORRIES about inflation and food shortages have left the Chinese government struggling to balance efforts to temper inflation with its ambitious biofuels development programme. Increasing demand for food and biofuels in China have been a key driver in increasing global consumption of fats and oils at an average 4% per year according to the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO).…

BY PHILIPPA JONES, in Paris

"FISHING is much more than fish," said former US president Herbert Hoover. "It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers." This may have been the case in the 1930s and may remain so for weekend anglers, who forget about the week’s stresses sitting quietly by the side of a lake.…

BY BILL CORCORAN, in Lilongwe, Malawi

A NEW initiative to improve the health, wealth and environment of Africans is being driven by the Kyoto Protocol’s international trades in carbon credits. This allows wealthy developed countries to scale back their emission reductions, if they can invest in slashing greenhouse gas pollution abroad.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CANADIAN parliament has approved a bill that allows its federal government to require a 5% average biofuel content in petrol used in Canada by 2010. It can also require 2% average biofuel content in diesel and heating oil by 2012.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

WITH scientific evidence of global fish depletion, governments and the fishing industry worldwide might be expected find common cause around ensuring sustainable resources will still exist in future years.

That’s not exactly how the response to fisheries sustainability has been framed, however.…

BY BILL CORCORAN, in Lilongwe, Malawi

THE WIDESPREAD implementation of new technological developments in Malawi’s flue-cured tobacco process could enable local producers to dramatically increase their output and its quality, according to industry experts.

Results from tests run during Malawi’s latest tobacco curing season using a new method of heating have shown a dramatic improvement in energy efficiency over standard methods, and an improved quality of the end product compared to traditionally cured tobacco.…

BY BILL CORCORAN, in Lilongwe, Malawi

THE WIDESPREAD implementation of new technological developments in Malawi’s flue-cured tobacco process could enable local producers to dramatically increase their output and its quality, according to industry experts.

Results from tests run during Malawi’s latest tobacco curing season using a new method of heating have shown a dramatic improvement in energy efficiency over standard methods, and an improved quality of the end product compared to traditionally cured tobacco.…

BY MARK GODFREY, in Beijing; DEIRDRE MASON, in London; and MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

THE OLYMPIC Games are an international spectacle, but also an opportunity for serious organised crime report Mark Godfrey, in Beijing; Monica Dobie, in Ottawa; and Deirdre Mason, in London.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) challenge to new Canadian cheese production rules is likely, with the European Union, the United States and New Zealand expressing dismay at a WTO agriculture committee. New Zealand representatives claimed incoming limits on dairy proteins within cheese sold in Canada would illegally "restrict demand for dairy products"

ENDS…

By Monica Dobie

University World News here again features a selection of commercially important and cutting edge higher education research developments.

*Researchers from the Max Planck Institute, Germany, have developed a genetic tool that can help speed the development of new genetic varieties of food crops.…

By Monica Dobie

A Canadian academic has shown how women trapped in abusive relationships often find the will keep living in the need to care for their dogs. A study from the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

Dr Amy Fitzgerald, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology, said field research has shown the need to care for their animals actually prevents women from committing suicide.…

BY RACHEL JONES, in Caracas

OFF the coast of Guyana and Surinam, north of Brazil, lie what may be some of the world’s largest untapped oil reserves. They have remained unexplored for years, thanks to a maritime border dispute between the two South American countries, the former an ex-British colony, and the latter once run by the Dutch.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE HOST country of the oncoming Codex Alimentarius committee on food labelling will resist plans to draft global guidelines saying food product labelling should inform consumers of the amounts of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and sugars within processed foods.…

BY DANIEL PRUZIN, in Geneva

IMPROVING air traffic management, particularly in Europe, is the key to ensuring further near-term reductions in harmful greenhouse gas emissions around airports, top executives from the industry argued during a recent two-day conference on aviation environmentalism in Geneva.…

By Monica Dobie

Move over solar power say American and Canadian university researchers: make room for the new power generator – the knee brace! Motorised prosthetic joints are great – but shame they need a battery. The same can be said about pacemakers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CANADIAN court has ruled that Canada’s only single malt whisky producer cannot use ‘Glen’ in its brand title ‘Glen Breton’, because it makes the drink appear it was made in Scotland. In reality, its distillery is in eastern Canada’s Cape Breton, a region heavily populated by victims of the Nineteenth Century’s Highland Clearances in northern Scotland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) challenge to new Canadian cheese production rules is now increasingly likely, with the European Union (EU), the United States and New Zealand formally expressing dismay at a WTO agriculture committee meeting. Speaking today (18-3) in Geneva, New Zealand diplomats claimed Canada’s new "compositional standards" for cheese – which enter into force on December 13 – defy global Codex Alimentarius guidelines.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

MOVE over solar power: make room for the new power generator – the knee brace! Motorised prosthetic joints are great – but shame they need a battery. The same can be said about pacemakers. But American and Canadian researchers now claim we can generate sufficient energy to drive these devices by simply going for a walk.…

By Mark Godfrey in Beijing

No country has added nuclear power like energy-hungry China. Neighbouring North Korea had more nuclear power capacity than China in 2000 (as did Taiwan). But by 2010, according to the US government-affiliated Energy Information Administration, China will have bypassed both countries.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

CANADA’S first wine-making cooperative has entered receivership, facing almost CDN$40 million in debts, according to court documents. Southern Ontario’s Niagara Vintners was forced into the hands of receivers Deloitte & Touche Inc by the cooperative’s Bank of Nova Scotia.…

BY KARRYN CARTELLE, in Auckland; LUCY JONES, in Dallas, Texas; MONICA

DOBIE, in Ottawa; and BILL CORCORAN, in Johannesburg

NEW Zealand has long retained a position of prominence in the global butter products

industry, despite the fact that competitors are always looking to seize export markets in

what is an increasingly competitive market.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

CANADIAN book buying culture has changed dramatically over the past 15 years resulting in a discount obsessed, bestseller driven market that has gone flat despite a record number of books being released by Canadian publishers says a recent report conducted for Heritage Canada, a Federal government agency.…

BY KEITH NOYAHR, in Colombo

SRI Lanka’s Tamil Tigers have stepped up commercial crime across continents to fund what they call the "final war" of separation, now the formal ceasefire with the govern,ent has ended. But, the foundation to pursue such sophisticated crime was laid during Sri Lanka’s highly internationalised peace process, reports Keith Noyahr from Colombo.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EVERY decade or so comes a technology that is so new, comprehensive, interesting, and damned useful, that it changes the way that we learn, have fun and do business. Think commercial air travel, the mobile phone and the Internet…..these…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

THE CONTINUING disparity between Canadian and American book sleeve prices, despite the exchange rate rise of the Canadian dollar, may have depressed Christmas book sales in Canada this year. The Canadian Booksellers Association said 49% of Canada booksellers said sales were down on Christmas 2006, while 43% said sales were up and 8% the same.…

BY MARK GODFREY

A GLANCE at the bustling Kwun Tong Wholesale Fish Market suggests Hong Kong’s live seafood market is thriving. Every morning with typical Hong Kong efficiency fish are hauled from holding tanks onto queuing trucks fitted with wooden boxes and air pumps.…

BY LARS RUGAARD, in Copenhagen

REPUTEDLY immense riches looming below the glaciated surface of the Arctic Ocean have come within human reach because climate change is gradually thawing the world’s previously frozen-stiff polar regions. But this consequence of a milder physical climate has provoked tension between the countries with an Arctic Ocean, creating echoes of the long defunct cold war, and indicating a long and tough legal and political fight for what could be an important addition to the Earth’s undiscovered hydrocarbon reserves.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

PUBLIC place smoking bans are spreading like wildlife these days, with one country after another drawing up rules preventing tobacco use where it could expose non-smokers to second-hand smoke.

In the European Union (EU), this year, public place smoking bans have been introduced in England, Estonia and Finland, for instance.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

CANADA’S Competition Bureau has launched an investigation into allegations that the Canadian divisions of Nestlé, Cadbury, Hershey, Mars and others have teamed up in a price-fixing scheme in the multibillion-dollar Canadian chocolate bar business.

The chocolate companies involved are cooperating fully.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CANADIAN renewables company StormFisher Biogas (NOTE: CORRECT SPELLING) has struck a deal with one of the country’s largest wine producers – Inniskillin Wines, of Ontario – to produce biogas from grape waste. Skins, seeds, and other waste materials are digested to produce methane, which in turn is powering electricity generators, feeding into the Niagara area grid.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE VAST profits generated by smuggling counterfeit cigarettes have been highlighted in a new OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development) report. It concludes that container with 8.5 million sticks smuggled into the US would yield US$ 1-1.5 million in revenue, while costing the illicit manufacturer just US$ 120,000-130,000 to make, plus 25%-30% shipping costs, if made in China.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INVESTING in jails may not be an obvious strategy to help a war-wracked country emerge from armed conflict, but such an initiative is being backed in southern Sudan. The Canadian government and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) have helped launch the Lologo Regional Training Centre, southern Sudan, and it is already re-orienting 550 former soldiers of the Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA), which has struck a shaky peace deal with the Sudan government.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels

CONFECTIONARY consumers will need to note a clear perceived benefit from nanotechnology when applied to their products if there is not to be a re-run of debate similar to that surrounding the introduction of GMOs: that was the message from scientists and other food experts speaking at an EU seminar last week entitled "From Safe Food to Healthy Diets."…

BY ALAN OSBORN and MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

AGAINST the background of a stable or even declining birth-rate, north American baby food companies are turning to organic and other premium foods to maintain and, where possible, to increase market share. The US Food Institute reports that the overall USA baby food and drink market is predicted to remain virtually unchanged between now and 2011 when sales will reach only US$3.6 billion – just US$100 million higher than this year.…

BY ANDREW SALMON, in Seoul

THE WORDS ‘nuclear’ and ‘Korea’ automatically conjure up images of Kim Jong-il’s underground atomic weapons programs, but south of the heavily militarised border, it is South Korea that has quietly built up one of the world’s most competitive nuclear industries.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

CANADA’S Indigo Books & Music is receiving criticism for taking a role in a controversial Ontario election campaign promise that would see the dominant bookseller supplying books to the province’s school libraries.

Ahead of his reelection this month, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty promised to spend CDN$80-million for books for Ontario school libraries over the next four years, naming Indigo as the projected sole supplier, "at cost".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HUMAN nature’s tendency to let sleeping dogs lie means that international initiatives to deal with chronic problems often only come to fruition after a major disaster. And such was the case with the formation of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and BELINDA BLESSED, a virtual reporter, on Second Life

IT was a curious experience – attending a World Bank press conference in an Internet virtual world, watching and listening proceedings through the eyes and ears of a pixellated female digital reporter….…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NEW Zealand has attacked Canada at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) today (Wed26-9) over its introduction of new subsidies for Canadian milk producers, with its diplomats claiming they could "impede its exports" [to Canada]. Wellington’s concern focuses on changes to Canada’s complex ‘special milk classes’ system, where subsidies are paid for domestically-sold milk.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

WASHING hands in soap and warm water is the best method to combat the clostridium difficile (C.difficile) super-bug claims a recent Canadian study. McGill University, Montreal, researchers tested separate hand washing systems used in hospitals on contaminated hands.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

WASHING hands in soap and warm water is the best method to combat clostridium difficile bacteria claims a recent Canadian study.
McGill University, Montreal, researchers tested separate hand washing systems used in hospitals on hands contaminated with the dangerous bug.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa, and KEITH NUTHALL

IT would almost be hard for Canada not to be one of the seafood industry’s largest global players. After all, surrounded by the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the Great Lakes as well, Canada has the world’s longest coastline (244,000 km).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN COMMISSION PREPARES FOR MAJOR SHAKE UP OF COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY

THE EUROPEAN Commission is preparing to announce on November 20 major changes to the way the European Union (EU) subsidises European food production through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

GLOBAL warming is drying up ponds in the Canadian high Arctic, seasonal homes to aquatic wildlife for millennia.

Scientists Dr John Smol from Queen’s University, Ontario, and Dr Marianne Douglas, from the University of Alberta have monitored summer water levels of 40 ponds on Cape Herschel, east-central Ellesmere Island since 1983.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

‘HARRY Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ smashed sales records in Canada. Vancouver-based Raincoast Books, the Harry Potter’s Canadian distributor and publisher reported 812,000 copies of the book were sold across Canada in the first 48-hour sale period, 25% up from the previous Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

A CANADIAN Supreme Court ruling has given Canadian tobacco companies the right to advertise their brands in publications and establishments that are mainly for adults. The decision still prohibits using billboards, event sponsorship and adverts that target young people or link it with a daring lifestyle such as the use of Marlboro man images.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

‘HARRY Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ smashed sales records in Canada. Vancouver-based Raincoast Books, the Harry Potter’s Canadian distributor and publisher reported 812,000 copies of the book were sold across Canada in the first 48-hour sale period, 25% up from the previous Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

CANADIAN bookseller, Indigo Books and Music Inc., has for the first time, outdone Canadian online sales over Amazon.ca, the global book giant’s Canada arm, according to an industry analyst.
Despite Amazon’s securing 25% more Canadian online traffic in the past months, Indigo’s conversion rate or the rate of how many browsers turn to sellers is substantially higher than Amazon’s.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CANADIAN government has added to the growing pressure on the USA to slash the subsidies it pumps into its food sector, formally requesting that a World Trade Organisation (WTO) panel declares that Washington’s largesse has been illegally high.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CANADIAN government has added to the growing pressure on the USA to slash the subsidies it pumps into its food sector, formally requesting that a World Trade Organisation (WTO) panel declares that Washington’s largesse has been illegally high.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa
CANADA’S largest dairy processor Saputo Inc has announced it will close two plants and cuts 144 jobs to consolidate its Canadian manufacturing operations. A Vancouver cheese plant will close March 31, while a cutting and wrapping plant near Montreal will shut down on June 2.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IT is maybe reassuring that during an era where food companies must increasingly grapple with often complex global and regional cross-border trade, health, packaging and marketing regulations, there is one international organisation that actually designs rules with their practical use in mind.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa
PENNSYLVANIA based chocolate giant, Hershey, has announced it will close its plant in Smiths Falls, Ontario, 60km south of Ottawa, after 44 years in operation. Roughly 500 people will lose their jobs. The phased shut down will begin late 2007, continuing into 2008.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend between Euro 200 and 230 million to Canadian dominated Ambatovy Minerals SA and Dynatec Madagascar SA to develop and operate a new large-scale open pit lateritic nickel ore mine in Madagascar.…

BY MARK ROWE
EASTERN Europe, thanks mainly to the preponderance of Soviet-era facilities and Soviet-era standards of maintenance, has long been seen as a potential weak link for the nuclear power industry in safety terms. A vast group of international experts devotes time and resources to maintaining the industry’s record and the nuclear power industry has various arrangements for cooperation among utilities and internationally, among government and United Nations nuclear agencies.…

BY DINAH GARDNER, in Beijing
IT was already two years late, but China’s newest and biggest nuclear reactor has just been judged ready for full operation. The Russian-built 1060 MWe Tianwan nuclear power reactor in the eastern port city of Lianyungang in Jiangsu province came on line in January.…

BY MARK ROWE
CLIMATE change, the general scientific consensus now holds, is taking place, and will continue to do so even were we to stop our fossil fuel emissions overnight. And while there may be jests to the effect that hotter summers would be good news for drinks manufacturers, the reality is that the drinks sector faces as many challenges as any other industry, both in terms of ingredient and energy supplies, production adjustments and related commercial issues.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
Shaking off fears that the American/Canadian price differential would put off book-buyers, Canadian bookshops had a good Christmas with 71% of members of the Canadian Booksellers Association reporting higher sales compared to the 2005 period. Over a quarter of all respondents said sales were up by more than 10%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THINK of Latin American mines, and political and industrial
relations instability springs to mind. Pictures of poncho’d Bolivian Amerindians demonstrating against poor conditions,
hurling rocks at robocops armed to the teeth….

The truth is that the mining industry often gets a bad rap in Latin America and, to be honest, it has often been run poorly, especially in environmental terms.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

CANADIAN tobacco companies have voluntarily agreed to remove descriptors such as ‘light’, ‘mild’ and similar variations from their cigarette packaging from next summer.

Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd, Rothmans Benson & Hedges Inc. and JTI-Macdonald Corp. will each phase out these slogans on affected brands and products from December 31, 2006, with an implementation deadline of July 31, 2007.…

BY LARS RUGAARD, in Copenhagen

THERE are high hopes in Greenland for oil wealth of North Sea dimensions as major oil companies embark on new exploration quests in Arctic conditions. This follows discoveries 15 years ago, when scientists found oil seepages at Greenland’s Nuussuaq peninsula and ever since reports have been made to the international oil sector of enormous deposits of fossil energy below the ice seas surrounding the huge ice-covered island.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

THE CANADIAN province of Ontario is refusing to join six other provinces in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against big tobacco companies, leaving the western province of British Columbia to lead the fight.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has said: "There are two agendas here.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have been asked to approve a trade agreement with Canada giving its exporters the rights to send 1,000’s of tonnes of meat to EU markets. The deal incorporates annual import rights previously offered by the 10 countries that joined the EU in 2004, to be transformed into pan-EU access.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched formal World Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes proceedings with Canada over a discriminatory tax break for Canadian wine and beer producers. Under Canada’s 2006 budget proposals, excise duties on Canadian wine made from 100% Canadian-grown agricultural products and domestic beer would either be reduced or abolished, while excise tax remains on imported wine and beer.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

AN AUDITOR-general report has criticised the Societé des Alcools du Québec (SAQ) one of Canada’s provincial liquor monopolies for illegally raising wine prices by almost 10% last year. A decrease in the value of the Euro against the Canadian dollar should have meant price cuts for consumers, but instead they paid CDN$8 million over a set pricing system, with the extra money going to provincial government coffers.…

BY MARK ROWE

OFFICIALS in the central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan have called for urgent action to tackle the country’s uranium dumps, a legacy of the country’s role in the nuclear industry of the former Soviet Union. Their call has highlighted increasing concerns about how depleted uranium is stored, at a time when the United Kingdom and other governments look set to press ahead with a new generation of nuclear power stations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CANADA, in alliance with Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, has successfully scuppered plans to place chrysotile asbestos on the ‘watch list’ of the United Nations’ Rotterdam Convention, a move that would have allowed importing countries to insist on prior consent before admitting any cargoes of this mineral.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

THE CANADIAN Museum of Nature has reopened its key west wing having reached the halfway mark of an extensive and costly renovation project, scheduled to finish in 2010. The now completed wing underwent comprehensive renovations, including the building of new fossil and mammal galleries and a temporary exhibition space.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

IN 2005, Canadians bought more wine than spirits for the first time according to a new Statistics Canada report.

National wines sales reached CDN$4.2-billion compared with CDN$4-billion sold in spirits in 2004/2005.

Beer sales are top: CDN$8.4-billion in sales last year.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

THE BRITISH Columbia Court of Appeal has ruled that the Canadian province can pursue legal action to recover health-care costs linked to smoking related diseases from 15 foreign tobacco companies. The firms, covering most the world’s biggest cigarette producers, argued that the province had no legal standing, because there was no provincial legislation on the issue.…

BY KEITH NOYAHR, in Colombo

THE RESUMPTION of war in Sri Lanka is bad news. Period. But, ironically, there have been some benefits. One of these is a concentrating of the mind amongst law enforcement officials within Sri Lanka and their counterparts abroad into tracking down and stopping both terrorist financing and money laundering.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, in Ottawa

CANADIAN brewer Sleeman is planning an export drive after its takeover by Japan’s Sapporo, the company’s chairman John Sleeman told just-drinks.com. Mr Sleeman, who will stay on as CEO after the deal is approved by shareholders, said: "I am delighted with this agreement.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DETAILS of a comprehensive plan to mitigate environmental and social problems caused by a planned Vietnam fluorspar (and tungsten) open cast mine have been released by the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), which is expected to support the project.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Balderson, Ontario

STRONG family links and a dislike of European Union bureaucracy was what brought David James, 62, to Canada to start over again. In 1998, the James family, including wife Ann, 61, daughter Debra, 39, and son-in law Rob, 39, packed up their belongings and moved to a small farming community called Balderson, roughly 50 miles from Canada’s capital, Ottawa.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DETAILS of a comprehensive plan to mitigate environmental and social problems caused by a planned Vietnam tungsten and fluorspar open cast mine have been released by the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), which is expected to support the project.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN EXPERT report from the world’s top anti-money laundering body has shown how organised criminals are exploiting the global metal trade to conceal the origin of their ill-gotten gains. The annual ‘typologies’ report from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) looks at how world-trading systems are abused by money launderers.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Montreal

CANADIAN distributors of US imported books have slashed prices by as much as 20% because an outdated currency conversion from American to Canadian dollars has now been adjusted.

For example, ‘The Glass Castle’ by Jeanette Walls had been priced at CDN$19 – which was 36% higher than the American price of US$14, reflecting the average exchange rate before 2005.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend Euro 80 million to help Australian-Canadian company Equinox Minerals Ltd develop a new copper mine in Zambia, that is outside the country’s established copper belt. Equinox wants to invest Euro 709 million in a dual site mine, a processing plant and associated infrastructure.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

SCIENTISTS have gathered in Quebec City, Canada, to discuss ways of fighting plant diseases that threaten to destroy cocoa production. At the Cacao Diseases: Important Threats to Chocolate Production Worldwide symposium members of the American Phytopathological Society, Canadian Phytopathological Society, and the Mycological Society of America listened to experts warn of the grave threat to cocoa plants posed by three deadly diseases: black pod, frosty pod, and witches’ broom.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

THE CHAIRMAN, CEO and founder of Canadian brewer Sleeman has said he will fight to keep his family name in the beer business, after a review of commercial options was ambushed and turned into a takeover battle.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

INDIGO Books & Music, Canada’s largest book chain, has announced it will launch a new website in November of this year. At the company’s annual general meeting held in Toronto, the bookseller’s president, Heather Reisman said the site will focus on a "user friendly" approach to customer service, offering book reviews, staff recommendations and book suggestions for consumers.…

STORIES BY MONICA DOBIE

CANADA’S third largest brewer Sleeman Breweries Ltd has announced at what could be the company’s last annual general meeting that it will now begin seriously considering proposals to sell the company. CEO, John Sleeman, said "several" offers from domestic and international beer manufacturers had come to his attention and that they will be examined in the next three months.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

THE CHAIRMAN, CEO and founder of Canadian brewer Sleeman has said he will fight to keep his family name in the beer business, after a review of commercial options was ambushed and turned into a takeover battle.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

CANADIAN scientists have confirmed a hybrid bear born of a grizzly bear and a polar bear was recently killed by a sports-hunter in Canada’s Northwest Territories (NWT). The bear was a creamy polar bear colour but also had long claws, a humped back, shallow face and brown patches around its eyes and nose: grizzly traits.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

DUTCH coatings giant Akzo Nobel NV has taken over Canadian paintmaker Sico Inc. for approximately CDN$284 million.

Akzo based in Arnhem, the Netherlands, will acquire all of Sico’s outstanding common shares at a cash price of CDN$20 per share and will also offer to buy Sico’s class B preferred shares for CDN$3.8 million in total.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Cairo

THE EGYPTIAN government has passed new compulsory standards for its country’s booming private university sector, because teaching quality at the eight independent universities established in Egypt in the past decade has sometimes been poor.

With so many new institutions chasing a quick buck, teaching and facilities has been unreliable, Professor Farag Elkamel, Dean of Mass Communications at the Al-Ahram Canadian University (ACU) told the Times Higher Education Supplement.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

THE CANADIAN government has approved the use of advanced American technology to detect harmful noroviruses within the country’s prolific oyster beds. This ‘reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction’ method effectively separates norovirus genetic materials from within oyster tissues. Canada’s health ministry has recently published its details within its Compendium of Analytical Methods reference guide for scientists.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

COD stocks in the North Sea may recover slower than anticipated given new evidence in Atlantic Canada whereby despite moratoriums and imposed limits on cod catches, over-fishing in the 1980’s have caused a significantly increased natural mortality rate in the species.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

THE LATEST available figures, released yesterday (15-2) by Statistics Canada, have indicated that Canada’s trade surplus in beer with the United States has expanded significantly in recent years. In 2003, Canada’s trade surplus in beer with the United States stood at CDN$265 million (US$228 million), CDN$43 million higher than in 1999.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

CANADIAN researchers have suggested a novel way of preventing a feared switch off of the Gulf Stream that warms Europe and Britain, preventing us from being plunged into Siberia-style winters. The concern is linked to global warming and its potential melting of the North Pole ice cap.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

THE CANADIAN province of Québec’s opposition political parties have called for a public enquiry into a recent price-fixing scandal whereby two ex-VP’s from alcohol monopoly, the Société des Alcools du Québec (SAQ) admitted being involved in kick-back scheme with French wine producers.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

AN OPPOSITION leader in the Canadian province of Québec has called in the Drinks Bulletin for a special public inquiry into a financial scandal involving the local alcohol monopoly retailer, the Société des Alcools du Québec (SAQ). The provincial government-owned monopoly has admitted that two ex-vice-presidents were involved in a price-fixing and kickback scheme, although they did not profit personally.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PRESIDENT of Canadian auto manufacturer supplies giant Magna International has welcomed the European Commission’s approval of its purchase of German roof system manufacturer CTS Fahrzeug-Dachsysteme GmbH (CTS) from sports car maker Porsche. Brussels has imposed no conditions on the deal, which it concluded would not harm competition in the European Union (EU).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UNITED States International Trade Commission has been told by a North America Free Trade Area (NAFTA) panel to review a decision to renew a countervailing duty on Canadian exports to the USA of alloy magnesium. The panel ruled the commission "has not provided a reasoned explanation based on all of the evidence" that scrapping duties would lead to Québec producer Magnola unfairly underselling and harming the health of American producers.…

BY ALAN OSBORN and MONICA DOBIE

It’s been a pretty satisfying Christmas season for Canadian booksellers even if there wasn’t a "must-have" book on everybody’s shopping list. "The more predictable nature of the sales period meant booksellers could buy judiciously, leaving them with fewer returns and a wider breadth of overall title sales," says Susan Dayus, execuritve director of the Canadian Booksellers Association.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
A NEW genetic test that can detect devastating clam disease QPX has been developed by American scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), in Cape Cod Massachusetts. They claim the test is sensitive enough to detect the QPX organism not only in clams, but also in seawater and sediment.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

PATIENTS in need of an organ transplant may stand a better chance of receiving a new heart, kidney or liver in good time because of a substance found in a tiny hopping bug. Canadian scientists from the Department of Biochemistry at Queens University, in Kingston, Ontario, discovered an antifreeze protein in snow fleas that may increase the shelf life of human organs for transplantation.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

A NEW genetic test that can detect devastating clam disease QPX has been developed by American scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), in Cape Cod Massachusetts. They claim the test is sensitive enough to detect the QPX organism not only in clams, but also in seawater and sediment.…

BY MONICA DOBIE and KEITH NUTHALL

TIME was when Canadians focused a significant proportion of their habitual condescension towards their American neighbours through beer. US brands were dismissed as weak in alcohol, tasteless and generic. But today, even though the big US beer labels taste the same as they ever did – much to the relief of many consumers around the world, of course – Canadian beer tastes are changing, especially among the young.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

THE CANADIAN government has followed in the footsteps of the European Union (EU) by banning the use of lead acetate in progressive hair dyes namely, Grecian Formula 16 (Canadian sister of the fabled Grecian 2000 Cream in the UK).…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ON July 31 this year the European Union’s (EU) Tobacco Advertising Directive came into effect, making it illegal to advertise tobacco products in the print media, radio and over the Internet within the EU. Also banned was tobacco sponsorship of cross-border cultural and sporting events.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADIAN tobacco firms have suffered potentially a monumental blow, as Canada’s highest court has sided with the British Columbia provincial government, giving it the green light to sue manufacturers to recover billions of dollars in health care costs.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE CANADIAN federal government will appeal against the Quebec Court of Appeal’s decision to allow tobacco companies to use their corporate names for sponsoring sports or artistic events, rather than their brands.

“What we find surprising is the fact that the federal government has indicated that they are taking this fight to the (Canadian) Supreme Court because we are allowed a limited amount of print advertising, when this is exactly what they told the courts to begin with,” said Imperial Tobacco Canada spokesperson, Christina Dona.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ROLE of the Caribbean as a staging point for ill-gotten gains goes back to the trans-Atlantic misadventures of the first European ships over 400 years ago. It would appear some habits die hard. Wesley Gibbings reports from Port of Spain, Trinidad.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union and Canada have signed an agreement allowing personal data on airline passengers flying to Canada to be transferred to Canadian authorities, helping identify passengers possibly posing a security threat. This would include names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses and credit card numbers.…

Keith Nuthall
THE INTERNATIONAL Labour Organisation (ILO) has warned that airport check-in staff suffer intense physical and emotional stresses, causing widespread workplace injuries and illnesses. A survey of Canada and Switzerland airports by the International Transport Workers’ Federation, International Labour Office, and Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety has revealed serious problems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CANADIAN alloy magnesium producer Magnola has been correctly charged 21.61% countervailing duties on its exports to the United States, a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) panel has ruled. It has found that the US Department of Commerce’s (DoC) decision to impose the duties was legal under NAFTA and “supported by substantial evidence on the record”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CANADIAN government claims it has complied with a 2004 WTO ruling that elements of its collective wheat marketing systems break global commerce rules. A disputes panel told Canada to reform the Canada Grain Act, Canada Grain Regulations, and the Canada Transportation Act.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A HIGH profile environmental project protecting endangered snow leopards has been launched in association with central Asia’s largest gold deposit, the Kumtor gold mine, in Kyrgyzstan’s inaccessible Tien Shan mountains. Environmentalists have consistently attacked the development, particularly after sodium cyanide from an overturned truck spilled into the Barskoon River in 1998.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and MONICA DOBIE
A CANADIAN federal tobacco advertising law has been declared unconstitutional in the province of Québec for preventing tobacco company names, as well as cigarette brands, from being used to sponsor sports and cultural events. Its Court of Appeal struck down parts of the law on tobacco advertising and labeling by a 2-1 majority, leading legal experts to tell Canadian newspapers that a “JTI Tennis Tournament” would be possible, but not an “Export A Tournament.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and MONICA DOBIE
A CANADIAN federal tobacco advertising law has been declared unconstitutional in the province of Québec for preventing tobacco company names, as well as cigarette brands, from being used to sponsor sports and cultural events. Its Court of Appeal struck down parts of the law on tobacco advertising and labeling by a 2-1 majority, leading legal experts to tell Canadian newspapers that a “JTI Tennis Tournament” would be possible, but not an “Export A Tournament.”…

BY MONICA DOBIE
A CANADIAN study published in the American Journal of Health Promotion has found that sending people unsolicited ‘spam’ emails that promote healthy eating and lifestyle choices can reverse some bad dietary habits and increase physical activity. The 2,598 participants in the University of Alberta research who received spam reduced their mean body mass index (BMI), whereas people who did not receive the e-mails slightly increased their BMI during the study period.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THAT criminals abuse the insurance industry is nothing new for a sector routinely screening claims for hints of fraud. However, its managers have proved far less alert to the risk of it being exploited by money launderers and terrorist financers, a new detailed report has claimed.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
A RECENT USA Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report has found many online pharmacies declaring they are based in Canada, selling cheap drugs under local liberal medicine sales laws, are actually based in the US or outside North America, in Vietnam and the Czech Republic, for instance.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
TWO bar owners in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan will fight recently enacted smoking laws in court, arguing the bans break the country’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Robert Jenkinson, from Manitoba, on trial for letting patrons smoke in his bar, will argue the provincial smoking ban violates the charter’s rules on fairness because it does not apply to local native reserves.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PRESIDENT George W Bush has indicated the USA may abandon protective food production subsidies at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha Development Round. He told an ITV interview ahead of the Gleneagles G8 summit: “Let’s join hands as wealthy industrialised nations and say to the world, we’re going to get rid of all our agricultural subsidies together.”…

BY MONICA DOBIE
A RECENT USA Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report has found many online pharmacies declaring they are based in Canada, selling cheap drugs under local liberal medicine sales laws, are actually based in the US or outside North America, in Vietnam and the Czech Republic, for instance.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADIAN beef cattle are being exported across the US border for the first time since the Alberta BSE scare in May 2003. Cattle and bison less than 30 months old and goats and sheep less than 12 months can now cross the border for immediate slaughter and fattening.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE UNIMAGINABLE happened in Canada this past winter. There was no professional ice hockey, the national sport. The entire season was hockey-free due to a lockout by the National Hockey League (NHL) team owners, who tried unsuccessfully to persuade NHL players to agree to terms that would potentially hamper their already fat salaries.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
PROFITS for Canada’s Indigo Books & Music Inc. soared to CDN$11.7 million at its April 2 year-end, an increase of 129% or CDN$6.6 million over the previous year’s results. However, the company’s total revenues for the year were CDN$787.5 million, down 2.3% (CDN$18.2 million) from a year earlier.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BETTER efforts need to be made to ensure a “culture of safety” exists in nuclear power plants worldwide, a meeting of the parties to the United Nations Convention on Nuclear Safety has concluded. Debating the current problems the idea at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters in Vienna, the meeting noted “in some instances…safety culture in nuclear power plants should be strengthened as deficiencies were reported in areas of decision-making, even management and internal communications”.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADA’S Sleeman Breweries Ltd will cut costs and raise its prices in the face of a first quarter profit slump from CDN$2.2 million a year ago to CDN$1.6 million for this January-March.

The Ontario-based move comes at a time when the company is trying to stay attractive to consumers during an on-going price war in the province.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADIAN booksellers will soon know promptly which books are the most popular across their national market, with the introduction of a new book sales-tracking system in June. BookNet Canada, a non-profit organisation, will introduce a BNC Sales Data Service collecting sales information from retailers nationwide to produce weekly reports.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADIAN smokers are quitting at record rates due to smoking bans in public places and intolerance at home, said a recent study. Published in Statistics Canada’s Health Reports, it said between 2001 and 2003, 17% of smokers tried to quit, up from 1994-96’s 10%.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE SWEDISH government has granted Canadian and Toronto-based mining company Continental Precious Minerals permission to explore for possible uranium deposits in northern Sweden. The company will investigate bedrock for three years in the province of Jamtland & Lapland, in the country’s far north.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NORTH American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) appeals panel has confirmed that the United States sunset review of countervailing and anti-dumping duties on Canadian corrosion resistant steel exports wrongly concluded that this protection should be re-imposed.

The new panel rejected arguments brought by the US International Trade Commission that aimed to shore up its already dismissed claims that the Canadian industry had excess capacity that it could use in the future to hit “already weakened” American competitors.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE GREATER the number of fast food restaurants present in a community, the higher the rate of heart disease and death, according research published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health (ICES).

However, the study notes that illness is not necessarily the result of eating junk food alone but the lifestyle associated with it.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
A CANADIAN study has suggested the more fast-food restaurants found in a community, the higher the rate of heart disease and death.

The Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) research into Ontario data notes a combination of eating junk food and a lifestyle of gluttony, inactivity and fast eating contributes to illness.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE MORE fast food restaurants there are in a community, the higher the rate of heart disease and death, so says a recent study published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health. However illness is not the result of eating junk food alone but the lifestyle associated with it, it says.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE SWEDISH government has given a Canadian mining company permission to explore for possible uranium deposits in northern Sweden. Toronto-based Continental Precious Minerals will investigate bedrock for three years in the province of Jamtland and Lapland, one of the country’s most northernmost regions; an additional three years for the inquiry could be granted by Sweden if necessary.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EMERGING nanotechnologies can best assist developing countries through innovations in energy production, conversion and storage, plus alternative fuels manufacturing, the Canadian Programme on Genomics and Global Health (CPGGH) has said in a report. *http://www.utoronto.ca/jcb/home/documents/PLoS_nanotech.pdf…

BY MARK ROWE
THE YEAR 2007 will be a significant one for Romania. It is the year that the country is scheduled to join the European Union (EU); it is also the year that Romania’s second nuclear power unit is expected to come on line.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
ENVIRONMENTALISTS in Canada have set up an Internet service, which allows people to have access to a list of toxic compounds released near their homes and the companies responsible for the pollutants simply by keying in their postal code.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
A FORMER American government packing plant veterinarian says the US government is hiding cases of BSE in the United States. During a speech in Edmonton, Canada, Dr Lester Friedlander stated ex-colleagues with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have told him of cases the department has chosen not to announce.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE CANADIAN government is to impose 15% additional duties on American oyster imports, because of Washington’s failure to follow a World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruling that it should scrap its Byrd Amendment law on protective tariffs. This grants US companies additional compensation for successfully pushing their federal government into erecting anti-dumping or countervailing duties on imports deemed subsidised or cut-priced.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Canada are working towards a deal where they mutually recognise each other’s fish and live bivalve molluscs health production standards. The negotiations – handled by the European Commission for the EU – follow the agreement by both sides of their first ever food heath mutual recognition deal, for pork products and bovine semen.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CANADIAN meat producers have launched a CDN$7 billion class-action suit against Canada’s federal government for negligently allowing BSE to devastate the country’s cattle industry. The lawsuit claims the government’s monitoring system established to prevent BSE from spreading to Canadian herds failed because it lost track of animals it catalogued as being imported from BSE-ridden Britain.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
MOLSON Canada has announced it has acquired Ontario microbrewery Creemore Springs Brewery Ltd. Established in 1987, the brewery in Creemore, Ontario, 120 kilometres northwest of Toronto, employs 50 people and produces Creemore Springs premium lager. “Creemore is rounding up Molson’s brand portfolio and will strongly position us in the domestic super-premium segment, becoming an engine for growth…,”

said an ebullient Kevin Boyce, President and CEO, Molson Canada.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FINANCING has been secured for a new international programme creating 10 alternative dispute resolution tribunals in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Serbia & Montenegro over the next four years. The International Finance Corporation (IFC)-coordinated project will immediately make permanent a pilot tribunal in Bosnia, having been given US$600,000 by the Canadian government; the World Bank agency also intends to firmly establish a Serb arbitration tribunal in the next 12 months.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and MONICA DOBIE
THE SUPREME Court of Canada has confirmed the right of Canadian provinces to introduce stricter anti-smoking retail rules than within the country’s federal Tobacco Act. This came in an explanation of a January judgement rejecting Rothmans Benson & Hedges’ claim of unconstitutionality about a Saskatchewan ban on ‘power wall’ tobacco product displays.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADIAN fish and seafood exports continued to be strong in 2004, totalling CDN$4.5 billion with more than 685,000 tonnes exported worldwide, up 8% compared to 2003. The figures were welcomed by junior fisheries minister Shawn Murphy as “evidence of our country’s commitment to providing quality seafood products to an increasing number of international markets”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A US judge has granted a request by an American cattlemen’s group to temporarily halt plans to reopen the border to Canadian cattle, which had been planned for this week. R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America argued that the opening of borders would present risks of BSE from Canada infiltrating US herds.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
A RECENT Canadian survey into drivers falling asleep at the wheel has revealed that a majority of the cases occurred in the late afternoon and not at night, a more obvious presumption. The study, conducted by the country’s Traffic Injury Research Foundation, said that roughly one-third of the drivers who admitted to dozing off said that it occurred in the afternoon.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EVERY vegetable farmer knows that planting methods are crucial to the success of a crop: spacing seeds, nurturing them with water and feed, protecting them from pests. Well, this is a good analogy for the current state of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agricultural liberalisation talks in Geneva.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
WHAT does a paint industry do when its closest neighbour is a huge industrial giant with massive manufacturing capabilities and large product innovation budgets? Unfortunately, when examining the Canadian paint sector, the answer is not one of David and Goliath but rather a more practical and unromantic approach.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADA and China have agreed to share information in the field of natural resources, including industrial minerals. The Natural Resources Canada federal ministry has signed agreements with China’s National Development and Reform Commission and its Ministry of Land and Resources.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE CANADIAN Food Inspection Agency has warned 11,000 units of Sealtest chocolate milk, made by Natrel, was contaminated and distributed across Ontario, causing some food poisoning. Natrel said the contaminant was 99.5% water and 0.5% a soap and vinegar-like cleanser.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
A DEAL has been struck between Canada and its easternmost province Newfoundland & Labrador over its offshore oil proceeds, ending a bitter dispute that saw provincial government hauling the Canadian flag off public buildings. The province will receive 100% of its oil revenues, or roughly CDN$2 billion, over eight years without losing existing development subsidies, with an optional to extend the agreement by eight more years.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
A QUEBEC Superior Court judge, in Canada, has given the green light for two class action lawsuits to be launched against Canadian tobacco manufacturers, Imperial Tobacco, Rothmans Benson & Hedges and JTI MacDonald, all of whom could be liable for significant damages.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
A CANADIAN bookseller is facing a hefty legal bill after the Appeal Court of British Columbia (BC) overturned an earlier ruling that costs in a case against Canada Customs should be born by the government agency. Little Sisters Bookstore had won a long-running case at the BC Supreme Court, telling the customs agency to stop seizing its international book deliveries.…

BY MONICA DOBIE and BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CANADIAN province of Quebec will ban smoking in public places, including bars and restaurants, within a year according to its provincial government. Quebec health minister Philippe Couillard said he would introduce legislation this spring.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

A NEW genetic test that can detect devastating clam disease QPX has been developed by American scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), in Cape Cod Massachusetts. They claim the test is sensitive enough to detect the QPX organism not only in clams, but also in seawater and sediment.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
BACTERIA have never had it so good in Canada. Demonized worldwide by environmental health officers, bacteria are being feted and are currently living large in Ontario, being injected into tips to feast on sludge. Professor Elizabeth Edwards, a scientist from the University of Toronto has discovered a way to farm naturally occurring bacteria, introducing them into toxic landfills, where they neutralise tough chlorine-based pollutants.…