Search Results for: Swiss
438 results out of 438 results found for 'Swiss'.
EU FRAUD ROUND UP – EPPO LAUNCH COMES AS EU INCREASES LAW ENFORCEMENT ACTION AGAINST FRAUD
European Union (EU) law enforcement, perhaps emboldened by the launch of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), has launched a series of cases and inquiries, including against high-ranking politicians accused of corruption. For example, Gabrijela Žalac, Croatia’s regional development and EU funds minister from 2016-9, and three accomplices, have been arrested, on EPPO orders, for alleged fraud regarding the purchase by her ministry of deliberately overpriced software for a public company.…
BRITISH AND SWISS BANKS FINED EUR344 OVER ‘STERLING LADS’ ONLINE FOREX CARTEL
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.…
LUMINESCENT YARM IS MAJOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT GROWTH ZONE – BUT SUSTAINABILITY IS A CHALLENGE
INTRODUCTION
In a global textile and clothing market that is increasingly integrating design with functionality, the potential of luminescent yarns is becoming ever more apparent. The focus of groundbreaking research and development, there is widening diversity in this segment from luminescent coatings on yarns to those that integrate LEDs (light-emitting diodes).…
FEARS FOR EU-SWISS AML/CFT COOPERATION AFTER KEY TREATY TALKS FAIL
The Swiss Federal Council’s (Switzerland’s cabinet) May 26 unilateral decision to end seven years of negotiations on a new agreement to govern future relations between Switzerland and the European Union (EU), citing sovereignty concerns (1), closes the door on attempts to ensure the country has a formal link with EU AML/CFT legislation.…
INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY ROUND UP – TRANS-ATLANTIC KNITWEAR TRADES BENEFIT FROM END OF AIRBUS DISPUTE
A trade war over airplane manufacturing subsidies between the USA and UK, which has led to 25% additional duties being levied on British knitwear exports to America, appears to have been resolved. The EU and the USA have suspended for five years retaliatory duties that both sides have imposed on each other’s exports in the long-running ‘Airbus’ subsidy dispute.…
EU PLASTICS RESTRICTIONS PRESENT OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS FOR METAL PACKAGING INDUSTRY
On July 3, 2021, the European Union’s (EU) groundbreaking, detailed and wide-ranging directive intended to reduce plastic litter came into force: the directive on single use plastics (SUP) (1) – as it affects a key competitor, the metal packaging sector has been keeping a close eye on the fallout.…
SWISS DAIRY INDUSTRY CONFIDENT IT WILL SURVIVE FAILED EU/SWISS TRADE TALKS – BUT RISKS TO COMMERCE ARE REAL
SWITZERLAND and the European Union (EU) will gain nothing by throwing away existing trade rules after long-term negotiations to create a new comprehensive EU-Swiss ‘Institutional Framework Agreement’ collapsed, dairy industry experts have told Dairy Industries International (DII).
Talks ended on May 26, when Switzerland’s Federal Council announced it would not pursue its discussions with the EU, over concerns that a major EU deal would undermine Swiss wages, give EU immigrants social benefit rights and reduce Swiss government powers to subsidise particular chosen industries.…
GLOBAL MASK MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY AND MARKET WILL REMAIN ROBUST AFTER COVID-19
INTRODUCTION
THE MANUFACTURE of protective masks has been maybe the largest growth area in the international textile and non-wovens industry during the Covid-19 pandemic. Billions of people have donned masks as they seek to avoid catching a disease that by June 11 (2021) had killed 3.7 million people and infected 175 million [1].…
THE MERGING OF FUNCTION AND DESIGN IS RESHAPING THE GLOBAL CLOTHING AND TEXTILE INDUSTRY
INTRODUCTION
The COVID-19 pandemic has had many profound social and economic impacts, but maybe one of the most important for the clothing and textile sector has been how it encouraged the meshing of design and function in products.
With consumers staying at home, they have looked for apparel to provide comfort as much as formal elegance, of more importance when working in an office or attending public evening events.…
BATTLE ON TO SAVE SWISS ACCESS TO EU RESEARCH AND MARKET AFTER TRADE TALKS END
The fight is on to save Swiss textile industry unfettered access to European Union (EU) internal market and research programmes after Switzerland pulled the plug on seven years of talks aimed at a new trade and cooperation treaty. A May 26 Swiss Federal Council statement (1), explaining why it could not support the projected Institutional Framework Agreement (InstA) deal, cited “substantial differences” on “key aspects” of the draft agreement mapped out in 2018.…
MONGOLIA TARGETS CASHMERE SUSTAINABILITY
Mongolia wants to increase the sustainability of its cashmere industry through more vertical integration – processing cashmere into premium finished garments locally. And it also wants to reduce the national herd to sustainable levels from a current high of 30 million.…
SWISS LIFE CONSPIRED WITH US TAXPAYERS TO HIDE USD1.452 BILLION, SAYS DOJ
Switzerland’s largest insurance company, Swiss Life, and its subsidiaries in Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Singapore have admitted to conspiring with US taxpayers and others to hide a total USD1.452 billion in offshore accounts, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said on May 14.…
BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY INCREASINGLY SOPHISTICATED AS COMPANIES SEEK REAL TIME ID SOLUTIONS
The test remains the same. French tech multinational Thales stressed in a paper that they “allow a person to be identified and authenticated based on recognisable and verifiable data, which are unique and specific…” compared to a person’s biometric template.…
HIGH-END FABRIC DEVELOPERS INTEGRATE SOPHISTICATED ANTI-VIRAL TECH FOLLOWING COVID-19 PANDEMIC
While the antibacterial properties of textiles have been a trend in the fashion sector for some time, particularly for athleisure clothing integrating odour-limiting properties, Covid-19 has prompted many textile and fashion companies to conduct research and development into fabrics and clothing killing or harming viruses. …
COVID-19 INSPIRES DEVELOPMENT OF ANTI-VIRAL KNITWEAR
COVID-19 has unleashed a significant boom in demand for apparel and other wearables that are anti-viral, cleansing consumers’ bodies of viruses, as well as bacteria.
Companies making fibres and yarns have been quick to tout anti-viral technologies. Examples include HeiQ Materials AG – a Switzerland based textile innovation specialist, which has been selling a new anti-virus textile treatment HeiQ Viroblock NPJ03, added to textile products during final processing and utilising anti-microbial silver, whose charge attracts viruses to spherical liposomes which deplete the virus membrane of cholesterol, allowing the silver to kill them.…
TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION IN PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE CAN PAY DIVIDENDS FOR TEXTILE SECTOR
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.…
CASH STILL KING FOR MONEY LAUNDERING, DESPITE IN CRYPTO AND ECOMMERCE FIAT TRANSACTIONS
Anti-money laundering specialists may be focusing on how crypto-currencies and online transactions pose an increasing ML/TF risk, especially with Covid-19 encouraging ecommerce, but the reality is that cash remains the money launderers’ best instrument for moving dirty money.
That is the conclusion of Gabriel Hidalgo, a managing director at risk specialists K2 Integrity, in New York: “Cash is king for ML; it continues to be king; and on the majority of levels, illicit actors will continue to use cash,” he said.…
COVID-19 INSPIRES DEVELOPMENT OF ANTI-VIRAL KNITWEAR
COVID-19 has unleashed a significant boom in demand for apparel and other wearables that are anti-viral, cleansing consumers’ bodies of viruses, as well as bacteria.
Companies making fibres and yarns have been quick to tout anti-viral technologies. Examples include HeiQ Materials AG – a Switzerland based textile innovation specialist, which has been selling a new anti-virus textile treatment HeiQ Viroblock NPJ03, added to textile products during final processing and utilising anti-microbial silver, whose charge attracts viruses to spherical liposomes which deplete the virus membrane of cholesterol, allowing the silver to kill them.…
EUROPEAN COUNTRIES PUSH FORWARD WITH KNOTTY PROBLEM OF PHASING OUT THEIR NUCLEAR POWER SECTORS
WHILE investment into nuclear energy continues, especially in emerging market countries such as China, in Europe, this sector continues to dwindle in size, with some key countries sticking to plans to phase out the technology.
Concerns about safety and the environmental cost of its waste have encouraged Belgium, for example, to stick to its goal, as laid down in a January 2003 law (1), of stopping any nuclear energy production within the country by 2025, experts have told Energy World.…
ANGLO-CARIBBEAN OFFERS RIVAL CIGAR PRODUCTION TO CUBA, NICARAGUA AND DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
THE REPUTATION of the Caribbean’s major cigar production centres – Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua – has dominated global markets for years. But the entire region’s balmy and moist climate and rich soils are ideal for growing cigar wrapper and filler leaf.…
EU AND UK BREXIT TRADE DEAL AIMS TO PRESERVE CROSS-BORDER ENERGY TRADING
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and the UK are building a new energy trading relationship after striking the Christmas Eve EU-UK trade agreement that underpinned Britain’s final and full withdrawal from the EU on January 1.
This deal has extensive energy provisions, with the goal of ensuring EU electricity and gas suppliers can still export to the UK, and vice versa, through existing interconnectors.…
GOLD IS IDEAL LAUNDERING VEHICLE, BUT AML OVERSIGHT CONTROLS ARE TOO WEAK ARGUE CRITICS
The international gold trade is worth over USD6 trillion a year, according to the World Gold Council (WGC), but oversight of the supply chain is considered weak by many critics, relying on self-regulation, making it vulnerable to money laundering.
Gold remains scarce and hence valuable: from antiquity until 2019, just 197,576 tonnes has been mined – equivalent to a 21.7 metre cube, according to the World Gold Council.…
SWISS REVAMP ALIGNS TAX AND CRIMINAL LAWS ON BRIBERY
SWITZERLAND’S federal government has passed a new law that will finally prevent Swiss companies and individuals from tax deducting bribes as investment or business development costs, even though such graft has been illegal since July 2017.
That was the date that a revised criminal code outlawing bribery in Switzerland and overseas of public and private partners came into force, but Swiss tax law has not kept pace.…
EU CHEMICALS PLAN COULD TIGHTEN RULES ON CAN COATINGS
EUROPEAN Commission plans for new European Union (EU) chemicals regulations could lead to tighter rules on the formulation of can coatings used or made in the EU, which are used to prevent corrosion and extend shelf life.
The Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS), published October 14, says the Commission intends to eliminate from food contact materials (FCMs) -which would include cans and their coatings – carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic and endocrine-disrupting substances, as well as those that persist and accumulate in the environment or the body.(1)…
AUSTRALIA: QUICK UPTAKE OF DIGITAL PRINTING TECHNOLOGY OFFER LOCAL DESIGNERS CHANCE TO TEST PRODUCTS
AUSTRALIA’S digital textile finishing market is small and therefore challenging compared to markets in Asia, Europe or the US. Australian fashion and fabric manufacturers usually outsource finishing to partners in Asia, notably in China or India, but use local digital print companies for smaller runs and sampling, said Romeo Sanuri, general manager Next Printing, which offers digital printing services to textile customers from Sydney.…
CHEMICAL MAJORS EXPLORE DECARBONISING PETROCHEMICALS AS THEY LOOK TO REDUCE CO2 EMISSIONS
International efforts are stepping up to scope and map what it will take to wean chemical manufacturing off its high dependence on oil and gas feedstock for chemicals that are then used to make plastics, fertilisers and other important products.
Options include using building-block raw materials from biomass instead of fossil-fuel feedstock; boosting the yield of chemicals for a given quantity of feedstock; and, applying advanced recovery and recycling technologies in circular economy approaches.…
SWITZERLAND PAINT AND COATING INDUSTRY’S QUALITY HELPS IT PUSH THROUGH COVID-19 EPIDEMIC
Switzerland may be a small country of 8.5 million people, with an area of 41,285 km², 60% of which is mountainous, but its paint and varnish industry is substantial and growing, despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Of course, it helps that Switzerland is rich.…
FINCEN LEAKS SHAKES UP ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING WORLD
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.…
NOVARTIS AND SUBSIDIARIES HIT BY MAJOR US FINES OVER CORRUPTION
Swiss pharmaceuticals giant, Novartis AG, plus a former subsidiary Alcon Pte and its current Greek wing, are together to pay out USD345.9 million in fines to American regulators because of corrupt practices. The penalties follow admissions that staff bribed public and private healthcare providers in Greece and Vietnam to choose Novartis products in breach of the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).…
EGYPT STATE TEXTILE HOLDING FIRM PLOTS MAJOR SPINNING FACTORY INVESTMENT
An Egyptian state-owned holding group is to build the world’s largest spinning factory, set to open in 2022, a key part of the country’s drive to modernise its textile and garment industry.
“It will have 182,000 spindles under one roof. Daily capacity will be 30 tonnes of fine yarn from Egyptian cotton, with average thread count 116 and a maximum count of 200,” Dr Ahmed Mostafa, chairman of the Holding Company for Cotton, Spinning, Weaving and Garments, told just-style.…
EV CONTACTLESS RECHARGING TECHNOLOGIES BEING DEVELOPED FOR MARKET WORLDWIDE
THE NEED to actively recharge electric vehicles makes them less attractive to consumers, especially when batteries can take eight hours to charge. So, the development of ambient technologies that enable EVs to charge themselves as they operate has been a key focus of automotive R&D.…
VATICAN’S FIU RAIDED AND IN HOT WATER – BUT IS IT THE VICTIM OF CURIA POWER POLITICS?
The suspension for alleged corruption by senior officials at a financial intelligence unit (FIU), the cornerstone of any jurisdiction’s AML work, would be shocking. But if those suspensions were at the FIU of the world’s only purely theocratic state, such reports would sound like the work of thriller fiction.…
ROMANIA’S CLOTHING MANUFACTURING SECTOR FACES TOUGH RECRUITING CHALLENGES TO FORGE A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
ROMANIA’S clothing and textile industry is facing a recruitment crunch and experts worry that it will struggle to find a strategy to ensure it can hire sustainably to ensure long-term growth. A survey from PwC’s HR benchmarking project Saratoga released last October (2019) concluded that Romania faces an “acute shortage of workforce”, needing about one million extra workers to sustain a 3.5% economic growth by 2023.…
EXTENDED REALITY TECH OFFERS GREAT BENEFITS TO TEXTILE COMPANIES – BUT THEY MUST ADDRESS THE SECURITY VULNERABILITIES
INTRODUCTION – SERIES
A series of reports from WTiN is exploring the need for the textile and clothing sector to protect itself against attacks from cybercriminals as it invests in new transformative Industry 4.0 technologies – extended reality, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.…
FOOD FRAUD IS BIG CRIMINAL BUSINESS THAT CAN PUT BUSINESSES AND CONSUMERS AT RISK
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.…
EU JUDGES RULING ON EU GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS WILL PROMPT REVIEW OF PRODUCT NAMES BY SOME FOOD AND DRINK MANUFACTURERS
GEOGRAPHICAL indications can be controversial legal protections that some food manufacturers regard as being unjust restrictions on trade in quality food items that are inspired by traditional products.
Of course, for companies based in traditional production regions of goods such as Prosciutto ham and Irish whisky, they can be a Godsend – preventing illicit competition (as they see it) from banking on a reputation for taste that has been created by protected manufacturers in previous decades, even centuries.…
INDONESIAN DAIRY SECTOR GROWING, BUT PRODUCTION CAN’T KEEP UP WITH DEMAND
South-east Asia is not known for a tradition of eating dairy products, but actually consumers in the region’s most populous country Indonesia (population 270 million people) have been eating cheese for more than a century (partly thanks Indonesia’s historic links with the Netherlands) and the country has a thriving domestic dairy industry.…
FIBRE GLASS USES AND RECYCLING BECOME MORE SOPHISTICATED AS MANUFACTURERS’ APPRECIATION OF THIS MATERIAL VALUE GROWS
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.…
GULF REGION BEAUTY CONSUMERS ON THE LOOKOUT FOR AFFORDABLE LUXURY WHILE LEVANT MARKETS STRUGGLE
In a market long dominated by well-established players, the success of ‘masstige’ beauty brands, which combine elements of mass and luxury products, is creating fierce competition in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Consumers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman looking for skincare and cosmetics are increasingly shopping from South Korean brands such as Etude House, which opened a branch in Dubai Mall in 2018 and is known for its quirky kitsch products, and The Face Shop, which arrived in Dubai in 2008 and recently renovated its four concept stores in the city.…
GERMANY’S PERSONAL CARE PRODUCT SECTOR’S INCREASING WELLNESS ORIENTATION IS UNDERPINNING FUTURE GROWTH
THE GERMAN personal care products market turned out to be an “element of stability” in an otherwise sluggish economy in 2019, according to the country’s cosmetics industry association Industrieverband Köperpflege- und Waschmittel (IKW). German consumers spent EUR14.04 billion (USD15.55 billion) on personal care products, including shampoo and decorative cosmetics in the past year, 1.8% more than in 2018.…
CHINESE PAINT MARKET IS ROBUST, BUT APPROACHING MATURITY - INCREASING RISKS FOR COMPANIES BURDENED WITH INVESTMENT DEBT
As paint company conferences go, the Sankeshu Paint Co’s annual Chinese New Year gathering was special. A room of sales executives wearing matching blue suits and red ties were serenaded with ‘Zui Mei de Shen Hu’ – ‘The Most Beautiful Shenzhou My Home’),” sung by a soprano before chairman Hong Jie strode on stage to rally his assembled ranks to shout in unison company slogans, such as “Full product range!…
MIDDLE EAST PAINT MARKET SUFFERS AS GULF ECONOMIC WEAKNESS AND LEVANT CONFLICT RESTRICTS SALES
Time was that the Gulf was a hotspot for paint and coatings sales and production, with frothy demand fuelled by major building projects – most met by locally manufactured product. But today, demand for paint in the Gulf countries is sluggish due to low oil prices, depressing overall economies and a drop in the number of infrastructure and real estate projects under construction.…
ALSTOM FINED GBP15 MILLION FOR TUNISIAN TRAM CONTRACT BRIBES
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). …
POWER PURCHASE AGREEMENTS INCREASE GREEN ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND INVESTMENT WORLDWIDE
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.…
TECHNOLOGY COULD BE THE SOLUTION FOR PUSHING ML&TF OUT OF VIRTUAL CURRENCIES, SAY EXPERTS
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.…
COMPANIES SHOULD CAREFULLY AND CONTINUOUSLY ASSESS OFFSHORE TAX POLICIES TO PROTECT REPUTATIONS – SAY EXPERTS
COMPANIES using offshore tax jurisdictions need to assess whether their strategies can be branded unethical, as well as illegal, causing them reputational as well as financial damage. They need to assess whether the risk is worth taking. Poorna Rodrigo reports.
The series of data dumps, such as the Panama Papers, and the recent Mauritius Leaks have continued to tarnish the reputation of offshore tax havens, but experts stress that properly used, a positive case can be made for offshore tax policies.…
USA LEADS CUTTING EDGE MILITARY FABRIC RESEARCH THAT TRIES TO ANTICIPATE FUTURE THREATS
MILITARIES try to outsmart the enemy, and researchers tasked with producing textiles to aid effective missions are often told to create materials that could defeat imagined as-yet unconfirmed threats.
“Intelligence shares what threats might look like and we look to address them before anything happens,” said Richard M Arndt, public affairs officer with the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) Chemical Biological Center, based in Maryland.…
ELECTRIFICATION OF SHIPS A KEY STEP IN DELIVERING PARIS CLIMATE COMMITMENTS
Described by environmental campaigners as “the elephant in the COP21 negotiations room” when climate change proposals were agreed in Paris during 2015, today – the electrification of shipping is moving ahead apace.
From inland ferries to cargo barges and cruise ships, vessels are being built or retrofitted with renewable power propulsion sources, curbing the shipping industry’s major emissions.…
SWITZERLAND RAISES AML/CFT GAME AS 1MDB SCANDAL CONTINUES TO HARM ITS BANKS
In April (2019), Switzerland’s highest court (the federal tribunal) ordered that Zurich-based Falcon Private Bank hand over Swiss Francs CHF2.5 million (USD2.5 million to Switzerland’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) for its involvement in the global money laundering (ML) scandal involving state-owned Malaysian investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).…
ITALIAN INVESTIGATORS BUST INTERNATIONAL TAX EVASION AND LAUNDERING RING INVOLVING F1 SPONSORSHIPS
Just four months before Italy’s much-anticipated Formula One (F1) Grand Prix was set to roar through the Monza racetrack on September 6-8, (2019), a major arrest involving money laundering within FI was made in Dubai. Luigi Provini was handcuffed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) emirate and placed on a direct flight to Rome, for questioning by Italy’s Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza – GdF).…
EU ROUND UP – EUROPEAN COMMISSION RELEASES NEW ANTI-FRAUD STRATEGY
FACED with continuing high levels of fraud attacking European Union (EU) institutions, the European Commission has released its first update of its overall anti-fraud strategy since 2011. The need for a refresh is borne out by crime data: in 2017, EUR467.1 was lost to fraud affecting EU spending and revenue generating programmes.…
INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES AIM TO HELP AIRPORTS RESPOND TO DISASTER EMERGENCY RELIEF EFFORTS
INTERNATIONAL efforts are under way to improve how airports can serve as effective humanitarian logistics hubs, reducing the risk that they become bottlenecks in disaster relief efforts. These moves follow research and a growing consensus in the air and aid sectors that while airports are undoubtedly a lifeline during crises, they can also hamper the efficient delivery of aid to victims.…
FAST FASHION MAIN ACCELERATOR FOR TEXTILE MACHINERY DEMAND IN VIETNAM, SAYS LEADING DISTRIBUTOR
THE GROWTH in fast fashion contracts struck between brands and Vietnam’s burgeoning outsourcing will boost demand for machinery and equipment in the Vietnamese textile sector as much as the new trade deals that have been struck by Hanoi, according to industry insiders.…
UBS APPEALS HUGE TAX EVASION AND MONEY LAUNDERING FINES IMPOSED IN FRANCE
SWISS bank UBS has said it will appeal a judgement made by a Paris court that it should pay penalties of EUR3.7 billion and EUR15 million, plus civil damages of EUR800 million, for helping its French customers evade tax.
Le tribunal correctionnel de Paris found UBS guilty of illicit solicitation and laundering of the proceeds of tax fraud, having heard allegations about how UBS executives persuaded French depositors to move money to accounts in Switzerland – reducing France’s tax take.…
MOROCCO CLOTHING SECTOR OPTIMISTIC ABOUT 2019 GROWTH, FUELLED BY FAST FASHION SALES
MOROCCO’S clothing and textile industry association is optimistic about growth in the country’s apparel sector, with fast fashion sales to Europe driving expansion. Mohamed Tazi, general director of Morocco’s clothing and textile industry association AMITH (Association Marocaine des Industries du Textile et de l’Habillement) told just-style he is satisfied with the results of the sector regarding production and exports.…
MALAWI’S TOBACCO LEAF SECTOR STILL FOCUS OF EFFORTS TO REDUCE CHILD LABOUR
WITH Malawi’s persistent cycle of poverty where half of its 18 million population (2017 World Bank data) live under the poverty line and nearly 1.5 million children employed as labourers, according to International Labour Organisation (ILO) data, including on tobacco farms – meaningful reforms to prevent these abuses have progressed slowly, experts say.…
ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS AND PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE SPENDING BOOSTS GEOTEXTILE SALES
WITH environmental concerns increasingly important worldwide as a key plank of sustainable development, the role that effective geo-textiles can play in ensuring infrastructure performs effectively in the longer term is underpinning demand for these products.
In June 2017, Global Market Insights released a report on geotextile market size by material, application, region, price, market share and forecasts for 2017–2024, which stated that “positive application outlook in construction, agriculture, erosion control, and drainage should drive geotextile market size” globally.…
SWISS GOVERNMENT NIXES GENEVA AIRPORT BIOFUEL SCHEME
THE SWISS government has decided not to fund project facilitation for a biofuel pilot project at Geneva airport to replace at least 1% of its jet fuel supplies with biofuel supplied by Finland oil refiner and marketer Neste Oyj. The company said it could not proceed as a result of the decision, which followed consultation by the Swiss federal government about the project, scheduled to start operations later this year (2018).…
SEC HALTS USD165 MILLION MICROCAP FRAUD SCHEME
THE US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said October 3 that it had filed an emergency action and obtained an asset freeze against two individuals and their companies in a scheme that generated more than USD165 million in illegal stock sales in at least 50 microcap companies. …
DIGITAL TEXTILE PRINTING IS SLOWLY COAXING THE FASHION INDUSTRY BACK TO AUSTRALIA
COULD digital textile printing help bring the Australian textile and clothing manufacturing sector back to sustainable growth? There are experts who believe this scaleable finishing technology can give Australian design talent room to thrive.
Faced with the proximity of China’s manufacturing juggernaut, it is no surprise that mass textile and clothing manufacturing declines in Australia, but digital technologies are giving the industry a chance to find new niches.…
FAST CHARGING SPREADING ACROSS EUROPE
With lower battery and auto prices boosting the battery electric vehicle (BEV) market in Europe, the race is on to ensure there are enough fast-charging stations to satisfy demand.
The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) warned European Union (EU) lawmakers July 5 that plans to force a continent-wide switch to BEVs through swingeing cuts in CO2 emissions caps for manufacturers, was doomed to fail due to the lack of charging points.…
EU SETTING HIGH BAR FOR DAIRY PRODUCT COPYRIGHT CASES
Dairy producers may find it more difficult to protect distinctive products from copies in the European Union (EU) after recent legal decisions confirming the tough standard of evidence manufacturers need to meet to claim intellectual property (IP) rights over food characteristics.…
AMERICAN CONFECTIONERY AND SWEET BAKERY SECTOR BENEFITS FROM USA TAX CUTS
THE SWEEPING overhaul of the United States tax code which took effect this year has offered a boost to American companies of all sectors, with companies that produce and sell confectionery being among those garnering the benefits.
The drop in the US corporate tax rate, from 35% to 21%, along with a provision that allows US companies to repatriate foreign earnings at a one-time cost, net of foreign tax credits, of 15.5%, is expected to shore up corporate cash positions.…
IRISH ACCOUNTANTS LEAD CORPORATE PUSH FOR PRODUCTIVITY BOOSTS THROUGH OFFICE DESIGNS
As Ireland approaches full employment, (unemployment is currently just 6.3%), companies facing higher labour costs and competition for staff are improving their workplace environment to become more attractive as employers. They also hope that a new generation of high-spec office spaces – some being unveiled by accounting firms – will boost productivity.…
INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY ROUND UP – EU PROPOSES MAJOR COMPANY LAW REFORMS
The European Commission has proposed new European Union (EU) company law procedures saying how a company should move from one EU country to another; companies from different countries can merge; or one company can divide into two or more new units in more than one EU country.…
MEPS CALL ON SPAIN TO BLOCK HSBC WHISTLEBLOWER EXTRADITION
Green and European Free Alliance (EFA) members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are calling on the Spanish government to block a requested extradition to Switzerland of a French-Italian whistleblower arrested in Spain on April 4. Hervé Falciani revealed details of 100,000 accounts held by French nationals, including politicians and celebrities, to France’s then finance minister Christine Lagarde (now managing director of the International Monetary Fund – IMF) in 2006 and 2007 when working as a computer scientist at HSBC’s Swiss affiliate.…
BUSINESSES DRILL DOWN ON CYBER ATTACK PREVENTION
SURGING rates of cybercrime are driving businesses of all kinds to devote more attention and resources to preventing cyber-attacks, and drilling employees on how to respond to attacks is a key and increasingly important precaution.
According to John Skipper, a UK-based cyber security expert at specialist technology and innovation consultants, PA Consulting,
“Every organisation should be training staff to recognise a potential threat and react correctly.…
DEFERRED PROSECUTION AGREEMENTS GROW IN IMPORTANCE IN AML SECTOR
DEFERRED Prosecution Agreements (DPAs), that allow companies and individuals that admit to wrongdoing and cooperate with investigators and avoid prosecution, are becoming increasingly common worldwide, including for money laundering offences. The systems are particularly useful sticks to force erring financial and other corporate institutions to improve their anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism systems (AML/CFT), with prosecuting agencies deferring criminal cases on condition of sustained AML/CFT reforms.…
MAY PUSHES FOR UK ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP OF EASA – POST-BREXIT
UK Prime Minister Theresa May has signalled that the British government wants to seek associate membership of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) if the country quits the European Union (EU), as planned, on March 29, 2019. In a speech at the Mansion House, London the PM said: “We would, of course, accept that this would mean abiding by the rules of [EASA] and making an appropriate financial contribution.”…
OECD SUPPLY CHAIN GUIDANCE MOVES TOWARDS IMPLEMENTATION
CLOTHING and textile companies are grappling with new good practice guidance in supply chain management that was released by the Organisation for Economic Development & Cooperation (OECD) last May (2017). An OECD Forum on Due Diligence in the Garment and Footwear Sector was staged in Paris last month (January 30-31), attended by governments, businesses, trade unions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working within or having an impact on the apparel sector.…
DEMAND FOR INNOVATIVE AERONAUTICAL TEXTILES DRIVEN BY LIGHTWEIGHTING DEMAND TO REDUCE CARBON EMISSIONS
THE FUTURE of materials in this carbon-averse world is all about lightweighting. But quality and safety must be maintained. Nowhere is this truer than with the aerospace textiles segment, where durability, toughness and flexibility is allied with low weights, of importance when civil aviation operators are under pressure to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.…
ASIAN REGULATORY ROUND UP – SINGAPORE BUDGET PUSHES MAJOR TAX REFORMS
SINGAPORE is to levy good and services tax (GST) on imported services from January 1, 2020, to help city state e-commerce service providers compete with foreign suppliers. B2B imported services will be taxed via a reverse charge mechanism. The move was announced in the government’s 2018 budget, that was announced on February 19.…
ASIAN REGULATORY ROUND UP – SINGAPORE ISSUES COMPREHENSIVE INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTING STANDARDS
SINGAPORE’S Accounting Standards Council (ASC) has issued the Singapore Financial Reporting Standards (International) (SFRS(I)s), the city state’s equivalent of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs). This new set of rules will cover Singapore-incorporated listed company accounts for annual periods beginning January 1, 2018, and onwards.…
FINANCIAL SERVICES MAY TURN FEWER BLIND EYES TO AML PROBLEMS, BUT COMPLIANCE IS STILL LACKING, EXPERTS WARN
The lure of banking bonuses, lack of dedicated resources, ineffective implementation of compliance mechanisms and whistleblower protection schemes have all been blamed for incidents of financial organisations turning a blind eye to money laundering.
But it seems that regulators are increasingly unimpressed – a fact that money laundering reporters need to heed.…
TECHNOLOGIES TRANSFORM WASTED MILK INTO DRESSES AND UNDERWEAR
IT has now been six years since the German entrepreneur Anke Domaske has been turning waste cow milk into dresses. Her business, QMILK, is based on manufacturing textile fibre from milk protein, casein, transforming raw milk that while not suitable for human consumption, is also “100% natural and from verified suppliers.”…
INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY ROUND UP – CHINA SUGAR DUTIES CHALLENGED AT WTO
CHINA’S imposition of temporary safeguard duties to protect its sugar industry have been challenged at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), with sugar giant Brazil arguing Beijing’s tariffs break global commerce rules. In a signal that Brazil might be considering launching a disputes case against China, diplomats for the South American country told a WTO safeguards committee meeting that the duties broke the WTO agreement on safeguards and the general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT). …
HONG KONG STARTS TO WORRY ABOUT TRADE-BASED MONEY LAUNDERING
AS one of the world’s leading financial centres and a traditional bridge to mainland China for international business, Hong Kong has long been in the crosshairs of global money laundering investigations.
Hong Kong featured in the infamous ‘Russian laundromat’ scandal, uncovered by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), that saw USD20 billion moved out of Russia between 2010 and 2014 through a web of shell companies.…
MALAYSIA’S RECORD ON AML IS PATCHY BUT PROGRESSING, EXPERTS SAY
MALAYSIA is making progress in combating money laundering but political interference is still a problem in implementing policies and enforcing laws, experts have told Money Laundering Bulletin.
A dynamic upper middle-income country (USD9,850 per head gross national income in 2016, says the Word Bank), some of Malaysia’s ML and TF [terrorist financing] risks derive from its geographic position.…
EU WARNS OF UPCOMING CHINA FOOD IMPORT CERTIFICATION CHALLENGE
THE EUROPEAN Commission has warned that the Chinese government is planning to introduce what it calls “unjustifiable food certification requirements” for imports into China. This alert comes in a new annual report from the EU executive on international trade and investment barriers, looking at developments last year (2016) and upcoming changes.…
BANKER CONVICTED OF LAUNDERING USD25 MILLION IN FIFA BRIBES
AN ARGENTINE banker pleaded guilty in a US court on June 15 to laundering bribes in a scandal that has rocked football’s world governing body, FIFA. Jorge Luis Arzuaga was employed at two Swiss banks, including Zurich-based Julius Baer where he was managing director.…
CHINA OPENS UP FOR COACHING, BUT PRACTICE STILL LARGELY FOCUSED ON MULTINATIONALS
China may have more coaches than ever, with the majority of them serving multinationals only, the expansion of the profession is still limited, a Shanghai conference has been told.
“China’s coaching industry will only take off when local companies embrace coaching, Garry Wang, CEO of the coaching service provider MindSpan, said at a two–day leadership coaching conference entitled ‘Leading into 2020’ held in Shanghai on June 22-23.…
IRISH FARMERS MUST PREPARE CONTINGENCIES AGAINST MAJOR THREAT POSED BY BREXIT, SAY EXPERTS
WITH the UK having triggered Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, starting the two-year countdown to its exit from the EU, maybe no group outside the UK has more at stake than Irish farmers.
“Brexit presents the most serious threat to Irish farming and our agri-food sector in the history of the state.…
CREDIT SUISSE IN MULTI COUNTRY TAX EVASION PROBE
Swiss bank Credit Suisse is facing parallel investigations in five countries – Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK for facilitating tax evasion and money laundering. The bank admitted in a March 31 statement that it was “cooperating” with local tax authorities which had contacted its London, Paris and Amsterdam offices the day before “concerning client tax matters.”…
DIAMOND INDUSTRY REMAINS TOUGH SECTOR FOR MONEY LAUNDERING CONTROLS
THE DIAMOND trade is still one of money launderers’ best friends due the precious stone’s high value to mass ratio, akin to the highest value banknotes that can be obtained. Indeed, it is maybe harder to trace diamonds than numbered banknotes, there is no reliable means by which the point of origin of a particular diamond can be ascertained just by examining it.…
SWISS AML TZAR DENIES CREDIT SUISSE CASE SHOWS CRACKS
The official leading Switzerland’s efforts to combat money laundering in the country’s banking system has denied that a scandal unveiled last week involving Credit Suisse shows weaknesses in efforts to stop ill gotten gains being hidden in Swiss banks. Credit Suisse has acknowledged that tax authorities in France, the Netherlands and the UK are investigating the bank for tax evasion and money laundering.…
BANGLADESHI MAYBE BREAKING TIGHT MONEY EXPORT CONTROLS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MALAYSIA SECOND HOME RESIDENCE SCHEME
A MALAYSIAN government scheme encouraging foreign investors to buy property in Malaysia may have led to thousands of Bangladeshis breaching their country’s strict capital control restrictions.
A total of 3,493 Bangladeshis has participated in the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) long-term residency programme since 2003, according to statistics updated in December (2016) – 10.7% of all investors taking part worldwide.…
DEVELOPMENTS IN INTRUDER DETECTION AND PREVENTION PUSH FORWARD – WITH BLOCKCHAINS A FOCUS OF ATTACKERS AND SECURITY
BIOMETRIC identification, use of blockchain technology to protect the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence and better surveillance of the deep and dark web will continue to influence intruder detection and prevention developments this year.
Accounting and auditing network Deloitte Global estimates that 40% of smartphones in the developed world will be using fingerprints as a personal security mechanism by the end of 2017.…
GROWING BANGLADESH MIDDLE-CLASS BOOSTS DEMAND FOR QUALITY WESTERN CONFECTIONERY
EVERY time apparel industry executive Israfil Alam and his wife buy groceries, one item doesn’t elude them: chocolate for their 13-year-old son Isman Sayer.
“Isman’s favourite is Kit Kat Chunky,” Alam, a Dhaka-based general manager at knitwear maker Magpie Group, told Confectionery Production.…
FINMA FINES COUTTS OVER MALAYSIAN SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUND LAUNDRY CONCERNS
THE SWISS Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has ordered London-based bank Coutts & Co Ltd to disgorge unlawfully generated profits of Swiss francs CHF6.5 million (USD6.5 million) for breaching money laundering regulations over its dealings with Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.…
EUROPE’S TECHNICAL TEXTILE SECTOR GROW THROUGH INNOVATION
THE CONTINUED success of Europe’ major technical textile fair, Techtextil, Frankfurt, (the next event runs from May 9 to 12) illustrates how the continent’s technical textile sector is thriving on its innovation.
“We don’t know what the future brings. We only know where it will be exhibited.…
SUNKISSED UAE IS GROWING MARKET FOR SUNCARE PRODUCTS
YEAR–round sunshine, a young population, and a large expatriate community have made the United Arab Emirates (UAE) a strategic destination for multinational suncare brands, which continue to dominate the local market.
According to London-based research company Euromonitor International, the UAE’s suncare market was valued at Emirati Dirham AED89.38 million (USD24.3 million) in 2016, up 4% compared to 2015.…
GROWING BANGLADESH MIDDLE-CLASS BOOSTS DEMAND FOR QUALITY WESTERN CONFECTIONERY
EVERY time apparel industry executive Israfil Alam and his wife buy groceries, one item doesn’t elude them: chocolate for their 13-year-old son Isman Sayer.
“Isman’s favourite is Kit Kat Chunky,” Alam, a Dhaka-based general manager at knitwear maker Magpie Group, told Confectionery Production.…
ART BUSINESS RELEASES INTERNATIONAL AML AND CFT GUIDANCE FOR TRADERS
AN INTERNATIONAL art traders group has released detailed guidelines and advice to its business, designed to help executives, managers, sellers and auctioneers from on-selling product that has been looted, stolen, or is being used to launder the proceeds of crime and generate funds for terrorists.…
FINLAND’S VALMET GOING STRONG AS IT EXPANDS ITS MERCEDES RELATIONSHIP IN 2017
FINLAND’S independent contract car maker Valmet Automotive (VA) is experiencing a remarkable renaissance thanks to orders from Germany’s Mercedes-Benz, growth that is expected to continue with support from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
VA’s breakthrough came when it signed a deal with Daimler in July 2012 to make more than 100,000 Mercedes Series A models between 2013 and 2017.…
SWITZERLAND NO LONGER A DIRTY MONEY SINK, BUT MORE AML/CFT REFORMS AR REQUIRED, SAYS FATF
SWITZERLAND may have lost its reputation as a haven for dirty money deposited in numbered accounts with no questions asked, but global anti-money laundering (AML) body the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) wants more vigilance and proactivity in Swiss AML policies and actions.…
FINRA FINES CREDIT SUISSE USD16.5 MILLION OVER AML VIOLATIONS
ZURICH-based global financial services company Credit Suisse has been fined USD16.5 million by the USA’s Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) over three anti-money laundering (AML) related violations.
FINRA found that Credit Suisse had not only been failing to review its AML monitoring systems, but also failing to report suspicious transactions.…
DANISH ORGANIC MEAT EXPORTS TO ASIA GROWS IN 2015
DENMARK’S organic meat exports to Asia, fuelled especially by sales to mainland China and Hong Kong, rose steadily in 2015 compared with the year before. This promising market now accounts for 4% to 5% of total organic meat exports from this key European meat producer, growng from zero in 2013, industry experts have said.…
INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY ROUND UP – SUGAR PRODUCERS WANT EU PROTECTION MAINTAINED, DESPITE TRADE DEAL TALKS
THE INTERNATIONAL Confederation of European Beet Growers (CIBE) and the European Association of Sugar Producers (CEFS-Comité Européen des Fabricants de Sucre) have jointly called on the European Union (EU) to continue protecting producers with import tariffs, even as the EU negotiates 12 trade deals affecting the food industry.…
SINGAPORE’S EVOLVING ROLE AS TEXTILE INNOVATOR
SINCE the bulk of textile and apparel and production moved offshore from the wealthy city state of Singapore – seeking lower costs labour elsewhere – the country has become an industry innovator, and experts say this trend will continue.
The United States department of commerce (DoC) said in a report issued in May (2016): “Manufacturing has moved offshore to mainly other countries in the region, forcing the textile and apparel sector to reinvent itself and focus on research and development.”…
EU TEXTILES PRODUCTION TO GAIN GROUND IN GLOBAL MARKETS, TEXTILE EXPERTS SAY
The manufacture of textiles for European buyers is likely to move away from its Chinese production base and move back closer to “home”, particularly in the technical markets, Lutz Walter, secretary general of the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing (ETP) – the largest European textiles research and innovations network – has told WTiN.com.…
DIGITISATION WILL REVOLUTIONISE CLOTHING MANUFACTURING, TEXTILE EXPERTS SAY
CLOTHING manufacturing will be completely changed by the internet and digital printing over the next five to 10 years, Lutz Walter, secretary general of European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing (ETP) – the largest European textiles research and innovations network – told just-style at a October 12-13 ‘European Textiles: Going Digital – Going High-Tech’ conference in Brussels.…
SURESH NARAYANAN SAYS GROWING INDIAN FOOD MARKET IS FULL OR PROMISE FOR NESTLÉ INDIA
The demand for processed and packaged food is growing fast among India’s young, often aspirational and fast-expanding population. And this has made Nestlé India target a double digit annual growth in upcoming years. To realise this goal, the company is steadily introducing premium international products into India, such as its impending launch of Alpino chocolates this month (October 2016).…
ASIAN REGULATORY ROUND UP – SINGAPORE SIGNS KEY FINANCIAL ACCOUNT DATA SWAP DEALS
SINGAPORE has signed deals allowing for the automatic exchange of financial account information with two key trade partners – Britain and Australia. The agreements were struck by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) with the UK’s Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).…
INCREASINGLY COMPLEX BALTIC INTERCONNECTOR NETWORK GROWS NORTH-EAST EUROPE POWER MARKET
THE DEVELOPMENT of electricity interconnectors crossing national borders is simultaneously a technical and geo-political act, requiring careful planning and skilled installation of technology, along with an eye towards promoting security of power supplies.
Such investments are a priority of the European Union (EU) and its member states under its Energy Union programme.…
UK EXPORTS FACE RE-IMPOSITION OF EU IMPORT DUTIES FOR FIRST TIME IN 43 YEARS IN POST-BREXIT WORLD
AS the British government starts the complex process of considering the form of the UK’s post-Brexit relationship with the European Union (EU), one issue will be foremost in the minds of exporters – tariffs.
These have not existed for UK exports to other members of the EU since 1973, when Britain joined what was then called the European Economic Community (EEC).…
ASIAN REGULATORY ROUND UP – SINGAPORE SIGNS KEY FINANCIAL ACCOUNT DATA SWAP DEALS
SINGAPORE has signed deals allowing for the automatic exchange of financial account information with two key trade partners – Britain and Australia. The agreements were struck by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) with the UK’s Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).…
DUBAI FLIGHT CRASHES, BURNS – EVERYONE SAFE
MAJOR delays are expected at Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after an Emirates airline plane crash-landed and burst into flames on a runway at Dubai International Airport just after 12:45pm local time today (August 3). Flight EK521 was arriving from Trivandrum International Airport, Thiruvananthapuram, India.…
SMARTER BARRIER MANAGEMENT ON THE RADAR DESPITE COST CLIMATE
Despite low oil prices, oil and gas operators are showing interest in adopting ‘dynamic barrier management’ (DBM), a new paradigm of risk management with applications across industries.
The concept involves using real time or near-real time information from multiple sources to track the continuous status of technical, operational and organisational safety barriers that are diverse in nature and degrade at different rates1.…
Brexit poses key questions on regulation for all business and professional sectors, in and outside the UK
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.
Assuming Article 50 is invoked, and only a serious political crisis would prevent this, Britain would have two years to renegotiate its relationship with the EU, during which time existing EU legislation would stay in force.…
BREXIT COULD MAKE EU IMPOSE IMPORT DUTIES ON BRITISH TEXTILES AND INPUTS
Textile, yarn and fibre manufacturers based in Britain face a risk that their exports to the European Union (EU) will attract duties now the UK government has confirmed it will push ahead with leaving the EU following the June 23 Brexit referendum.…
BREXIT COULD MAKE EU IMPOSE IMPORT DUTIES ON BRITISH AUTOMOBILE AND PARTS EXPORTS
Automobile manufacturers based in Britain face a risk that their exports to the European Union (EU) will attract duties now the UK government has confirmed it will push ahead with leaving the EU following the June 23 Brexit referendum result. These could be imposed after the two years of mandated talks on a future relationship with the EU following a UK decision to trigger Article 50 under the Treaty on European Union.…
BREXITED UK FACES RISK OF EU DUTIES BEING IMPOSED ON BRITISH NUCLEAR INDUSTRY SUPPLY EXPORTS
BRITISH manufacturers and exporters of nuclear power generating equipment, nuclear power plant suppliers and nuclear fuel face a risk that some key exports to the European Union (EU) will attract duties in future, now the UK government has confirmed it will push ahead with leaving the EU.…
BREXIT POSES MAJOR UNCERTAINTY TO POWER SECTOR
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.…
BRITISH INDUSTRIAL MINERALS PRODUCERS FACE SWISS-STYLE EU DUTIES IF BREXIT HAPPENS
British potash and other industrial mineral producers face a risk that their exports to the European Union (EU) will attract duties should the UK government push ahead with plans to leave the EU following the June 23 Brexit referendum result.
These could be imposed after the two years of mandated talks on a future relationship with the EU following a UK decision to trigger Article 50 under the Treaty on European Union (EU), and Britain fails to strike a free trade agreement with Brussels in that time.…
BRITISH NON-FERROUS METAL PRODUCERS FACE POTENTIAL EU DUTIES IF BREXIT HAPPENS
British non-ferrous metal manufacturers face a risk that their exports to the European Union (EU) will attract duties should the UK government push ahead with plans to leave the EU following the June 23 Brexit referendum result.
These could be imposed after the two years of mandated talks on a future relationship with the EU following a UK decision to trigger Article 50 under the Treaty on European Union (EU).…
NEW NESTLÉ ICE CREAM JOINT VENTURE WILL MAKE CHANGES TO RUSSIAN MARKET
THE ENTRY of Froneri, the joint venture company formed on a 50-50 basis by Nestlé and UK-based manufacturer R&R, into the Russian ice cream market, is poised to boost competition in a segment that has been showing increasing dynamism.
Russian ice cream sales have not only been increasing, they have become more diverse, with consumers being offered more choice from Russia-based and international food corporations.…
UK FOOD COMPANIES EXPORTING TO EU FACE RISKS OF PAYING DUTIES IF BREXIT FOLLOWED THROUGH
Branded food manufacturers based in Britain face a risk that their exports to the European Union (EU) will attract duties now the UK government has confirmed it will push ahead with leaving the EU following the June 23 Brexit referendum result.…
BREXIT COULD LEAD TO DUTIES BEING IMPOSED ON UK PERSONAL CARE PRODUCT EXPORTS TO THE EU
Personal care product and ingredient manufacturers based in Britain face a risk that some key exports to the European Union (EU) will attract duties in future, now the UK government has confirmed it will push ahead with leaving the EU following the June 23 Brexit referendum.…
COSMETICS MARKET IN MYANMAR STARTING TO TAKE OFF
Liberalising Myanmar’s cosmetics market is expected to grow significantly in coming years as it has one of south-east Asia’s largest populations (53 million people) and a growing middle class. However, however consumer sophistication and spending power remains low compared with many countries in the region – its 2014 gross national income per head was USD1,280, according to the World Bank.…
SCANDINAVIA COLOUR COSMETICS SECTOR IS POISED TO GROW AFTER RECENT BUMPY RIDE
Scandinavia’s colour cosmetic sector is poised to grow between 2016 and 2019 after two years of slumping sales, with Sweden being the stronger national market, according to UK-based market intelligence firm Mintel.
Even Sweden has had a bumpy ride, however: in 2013, Sweden’s SEK41.12 million (USD4.78 million – at current exchange rates) colour cosmetics market up from SEK35.9 million (USD4.18 million).…
UK BREXIT VOTE SPARKS REGULATORY AND MARKET ACCESS UNCERTAINTY FOR FOOD AND DRINKS COMPANIES
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.…
FOOD FOR AGEING KEY GROWTH AREA FOR NESTLÉ, SAYS LUIS CANTARELL
Specialist health and nutritional foods are set to become more important in the European market in future, according to Nestlé executive vice president and head of EMENA zone (Europe, Middle East and North Africa), Luis Cantarell, who singled out foods for the ageing population as a key priority.…
USTR AND EUROPEAN COMMISSION CONSIDER BREXIT IMPACT ON TTIP TALKS
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).…
EU PHARMA SECTOR SCRAMBLING TO RESPOND TO BREXIT REFERENDUM RESULT
THE EUROPEAN and British pharmaceutical industries are being faced with taking swift action to deal with the impact of the UK referendum vote last week (June 23) to leave the European Union (EU), a move opposed by most medicine manufacturers.
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) quickly responded, with CEO Mike Thompson declaring: “The voice of the British people has been heard.…
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.…
UK BREXIT VOTE SPARKS REGULATORY AND MARKET ACCESS UNCERTAINTY FOR NUCLEAR INDUSTRY
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.…
BREXIT QUESTION POSES MAJOR POLICY FINANCIAL REPORTING POLICY CHALLENGES
AS accountants, auditors and their business clients consider whether the UK should remain in or leave the European Union (EU) in the upcoming referendum on British EU membership, it has become abundantly clear that there are no simple options.
Remaining in the EU will mean the UK will continue to face demands for accepting European taxation policies that its government and businesses may find unpalatable, especially as it seeks to cement the City of London’s place as Europe’s, if not the world’s, premier financial centre.…
ACCOUNTANTS PEER INTO THE UNKNOWN ON FUTURE TAX POLICY, AS BREXIT VOTE LOOMS
ACCOUNTANTS are starting to tangle with the knotty question of whether to support Britain remaining in or quitting the European Union (EU) after the scheduled in-out referendum on June 23. While many UK captains of industry and business have publicly called for Britain to stay in, citing the advantages of freely accessing the EU’s 503 million person market and its trained labour pool, the question for accountants is not that simple.…
BREXIT PROSPECT WORRIES PHARMA SECTOR – WANTS BRITAIN TO REMAIN IN EU
IF anything is clear about the vital decision that must be made by the British electorate on June 23 about whether their country should stay within or quit the European Union (EU), it is that the pharmaceutical industry – largely – wants the UK to stay put.…
TURKEY MONEY LAUNDERING RULES ARE WEAK, BUT WEST’S GEOPOLITICAL NEEDS MUTES CRITICISM
Turkey maybe on the front lines of the so-called ‘war on terror’, but its new customs code asks no questions about incoming cash, while its definition of terrorism has been criticised for being contrasting with international standards. Furthermore, its judiciary’s independence and the reliability of the rule of law in Turkey has been called into question.…
END HIGH DENOMINATION BANKNOTES TO CUT CRIME, SAYS EXPERT
Governments worldwide should eliminate their high denomination banknotes, such as EUR500, USD100, Swiss francs CHF1,000 and GBP50, as a way to cut an annual USD2 trillion in financial crime and USD1 trillion in corruption globally, according to former Standard Chartered bank chief executive Peter Sands.…
CHILEANS BECOME DISCERNING AS THEIR CHOCOLATE CONSUMPTION GROWS
The Chilean chocolate market grow by almost 11% annually over the last four years to hit 2.4 kilogrammes annually per head during 2014, with Chile’s consumption overtaking Argentina for the first time, according to data from market analysts Nielsen. But while overall consumption is growing, Chileans are also becoming increasingly sophisticated in their tastes, which has given rise to a growing market for gourmet chocolates, both locally produced and imported.…
EU LOOKING AT US-STYLE SECRET EMISSIONS TESTS TO BEAT THE CHEATS
The European Union (EU) is considering adopting methods used by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through staging secret tests to check in service cars for type approval compliance. A hearing today (February 23) at the European Parliament’s (EP) key environment, public health and food safety committee learned that with test contents kept secret, automakers cannot design and fit cheat devices to subvert controls.…
INDIA FOOD FORUM – THE CHANGING INDIAN FOOD CONSUMER - BRIEFING
MILLENNIAL CONSUMERS ARE SHAKING UP INDIAN MARKET
The emergence of the millennial generation – those born between 1980 and the early 2000’s – is going to drive how consumption, including that of food, takes place in India, according to retail and manufacturing heads at the India Food Forum, which was held in Mumbai between January 19 and 21.…
CHINA MOVES TO PREVENT AGAINST OFFICIALS’ JUDICIAL MEDDLING: WILL IT WORK?
This winter has been a bleak one for lawyers and rights activists in China as the country’s government cracks down yet further on advocates of free speech and political rights. Lawyers around the world will be dismayed by a UN Committee against Torture report which has claimed 200 lawyers had been detained between July and November in China.…
WEAKENING YUAN RENMINBI SPARKS CREATIVITY IN MOVING MONEY OUT OF CHINA
THE WEAKENING of the Chinese currency the Yuan Renminbi – or RMB – last summer and autumn perturbed big-deal investors but it has also meant busy times for the money changers of Hong Kong. USD324 billion was moved out of China in 2014 according to Swiss bank UBS (which calculated official and unofficial currency outflows) but this figure soared in 2015 with a government-engineered devaluation of the Chinese currency which caught investors off guard.…
LAVA JATO PROBE EXPOSES LAUNDERING OF CORRUPT FUNDS AT HIGHEST LEVEL IN BRAZIL
Brazil’ biggest money laundering and corruption scandal kicked off at a petrol station that sits only two kilometres away from the National Congress of Brazil. And it still has a lot of fuel to burn.
When the Federal Police of Brazil raided a currency exchange booth at this fuel retailer on March 17, 2014, it began dismantling a political party financing and personal enrichment scheme that defrauded state-run oil giant Petróleo Brasileiro SA – more commonly known as just Petrobras – by at least USD2 billion in current figures.…
CHINA FACIAL CARE MARKET SEES WESTERN PLAYERS INCREASINGLY CHALLENGED BY LOCAL COMPETITORS
IT has been a tough year for China’s growing economy, which has experienced some unexpected faltering in 2015, but facial care product sales have continued to surge ahead.
Retailers of these products have posted strong and sustained growth rates, increasing by 8% in the whole of 2014 to Chinese Yuan Renminbi – CNY142 billion (USD22.1 billion) and are estimated to have grown by another 10.2% in 2015, to CNY (also known as RMB) 156.4 billion, according to market researcher Euromonitor International.…
AFRICA IS FOCUS OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE REFORMS
THE NEED for sub-Saharan Africa to improve its corporate governance, promoting sustainable development in a region that still trails the rest of the world in many poverty metrics, has been a key theme of accounting conferences. And new initiatives reflecting this understanding have been making progress in east and west Africa, for instance.…
US-INDIA RELATIONS STALLED OVER PHARMACEUTICAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY SQUABBLE
American pharmaceutical industry officials and trade groups remain cautiously optimistic that intellectual property (IP) negotiations with India can be resolved to the benefit of both nations’ medicine sectors. For now, however, India remains on a so-called ‘priority watch list’ of nations the US is urging to address key IP protection concerns.…
FIFA SAYS IT’S THE VICTIM AS MASSIVE GRAFT SCANDAL EXPLODES
World football’s governing body FIFA – Fédération Internationale de Football Association – has claimed it is the victim following the arrests of 14 officials in Zurich on May 27, before its latest annual congress. The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG), which made the arrests for its US counterpart, also announced it had opened its own separate case.…
US BODY CARE PRODUCTS SECTOR GROWTH SOARS AFTER END OF RECESSION
Following a period of recession-induced stagnation, business in the US body care product industry is back with a vengeance. Driven by a combination of seasonal and demographic factors, Americans spent just over USD2.9 billion, USD9.23 per person, on body care products in 2014.…
EU PROPOSES TAX RULING TRANSPARENCY LAW
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed a European Union (EU) directive that would force EU member states to automatically share information about their tax rulings. Under the proposals, national tax authorities would every three months send a short report to all other member states on all their cross-border tax rulings.…
PARAGUAY ADVANCES AML REGULATIONS, BUT FALLS SHORT IN CONVICTIONS AND SEIZURES OF FUNDS
Despite Paraguay’s past difficulties in effectively fighting money laundering, the country has been introducing new regulations to boost its controls; however their reforms’ implementation have been hampered by lack of political will.
Located between Argentina and Brazil, Paraguay is a key country in the struggle against money laundering and financing of terrorism in South America because its porous border is used by drug cartels to smuggle drugs, among other illicit items, into the two region’s biggest markets for cocaine and marijuana.…
MONEY LAUNDERERS EVER MORE INVENTIVE SAY DIRTY MONEY EXPERTS AND INSIDERS
TO discover the best intelligence on money laundering, sometimes it is best just to ask the money launderers. Take China. There are numerous ways of getting dirty money out of China. The most common include smuggling a satchel of banknotes to Hong Kong (where Chinese Yuan Renminbi (CNY) is convertible), where it is washed through an over-priced (for quick transaction) purchase of real estate in the city, several Hong Kong real estate agents told the Money Laundering Bulletin.…
India pushing Swiss tax authorities for details of Indian HSBC customers
INDIAN tax authorities are pushing their Swiss counterparts to disclose financial details of Indian nationals with accounts at HSBC Switzerland.
The Swiss Federal Tax Administration has written to HSBC, listing individuals the Indian tax authorities have identified as potentially evading tax, telling the bank to ask these clients to appoint representatives, usually lawyers, in Switzerland, a spokesman for the tax administration told Fraud Intelligence. …
DAIRY EXPORTERS TO EU FACE TOUGH TIMES AS EUROPEAN PRODUCERS LOSE QUOTA FETTERS
EXPORTERS of liquid milk and associated products to the European Union (EU) will have to work harder to secure sales in future from April 1, with the EU finally scrapping its production quotas from that date. They may also have to fend off new tough competition from EU exporters in their domestic markets.…
TECHNICAL ROUND UP – EU PROPOSES TAX RULING TRANSPARENCY LAW, ETC
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed a European Union (EU) directive that would force EU member states to automatically share information about their tax rulings. Under the proposals, national tax authorities would every three months send a short report to all other member states on all their cross-border tax rulings.…
LABELLING AND DECORATION INNOVATION INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT FOR PERSONAL CARE PRODUCT MARKETING SUCCESS
COSMETICS and personal care product packagers are creating innovative designs to attract consumers, using labelling and decoration that appeals to multiple senses. Packagers have also faced challenges related to selling products online, developing new strategies to convey the same appeal and information to consumers from a web page as on the shelf.…
DAIRY PRODUCERS FEELING EFFECTS OF RUSSIA’S CHEESE BANS
In the latest in a string of bans on cheese products entering Russia, the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights and Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) has banned cheese products made by Poland’s Ostrowia.
But this latest dairy ban is not all it seems, and Milkiland, the Netherlands-based dairy products producer owning Ostrowia, has called for “dialogue” with Russian authorities because its banned ‘Wesola Krowka’ (‘Jolly Cow’) is made from vegetable fats.…
SWISS MOVE INTO THE INTERNATIONAL FOLD ON TAX EVASION COOPERATION
SWITZERLAND could soon be recognised as a country fully compliant with international standards on releasing tax information to fight global tax evasion.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development’s (OECD) Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes has ruled Switzerland has made sufficient reforms to receive its ‘Phase 2’ peer review.…
EU AND SWITZERLAND CLINCH GROUND-BREAKING DEAL TO SHARE BANK DETAILS
EUROPEAN Union (EU) residents will no longer be able to evade tax by hiding undeclared income in Swiss bank accounts from 2018, under a landmark agreement that the European Commission and Switzerland clinched on March 19.
Under the agreement, which complies with a new Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)/G20 international information exchange standard, the EU’s 28 member states will receive annually full financial account information, including names, addresses, tax identification numbers, dates of birth and balances, of their residents with accounts in Switzerland.…
ISLAMIC STATE FINANCING ITSELF THROUGH COVERT INTERNATIONAL TRADES
The Islamic State (IS) is increasingly acting like an established state, needing access beyond its territory to acquire spare parts, machinery and goods to keep the economy of its territories going. With regulatory enforcement more focused on funds going in to the Islamic State than out, this trade is being exploited, particularly via Turkey.…
EU PUSHES AHEAD WITH ANTI-FRAUD REFORMS AS NEW BRUSSELS TEAM BEDS IN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed changing the basis of intra-European Union (EU) VAT arrangements. It wants to shift away from the current system where VAT is charged in the country of supply, which Brussels regards as vulnerable to fraud. Instead, a consultation paper suggests charging VAT in the destination country of an intra-EU trade.…
RUSSIA STARTS TO WOO SWISS FOR MEAT EXPORTS
RUSSIAN meat importers have started soliciting meat from Switzerland as its ban on European Union (EU) food imports looks set to stay in place for months. With allegations emerging today of direct Russian military involvement in Ukraine, the chance of any kind of deal to ease the sanctions stand-off between the EU and Russia looks slim.…
DEMAND FOR VALUE BASED PHARMACEUTICALS INCREASING IN CHINA
THE PHARMACEUTICALS sector has not emerged unscathed from China’s recent anti-trust investigations of multinational companies, but with healthcare spending rising, there are plenty of opportunities for the industry. The powerful National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which investigates alleged price fixing in China, has made claims alleging GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) have charged Chinese consumers seven times its average global prices.…
SWITZERLAND REFUSING TO HELP EU FOOD EXPORTERS SELL TO RUSSIA
Switzerland’s Bundesamt für Landwirtschaft (BLW – the federal office for agriculture) has turned down requests from European Union (EU) fruit, vegetable and dairy product associations to export products to Russia through Switzerland to bypass Russia’s trade embargo on EU goods. Under present rules, EU food products would have to be registered in Switzerland and this is “quite a long process,” said Jürg Jordi, a BLW spokesman.…
BANGLADESH BOLSTERS CRUSADE AGAINST MONEY LAUNDERING
AFTER upgrading its laws against money laundering, Bangladesh has earned praise from anti-money laundering (AML) watchdogs however implementing this legislation remains an uphill challenge. Satisfied with the progress Bangladesh made toward plugging “strategic deficiencies” in its AML and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) regime, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) removed the country from its special watchlist.…
US GIVES SWISS BANKS MORE TIME TO COMPLY WITH TAX EVASION CRACKDOWN
THE US government has extended by a month to July 31 the deadlines for some programmes under which Swiss banks could signal their intent to strike agreements with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to avoid prosecution over concealment of the taxable assets of US citizens.…
MONTANSTAHL LIKELY TO BUILD ASIA PLANT IN SRI LANKA
Swiss stainless steel shapes maker Montanstahl AG’s first ever plant in Asia is likely to be set up in Sri Lanka, the company has told Steel First. “If the general conditions are satisfactory like industrial site, incentives, electricity supply, then we will invest,” Wolfgang Stumm, vice president who heads research and development in the family-owned business said. …
GALDERMA TO BE ROLLED INTO NEW NESTLÉ SKINCARE BUSINESS AS BRUSSELS CLEARS L’ORÉAL SHARE SALE
Switzerland-based Nestlé is to further develop its personal care products following its planned acquisition of sole ownership over Galderma, its joint venture with L’Oréal. The European Commission cleared Nestlé to acquire sole control of Galderma on May 5. Galderma manufactures, markets and sells products including shampoos, soaps, bath, shower and skin care lines, noted a Commission statement. …
CHINA’S GREY INCOME PROBLEM PERSISTS
INSIDER trading –and enrichment by officials – is a key reason why the Shanghai stock exchange remains stuck in a funk, underperforming in China’s overall economy for most of the past decade. “They [bureaucrats] are promoted on political criteria, not commercial…they don’t always have shareholders’ interests at heart,” explained Michael Komesaroff, principal of Urandaline Investment, an Australia-based consultancy working on outbound investment deals involving Chinese state-owned firms.…
SWISS ATE MORE MEAT IN 2013, SAYS INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION
AVERAGE Swiss consumers ate almost 52 kg of meat in 2013, up 0.4% from what they consumed in 2012, according to Proviande, the trade association of Swiss meat producers.
Swiss residents ate a total of 426,771 tonnes of meat in 2013 compared to 421,059 tons in 2012, head of IT and statistics at Proviande Mike Schneider told globalmeatnews.…
MAKER OF SWISS ARMY KNIFE SHOWS PARALLEL QUALITY IN CLOTHING LINE
The corporate logo of a white cross on a red shield is instantly and unmistakably the mark of every adventurous schoolboy’s favourite gadget. But while Victorinox is renowned for its Swiss Army Knives, it is now bringing the same commitment of quality to ranges of functional and fashionable clothing that make the most of innovative materials.…
EU PLANS SWISS DEAL NOW SAVINGS INFORMATION DIRECTIVE HAS BEEN APPROVED
EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states hope to follow up this week’s (Monday) approval of an EU directive preventing savings accounts being used for tax evasion, with a similar deal with non-EU Switzerland. EU taxation Commissioner Alrgirdas Šemeta told a Brussels press briefing that the EU has already concluded two rounds of negotiations on the subject with Switzerland.…
LABELLING AND FINISHING SEAMLESSLY INTEGRATE WITH PACKAGING TO LURE CONSUMERS
THE BEST packaging always seems to be an integral part of a product – indeed for personal care product consumers, the appearance of a container can be why they make a purchase. So for brands, making packaging decorations and finishing seem to melt into a product can be or critical importance.…
NOVARTIS BANGLADESH FD SAYS SOUTH ASIAN EMERGING GIANT IS A TOUGH MARKET TO CRACK
BANGLADESH’S pharmaceuticals industry lacks a “level-playing field,” leaving multinationals to wade through a raft of regulatory restrictions which may not apply to locally-owned manufacturers, a top official of Novartis Bangladesh said.
“This is a very challenging market. There are lots of restrictions on multinational companies,” Sazzad Rahim Chowdhury, finance director at the Swiss drug giant, told Manufacturing Chemist.…
NEW JAPAN FUND WILL PROMOTE TROPICAL MEDICINE DEVELOPMENT
THE JAPANESE pharma sector may have previously lagged behind its counterparts in Europe and north America helping the very poorest people in the developing world, but the enthusiasm with which five of Japan’s biggest pharmaceutical companies have embraced the Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund indicates a sea change in policy.…
TAIWAN’S TEXTILE FINISHING SECTOR GOING GREEN FOR GROWTH
THE TAIWAN textile dyeing and finishing sectors have never quite recovered from the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) abolition of global textile quotas in 2005. It resulted in the closure of many stand-alone units by making their labour-intensive manufacturing processes on the relatively wealthy island uncompetitive.…
TAIWAN’S TEXTILE FINISHING SECTOR GOING GREEN FOR GROWTH
BY JENS KASTNER, in Taipei
THE TAIWAN textile dyeing and finishing sectors have never quite recovered from the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) abolition of global textile quotas in 2005. It resulted in the closure of many stand-alone units by making their labour-intensive manufacturing processes on the relatively wealthy island uncompetitive.…
SWISS BANKING SECRECY: RIDDLED WITH HOLES
FOR years, Switzerland’s success as a global financial center has rested upon the rock-solid foundation of banking secrecy, a guarantee of discretion as solid at the Matterhorn. The Swiss proudly declared banking secrecy to be part of the country’s DNA, a practice formally established in the 1930s when Nazi Germany was on the rise and which helped shield individuals against abusive states. …
EUROPEAN COMMISSION FINES JOHNSON & JOHNSON, NOVARTIS, FOR DELAYING GENERIC PAIN KILLER
THE EUROPEAN Commission has today (Dec 10) fined Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Novartis International EUR16 million for delaying the market entry of a generic version of the pain-killer fentanyl.
“J&J paid Novartis to delay the entry of a generic pain killer.…
REVIEW OF 2013 CLOTHING AND TEXTILE SECTOR
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. …
TRADE ASSOCIATION SAYS RUSSIAN WTO ENTRY BOOSTS EUROPEAN TEXTILE EXPORTS TO RUSSIA
A SENIOR official within an organisation charged with increasing European textile exports to Russia has told WTiN.com that Russia’s 2012 accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has created real opportunities for European manufacturers to score Russian sales.
Igor Salomakhin, head of the Moscow liaison office of the Russia-Europe Textile Alliance (RETA), has told WTiN that it is helping a growing number of European textile businesses expand their sales in Russia by helping establish direct contact with new customers in Russia.…
SWISS-BASED PHARMA COMPANY IN EURO 400 MILLION CHINA INVESTMENT DEAL
A SWITZERLAND and Greece-based pharmaceutical company Sellas Life Sciences has signed a Euro EUR388 million investment deal with China’s Fochon Pharma for developing and selling two novel molecules for treating type II diabetes and lung cancer. Under the deal, Sellas will acquire the worldwide rights, outside China, to sell the resulting medicines, having organised and funded the clinical trials, some in Greece.…
SWEDISH PHONE BRIBE SCANDAL PROMPTS AML REVIEW
The ongoing investigation into Swedish telecoms group TeliaSonera’s involvement in suspected money laundering (ML) and bribery in Uzbekistan has prompted a fresh push by government to introduce tougher reporting rules for a broader range of ML offences in 2014.
Significantly, the new measures will give law enforcement agencies greater powers of arrest and asset seizures where money laundering is suspected.…
DISTRIBUTION PROBLEMS CONTINUE TO IMPEDE GROWTH OF INDIAN BRANDED FOOD SECTOR
International and major domestic food companies who want a share of India’s fast growing branded food consumer markets have one major difficulty especially – dealing with the country’s underdeveloped and fragmented distribution networks.
These are especially complex given India’s cultural diversity.…
GLOBAL CLOTHING AND TEXTILE EXPERTS URGE CHANGES SO CHINA MANUFACTURING SECTOR CAN FACE NEW CHALLENGES
INTERNATIONAL clothing and textile experts gathered near Shanghai last week (September 23-7) to discuss solutions to China’s twin challenges – dealing with less foreign demand, while managing rising production costs.
Speaking at the 29th World Fashion Convention, Shanghai, staged in nearby Kunshan, Texhong CEO Hong Tianzhu told delegates it was time for Chinese manufacturers to upgrade their plant and processes, while moving some production outside China.…
- EU ‘VAMPIRE’ PROJECT TO HELP DRUGS STARVE TUMOURS OF BLOOD FLOW
A EUROPEAN Commission Euro EUR1.5 million grant will help pharmaceutical researchers discover antibodies that can eradicate a tumour by destroying its blood vessels. The so-called VAMPIRE project (‘Vascular Antibody-Mediated Pharmaceutically Induced tumour Resection’) is led by Britain’s University of Birmingham and SomantiX, a Dutch biotech company, based in Utrecht.…
COVERING THE RISK OF DEEPWATER EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION
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.…
HVDC DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION RAMPS UP
RECENT technical advances and headline projects show how companies with market leadership in high voltage direct current (HVDC) and Ultra HVDC (UHVDC) are pushing the envelope of what these technologies can do.
Since Sweden’s ASEA (now part of Swiss multinational ABB) installed the world’s first commercial HVDC link, under the Baltic Sea to the Swedish island of Gotland in 1954, it has become the technology of choice for transmitting current over very long distances on land or subsea.…
EU-FUNDED PROJECT ANALYSIS CATTLE, CHICKEN GENETIC RESISTANCE TO DISEASES
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) funded research project called Quantomics has been investigating the hereditary information of cattle and chicken to discover the genes that make them more resistant to diseases and infections. The results should help livestock breeders know which animals and birds are likely to develop diseases such as mastitis in cattle or E coli infections in chickens and select the genetically healthiest for breeding.…
EU SUGAR QUOTAS AGREEMENT LOOMS
EUROPEAN Union (EU) negotiators are approaching the final decision over the future of EU sugar quotas, with a deal expected between the European Parliament and EU Council of Ministers by the end of June. What is almost certain is the current phase-out date of 2015 is dead.…
GREECE FRAUD NEWS UPDATE
Greece – the Olympian challenge
Hercules may have succeeded in cleaning the Augean stables but the mythic hero would surely have shaken his head at the state of the Greek parliament, labouring to implement austerity measures against a backdrop of corrosive corruption and widespread tax evasion.…
CHINA GETS SERIOUS OVER FOOD SAFETY REGULATION
China’s move to elevate its State Food & Drug Administration (SFDA) to a ministry level entity aims to consolidate oversight of food safety issues under one umbrella and convince consumers the government is serious about tackling the country’s food safety problems. …
ECJ REJECTS SWISS CASE AGAINST GERMANY OVER ZURICH FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has rejected a claim by the Swiss government that Germany had breached a 1999 European Union-Switzerland air transport agreement by restricting night and early morning flights to and from Zurich airport. Berlin insists on altitude minimums over German territory.…
BASEL COMMITTEE ASKS BANKING SUPERVISORS TO RE-ASSESS HOW BANKS FIGHT AML
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is circulating a new consultative paper designed to bring its members – the world’s banking supervising authorities – up to speed on the latest thinking in the anti-money laundering sector. The committee specifically wants to support banking regulators’ and banks’ implementation of the new standards agreed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in 2012.…
ECJ REJECTS SWISS CASE AGAINST GERMANY OVER ZURICH FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has rejected a claim by the Swiss government that Germany had breached a 1999 European Union-Switzerland air transport agreement by restricting night and early morning flights to and from Zurich airport. Berlin insists on altitude minimums over German territory.…
EVEN IN EU-DOMINATED WESTERN EUROPE, FRAUD CONTROLS VARY WIDELY
THE RANGE of penalties for fraud as well as the exact definitions of the offence that apply throughout western Europe are considerable. Within the European Union (EU) alone for instance, the maximum sentences for fraud range from from “at most two years” in Sweden to up to 12 years in Romania.…
COSMETICS PRODUCTION IS DEVELOPING IN NORTH KOREA, WESTERN EXPERTS AGREE
WHILE it is always sensible to handle reports emerging from North Korea with care, it appears undeniable that the country does manufacture cosmetics and other personal care products and could, if current hopes of liberalisation are ultimately realised, become a new market for international players.…
USA TAX PROSECUTION SINKS VENERABLE SWISS BANK
SWITZERLAND’S oldest private bank, founded in 1741, is closing after pleading guilty January 11 to helping US taxpayers evade tax by setting up secret Swiss accounts for them to hide assets and interest from the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The closure of Wegelin & Co is the first-ever guilty plea in the USA to tax law violations by a foreign bank.…
TWO JAILED FOR GBP740 MILLION UK PROPERTY LOANS FRAUD
TWO property fraudsters who rooked Allied Irish Banks (AIB) and Bank of Scotland (BoS) for hundreds of millions of pounds in loans were jailed for a total of 12 years in London on January 17, in a case exposing lax lending oversight during the 2003-2008 boom years.…
CYPRUS: MONEY LAUNDERING AND POLITICAL INTRIGUE ON A DIVIDED ISLAND
CYPRUS is under intense pressure to clean up its act – at least on the south of the island, controlled by the internationally recognised government- in battling what some foreign creditors, with Germany at the forefront, see as a widespread money laundering problem.…
CORRUPTION STILL RULES SAYS ACQUITTED GREEK EDITOR
BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, in ATHENS
CORRUPTION in Greece stems from the top and is still played down by the country’s main media, recently arrested Greek editor Kostas Vaxevanis told Fraud Intelligence after being acquitted November 1 of data protection charges. This followed his Hot Doc magazine’s naming of 2,059 Greeks with Swiss bank deposits.…
AT TIMES OF CRISIS, ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING IN GREECE IS STILL A MATTER OF POLITICAL WILL
BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS
THE GREEK economic crisis may provide the perfect backdrop for money laundering. Dr Ioannis Filos, professor of Auditing at Panteion University in Athens and director of the Greek chapter of the European Business Ethics Network (EBEN) told the Money Laundering Bulletin that "it is obvious… that the financial stress is a big threat for someone to get involved in wrong actions/fraud/corruption."…
EMA BOSS RASI SAYS AGENCY WILL ACT EASE CURRENT PHARMACEUTICAL SUPPLY SHORTAGES
BY ALAN OSBORN, IN LONDON
Professor Guido Rasi, executive director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), has told Manufacturing Chemist of his concerns about the availability of medicines in the European Union (EU).
Speaking in his office at EMA headquarters in London’s Canary Wharf, Professor Rasi said EMA wanted "to see what role we can play and what counsel we can give in respect of the problem of the (drug) shortages."…
REGULATORY ROUND UP - EU SUGAR QUOTAS COULD STAY AS CAP REFORM DEBATE HOTS UP
BY KEITH NUTHALL
PRESSURE is growing on European Union (EU) ministers to give the EU’s sugar production quota system a stay of execution. MEPs on the European Parliament’s agriculture committee have called for the retention of EU sugar quotas for beet farmers until 2020, rather than follow existing plans to phase them out in 2015.…
CHINA
BY MINI PANT ZACHARIAH, IN MUMBAI, JULIAN RYALL, IN TOKYO, AND WANG FANGQING, IN SHANGHAI
Meanwhile, as the popularity of online shopping continues to grow in China, more and more drinks companies in the country are diving into the virtual market, in hopes of a big return.…
WITNESSES AT ADOBOLI ROGUE TRADER CASE DENY DEFENCE CLAIMS THEY KNEW OF HIS FRAUD
BY CARMEN PAUN
WITNESSES at the trial of UBS alleged rogue trader Kweku Adoboli have been rebuffing defence claims they knew about his frauds, and so shared the blame. The defence at the Southwark Crown Court case, London, which began September 3, is arguing the bank tolerated Adoboli’s unauthorised trades, if it made UBS money.…
BIGGEST EVER USA WHISTLEBLOWER PAYMENT WELCOMED BY SENIOR TAX LAWYER
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE LAWYER for a banker granted the largest ever US whistleblower payment – of USD104 million – has welcomed improvements to the whistleblower programme run by America’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Dean Zerbe was speaking ahead of the IRS decision to reward Brad Birkenfeld, a former UBS banker, who since 2007 has given detailed information to the IRS on how the Swiss bank aided tax evasion.…
GLOBAL DRINKS INDUSTRY LOGISTICS EUROPE
BY ALAN OSBORN, IN LONDON
Changes in drink industry logistics in Europe have largely been driven by two factors in the past year or so: the broad economic recession and the growing importance of green policies.
In the wine and spirits sector, the effect of these two influences has been a fairly constant switch to bulk shipments.…
SWISS INGENUITY EASES INTERNATIONAL AND LOCAL ROAD TRAFFIC ACROSS THE ALPS
BY LEAH GERMAIN, CARMEN PAUN AND KEITH NUTHALL
PART I: Air Quality and Congestion
SWITZERLAND has always been a land of contrasts – Europe’s mountain hub has always combined an international outlook with intensely local democratic structures based on the country’s 26 cantons – and road transport policy is no different.…
PART III: ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY POLICY
BY LEAH GERMAIN, CARMEN PAUN AND KEITH NUTHALL
EVEN with Europe mired in recession and financial crisis, an awful lot of lorries cross Switzerland moving goods between southern and northern Europe. According to Swiss road transport agency FEDRO, in 2010 the number of heavy goods vehicles transporting goods across the Alps increased 6.5% year-on-year.…
PART II: TOLLING
BY LEAH GERMAIN, CARMEN PAUN AND KEITH NUTHALL
THE SWISS federal transport agency FEDRO has estimated that in 2011, motorists travelled a total of 25.874 billion km on Switzerland’s motorway network. As one of the most central countries in Europe, Switzerland has long been a major transport route for European goods haulage, as well as a popular tourist destination.…
INTERNATIONAL BRANDS SEEK SALES IN EMERGING MARKETS
BY SHEENA ROSSITER, IN SÃO PAULO; RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, IN NEW DELHI; HELEN CLARK, IN HANOI; AND WANG FANGQING, IN SHANGHAI
WHILE the focus on emerging markets for the big international clothing brands has often been to view them as outsourcing opportunities, the truth is that there are a lot of people with a lot of money in these countries.…
KEROSENE STILL KING: HOW TRADITIONAL JET FUEL IS CONTINUING TO TAKE PRECEDENCE OVER BIOFUELS IN AVIATION
BY MJ DESCHAMPS
THE LAST decade has seen significant developments, initiatives and legislation towards integrating biofuels and other environmentally-friendly fuel alternatives into transport and the aviation sector. But while renewable fuels are projected to have a significant stake in fuelling aircrafts going into the future, traditional kerosene jet fuel still maintains a tight grip on the industry.…
INDIAN GOVERNMENTS HIGHLIGHTS MAJOR BLACK MARKET MONEY PROBLEM
BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, IN NEW DELHI
REAL estate, finance, bullion, jewellery, equity trading and mining sectors in India are prone to generation of black or unaccounted money, which is moved around the world, said a May 21 official finance ministry report ‘White Paper on Black Money’.…
SMART GARMENTS EDGE THEIR WAY INTO THE APPAREL INDUSTRY
BY MJ DESCHAMPS
WHILE the most common selling points for apparel used to be that that they would keep you warm (or cool) – and look good at the same time – rapid advancements in technology have been creating a whole new industry of ‘smart’ fabrics, which can offer all sorts of intelligent, functional properties to its wearers.…
CRACKING THE CALYPSO CONUNDRUM - CARIBBEAN STARTS TO CLEAN UP ITS ASSET PROTECTION ACT
BY ROBERT STOKES
CARIBBEAN jurisdictions are stereotypically seen as information black-holes whose minimal filing requirements for companies and trusts facilitate fraud.
Think Stanford International Bank and Westbond International Bank, two Antigua based vehicles for high-profile Ponzi schemes. Also, the Madoff scandal in the USA led to the liquidators of Fairfield Sentry – a British Virgin Islands (BVI) domiciled hedge fund that was among Madoff’s main victims – unsuccessfully trying to claim back money from investors who had legally withdrawn money from Sentry.…
ASSET TRACERS CHEW THE FAT ON OFFSHORE EUROPE
BY ROBERT STOKES
SWITZERLAND just signed a so-called ‘Rubik deal’ with Austria to safeguard Swiss banking secrecy in return for it levying withholding taxes anonymously on undeclared savings and investments held in Switzerland by Austrian nationals.
The bilateral treaty with Austria, start date 2013, follows those with Britain and Germany, and has raised the hackles of the European Commission, which has questioned these agreements’ legality under the European Union (EU) Savings Tax Directive, which tries to erase loopholes allowing depositors to squirrel money away from tax assessors.…
INTERNATIONAL FRAGRANCE ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT TALKS TRADE SECRETS
BY DAVID HAWORTH, IN BRUSSELS
‘CELEBRITY’ fragrances have become such a huge industry that even the Pope now has his own eau de cologne – according to Italian perfumer Silvana Casoli, (whose clients include Madonna and the King of Spain), this unique blend reflects the German pontiff’s love of Bavarian forests and their flora and fauna, creating an aura of "peace and tranquility".…
BIODERMA-DKSH ALLIANCE WILL TARGET CHINA FAKES
BY KEITH NUTHALL AND MARK GODFREY, IN BEIJING
AN ALLIANCE forged in China between Swiss market expansion advisor DKSH and French specialist cosmetics group LaboratoireBioderma will focus on fighting counterfeit products. DKSH has been appointed the exclusive logistics partner for LaboratoireBioderma in China, managing the company’s distribution services and sales made through pharmaceutical retailers.…
YEMEN REMAINS UNSTABLE, LACKING AML CONTROLS AND AWASH WITH TERROR FINANCING
BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT
AS the poorest country in the Middle East, with annual gross national income per capita just exceeding USD1,000, Yemen is plagued with chronic economic problems, corruption, smuggling, links to East African piracy, separatist movements and host to militant groups.…
STANFORD CASE EXPOSES LATEST WEAKNESS OF FINANCIAL CONTROLS IN SMALL ISLAND JUSRISDICTIONS
BY LEAH GERMAIN
THE GOLDEN rule of investments has and continues to be – if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. The most recent example of this advice being disregarded causing a high profile court case involves R Allen Stanford, Texan-banker and former multi-millionaire.…
CHINESE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES FACE TALENT WAR AS INDUSTRY THRIVES
BY WANG FANGQING, IN SHANGHAI
STRONG government support paired with a huge domestic market has China’s already booming pharmaceutical industry undeniably heading towards an even more prosperous future. However, while companies are eager to expand in China, they all seem to be coming up against the same challenge – finding the right employees.…
FATF CHIEFS SAY REVISED RECOMMENDATIONS WILL REQUIRE MORE EFFECTIVE PRIVATE/PUBLIC SECTOR COOPERATION
BY DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS
SENIOR figures at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) have stressed the need for greater international cooperation, particularly between public authorities and financial services, while detailing the organisation’s revised Recommendations at its plenary meeting.
"The revised Recommendations will require more effective cooperation between countries to exchange information," FATF president Giancarlo Del Bufalo told journalists at its Paris headquarters.…
FINNS DEVELOP WASTE BIOGAS SCRUBBING TECHNOLOGY FOR CLEANER BOILER BURN
BY JOHN PAGNI, IN HELSINKI, AND KITTY SO
When officially opened on May 8, Finland’s new 90MW Kymijärvi 2 power station will break ground in its novel energy efficiency and environment technology: a waste-to-energy combined heat and power (CHP) production unit using clean bio-gas as its fuel.…
OECD SAYS ITALY ANTI-BRIBERY EFFORTS TOO WEAK AND TOO SLOW, WHILE JAPAN, SWISS WEAK ON FOREIGN BRIBES
STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL
A REPORT from the anti-bribery working group of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) has attacked Italy over the tardiness and weakness of its anti-bribery efforts. While, the paper did recommend that the organised-crime ridden country had made "significant enforcement efforts" through its "comprehensive framework for prosecuting the foreign bribery offence", these efforts were insufficient.…
EU MINISTERS PLUG ILLICIT FLOW OF CHEAP CHINESE MOLYBDENUM WIRE EXPORTS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN ILLICIT flow into the European Union (EU) of dumped cut-price China-made molybdenum wire is being choked off by new antidumping duties of 64.3% that will henceforth apply to exports of this metal product from Malaysia. The EU Council of Ministers has been convinced that a sudden bloom of molybdenum wire exports from Malaysia to the EU – from zero in 2009 to six tonnes from April 2010 to March 2011 – was not because of the birth of a Malaysian molybdenum sector.…
NEW EU NANOTECHNOLOGY REGULATION PROVOKES ASSESSMENTS IN PAINT SECTOR
BY MARK ROWE
NANOTECHNOLOGY may be producing opportunities for coatings and paint producers, but as regulation slowly catches up with the environmental health concerns surrounding the technology, it is also creating sizeable headaches for the industry.
Last year (2011), the European Commission finally settled on a definition of a nanoparticle.…
Dreamy British Eurosceptics fantasize about UK leaving the EU – but their arguments are weak
By Keith Nuthall, International News Services
Britain’s recent refusal to sign a new European Union (EU) treaty that would impose tougher controls over the level of budget deficits EU governments can run might seem like prudence, given the appalling state of the Euro. But the failure of Britain to negotiate itself a real say in how Eurozone members control public spending poses grave risks for the UK and its financial sector.
By standing aside from this agreement, Britain has cleared the way for Euro-zone members to agree their own financial industry legislation, which could ultimately make it easier for Euro trades to be made in Frankfurt than in London – and that might prove a bitterly expensive pill to swallow.…
ACCOUNTING FOR EMISSION OMISSIONS - CLIMATE CHANGE POSES TOUGH REGULATORY CONTROL PROBLEMS
BY GEORGE STONE
THE MARATHON United Nations climate talks in Durban, South Africa, that resulted on December 11 in an agreement to kick-start a fresh round of negotiations to secure a new treaty on global carbon emissions, will spark a host of critical accounting and auditing questions.…
MANUFACTURING - WINNERS AND LOSERS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
WINNERS
VF
In one of 2011’s biggest deals, US-based VF announced its plans to buy major footwear brand Timberland in a US$2bn takeover. As well as boosting earnings by US$700m a year, the purchase would leverage VF platforms in Europe, Asia and Latin America, and boost e-commerce operations.…
WIPO COORDINATES GLOBAL PHARMA KNOWLEDGE DATABASE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A PUBLIC searchable database of pharmaceutical-related intellectual property assets will be run by a global consortium involving major pharma companies including Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca, Eisai, GlaxoSmithKline, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, and Sanofi. They are working with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) and major research organisations.…
DEFENCE SEEKS DISCLOSURE IN UBS ROGUE TRADER CASE
BY ALAN OSBORN
SOUTHWARK Crown Court, in London, has granted a four week adjournment to December 20 in the case of Kweku Adoboli, a trader at Swiss bank UBS charged with fraud and false accounting associated with USD2.2 billion trading losses.…
DIRTY MONEY FLOWS EAST AS WEST TIGHTENS ITS AML SYSTEMS
BY PAUL COCHRANE
THE WESTERN financial system is undergoing profound change, of weakened trust in the sector, heightened tax regulations, pressure to curb banking secrecy and tougher regulatory compliance. As a result, the owners of legal and extra-legal capital who are looking for a safe haven for their money are starting to consider destinations outside the established offshore jurisdictions – the less regulated financial centres of the Middle East and Asia.…
'SMART' FABRICS GET LESS FLASHY, AND MORE FUNCTIONAL
BY MARK ROWE
BETWEEN t-shirts that incorporate technology allowing people to chat up someone from across the dance floor to vests that can monitor the wearer’s health, the past decade has seen some extraordinary developments in high-tech smart fabrics. Scientists have been keen to explore their potential and while more eye-catching garments may have been at the forefront of these technologies in the past, according to experts, the industry for intelligent fabrics is now moving in the direction of less flash, and more functionality.…
INNOVATIONS IN DIGITAL PRINTING AND WASTE REDUCTION PROMOTE COMPETITIVE LABEL CONVERTING INDUSTRY
BY MJ DESCHAMPS
BETWEEN rising costs for raw materials and a global push towards more environmentally-friendly production, label converters and equipment manufacturers are becoming increasingly focused on getting things done right the first time; and getting them done quickly, at that.…
GREXIT: IS IT A NIGHTMARE SCENARIO
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.…
AUSTRIA'S 'MARRIAGE WITH THE SKY' GAS-FIRED PLANT
BY LEE ADENDORFF, MARK ROWE, ALAN OSBORN, KATHERINE DUNN, MARTINA MARECKOVA, GERARD O’DWYER and MINDY RAN
Austria’s newest combined-cycle power plant (CCPP) – the 412-MWe/100 MWt Timelkam power plant in Vöcklabruck district, Upper Austria, which was handed over to its owners Energie AG Oberösterreich and the Swiss Groupe E at the end of 2008 – has introduced a number of technical refinements which are bringing about major advances in fuel efficiency, environmental control and cost savings to Austria.…
MIDDLE EAST OFFERS ALTERNATIVE QUALITY CHOCOLATES TO GLOBAL MARKETS
BY PAUL COCHRANE
THE MIDDLE East’s confectionery market (including the Gulf, the Levant, Egypt (but not elsewhere in north Africa), Iraq Iran, Turkey and Israel) was valued at US dollar USD113 billion in 2009, while annual chocolate sales exceeded USD4.2 billion, according to USA-based TNS Media Intelligence.…
3D FASHION MARKETING HAS GARNERED GOOD PRESS, BUT STILL NEEDS TO BE PERFECTED, SAY EXPERTS
BY MJ DESCHAMPS
WITH 3D technology selling movies and electronics, it only makes sense that fashion marketing is focusing on this cutting edge trend. Certain brands are currently exploring ways in which 3D technology can enhance everything from their couture shows to advertisements to e-business; but while the drive for innovation is there, some industry experts are saying that technology still has a way to go before 3D fashion marketing and online fitting rooms are mainstream.…
ISO DEVELOPS NEW GLOBAL ECO-STANDARDS GUIDANCE FOR COSMETICS SECTOR
BY KEITH NUTHALL and MJ DESCHAMPS
WITH the plethora of private organic, environmental and sustainability certifications hitting the personal care products market, retailers and consumers could be forgiven for being confused about which system is the most reliable.
It could perhaps be time to go back to basics and rely on internationally accepted standards such as those set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) – which uses American spellings for its name, by the way.…
INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION ROUND UP - BRUSSELS ADMITS FRAMING NANO-LAW WILL BE TOUGH
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PLANNED attempt this year by the European Commission to table a nanotechnology regulation that gives legal controls to this emerging science will be a tough task, a senior official has admitted to a Brussels conference. Henrik Laursen, from the Commission’s environment directorate general told the fourth annual European Union (EU) ‘Nano’ conference there was no emerging consensus on framing a legal definition of nanoparticles and nanotechnology, which is increasingly used in the paints and coatings sector.…
EUROPEAN UNION AND SWITZERLAND BEGIN COMPLEX TASK OF SYNCRONIZING THEIR EMISSIONS TRADING SYSTEMS
BY ALAN OSBORN
FORMAL negotiations for a linkage between the European Union (EU) and Swiss carbon emissions trading systems (ETS) began in March after some three years of exploratory discussions. Both sides could gain significantly from a successful outcome. The Swiss would win access to a considerably larger and more liquid European emissions market than they can use at present, bringing greater flexibility in helping them to meet their emissions targets.…
INTERNATIONAL CONFECTIONERY NEWS ROUND-UP - EU FIGHTS SUGAR SHORTAGES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
HIGH sugar prices and tight supplies are a constant worry for confectionery manufacturers this year, and the European Union (EU) has been trying to keep these problems under control. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated that global prices rose 81.4% from last July (2010) to this January (2011) and the EU has taken action.…
FOOTBALL, THE BEAUTIFUL GAME FOR MONEY LAUNDERERS WARN FINANCIAL EXPERTS
BY MARK ROWE, ALAN OSBORN and PAUL COCHRANE
IT may be no coincidence that football (or soccer as it is known by north American readers) is generally regarded as corrupt by law enforcement agencies and has chosen to stage two of its next major spectacles – the 2012 European championships, and the 2018 World Cup, in Ukraine and Russia.…
EU PHARMACEUTICAL NEWS IN BRIEFS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Medicines Agency (EMA) has issued new guidance on making stem cell-based medicines, covering the different types of stem cells used and advising on regularising manufacturing processes and resulting products – http://www.ema.europa.eu/ema/pages/includes/document/open_document.jsp?webContentId=WC500101692
Other EU pharmaceutical news in briefs:
*EMA has released its first opinion regarding a clinical biomarker undergoing public consultation – this biomarker is supposed to identify patients who can be recruited for clinical trials of treatments for pre-dementia Alzheimer’s disease -http://www.ema.europa.eu/ema/pages/includes/document/open_document.jsp?webContentId=WC500102018;…
EUROPEAN UNION ROUND UP - EUROPEAN SUGAR REFORM FAILS SAYS WATCHDOG
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE REFORM of the European Union’s (EU) sector was supposed to be good news for its confectionery industry – lowering prices, while guaranteeing supplies. But it did not work out that way, said a report from the EU’s financial watchdog, the European Court of Auditors.…
BYPASSING THE SANCTIONS: SYRIA-IRANIAN BANK FACING SCRUTINY
BY PAUL COCHRANE
SYRIA and Iran are both designated by the US state department as sponsors of terrorism, while the countries’ major state-run banks are blacklisted by the US Treasury Department, which places the banks under scrutiny and prevents them from dealing with the American financial system.…
LINDT CANNOT TRADEMARK CHOCOLATE BUNNY SHAPE SAY EUROPEAN JUDGES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled Swiss chocolatier Lindt & Sprüngli cannot trademark the shape and golden wrapping (with associated bell and ribbon) of its signature rabbit and reindeer chocolates. The company wanted these to become European Union (EU) trademarks, possibly impeding other EU manufacturers from making rabbit and reindeer-shaped chocolates.…
EUROPEAN UNION ROUND UP - EUROPEAN SUGAR REFORM FAILS SAYS WATCHDOG
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE REFORM of the European Union’s (EU) sector was supposed to be good news for its confectionery industry – lowering prices, while guaranteeing supplies. But it did not work out that way, said a report from the EU’s financial watchdog, the European Court of Auditors.…
EGYPT'S CLOTHING INDUSTRY POTENTIAL STARTING TO BLOOM
BY PAUL COCHRANE
OVER the past five years Egypt has cemented its position as a fashion hub for European and American high street brands, with average annual garment exports earning the country US dollars USD2 billion, yet domestic labels are generally not exported and high-end clothing manufacturing is still very niche.…
CHOCOLATE COMPANIES RECEIVE GLOBAL GUIDANCE ON TESTING FAT COMPOSITION
BY MJ DESCHAMPS
IT sounds like every child’s dream job – chocolate testing: something out of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. But it is of course a deadly serious business – not just to ensure chocolate tastes good and is healthy – but also to comply with laws on chocolate composition.…
COMPANIES COMPETE TO CREATE FASTER CHARGERS FOR ELECTIC CARS
BY DEIRDRE MASON
As governments wake up to the need of establishing an infrastructure of charging points for electric vehicles (EVs), commercial players are offering anything from the expertise to set up the network down to the individual chargers. Some innovations will clearly make life a lot easier for those with the job of making the EV marketable.…
RFID'S SLOW HISTORIC GROWTH COULD BE POISED TO ACCELERATE DRAMATICALLY
BY LEE ADENDOORF
NETWORKED clothing that can show you where it is at all times, talking to mirrors and shelves on the shop floor, is no longer the stuff of science fiction, but a reality developing rapidly in stores around the globe.…
RFID'S SLOW HISTORIC GROWTH COULD BE POISED TO ACCELERATE DRAMATICALLY
BY LEE ADENDOORF
NETWORKED clothing that can show you where it is at all times, talking to mirrors and shelves on the shop floor, is no longer the stuff of science fiction, but a reality developing rapidly in stores around the globe.…
MAJOR PIPELINE PROJECT UNDERWAY IN THE BALTIC SEA
BY JOHN PAGNI
THE NORD Stream natural gas pipeline, linking Russia with Germany, is not just making political waves, but inspiring technological innovations. Its developers appear to be taking environmental issues seriously. This could appease the project’s doubters.
When completed by the end of 2012, two parallel pipelines will stretch 1,224 kilometres from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald on Germany’s Baltic coast, linking with EU networks, notably those run by DONG Energy (Denmark), Germany’s E.ON…
THE SOUR SIDE OF CONFECTIONERY - A LOOK AT THE TOXINS THAT CAN SHOW UP IN SWEETS
BY MJ DESCHAMPS
ALTHOUGH the production of confectionery products is on the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to susceptibility to food contamination scares, there are still certain, specific vulnerabilities that exist in the production of chocolates and sweet bakery items.…
NANOTECHNOLOGY POSES GREAT CHALLENGES FOR RECYCLING SECTOR
BY MARK ROWE
MATERIALS recycling is becoming increasingly sophisticated as requirements and demand grow to salvage all kinds of materials from products made from all kinds of metals, plastics and paper. But the difficulties involved in extracting valuable materials could soon become a lot more complicated: the emerging technology of nanotechnology and its use of the tiniest particles could prove problematic for the recycling industry for a number of reasons.…
PARALLEL INVESTIGATIONS CAN HELP MONEY LAUNDERING AND PREDICATE CRIME INQUIRIES
BY ALAN OSBORN
BY its very nature, money laundering tells us that another crime is being, or has been committed. The detection of the act of money laundering itself is usually the handiwork of specialised Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) but these often do not have the resources or the responsibility to investigate the predicate crime.…
CHINA CHOCOLATE MARKET OFFERS HUGE RICHES
BY DOMINIQUE PATTON
CHINA’S fast-growing chocolate market is attracting a raft of international brands but local players may do better in the country’s smaller cities.
Chocolate sales in China reached Chinese Yuan RMB7.7 billion (US$1.13 billion) in 2009 according to Euromonitor, after growing by a compound annual rate of 10% since 2004.…
PACKAGING INKS MANUFACTURERS SHOWN WAY FORWARD BY NANOTECHNOLOGY INNOVATORS
BY MARK ROWE
TRADITIONALLY, most inks used in packaging have been petroleum based, releasing volatile organic compounds into the atmosphere. But nanotechnology has been a key driver in developing a new generation of efficient, greener inks that are water-soluble, vegetable-based or synthetic, and which are highly versatile; they can be used for a range of applications across the inks industry and recycled into new products at the end of their original working life.…
INTERNATIONAL CONFECTIONERY NEWS ROUND-UP - CIOLO? APPOINTMENT
BY KEITH NUTHALL, ANCA GURZU and DAVID HAWORTH
THE CONFECTIONERY manufacturing sector in the European Union (EU) has a new political boss in the shape of Romania’s Dacian Ciolo?, who became the EU’s latest agriculture Commissioner on February 10. Appointed amidst pledges he would be willing to use EU money to guarantee food production, he has promised to undertake a swift review of the EU’s reformed sugar regime.…
ARGENTINE LUXURY CLOTHING MARKET, SMALL BUT SOLID, WITH REFINED TASTES PREDOMINANT
BY PACIFICA GODDARD
DECLARED "an energetic and seductive city" by Giorgio Armani, Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, is a hotspot for fashion and design. Often called the ‘Paris of Latin America’, Buenos Aires consumers are well known for favouring trendy attire, and Argentine designers are developing a reputation globally for their creativity and excellent fashion sense.…
LIQUORICE REMAINS NORTHERN GERMAN FAVOURITE - SHUNNED BY SOUTHERN CO-PATRIOTS
BY ALAN OSBORN
THE TASTE for liquorice is surprisingly well defined in geographical terms in Germany and its neighbouring countries. There seems to be a cut-off point at the Rhine Valley. "They don’t like the taste in the southern part of Germany and if you go south of the Rhine valley you don’t find liquorice products in the shops," said Jens Milt, head of the liquorice division at the leading German liquorice supplier Alfred L Wolff, based in Hamburg.…
ILLICIT TOBACCO TRADE BOOMING - GENERATING SWATHES OF ILLEGAL FUNDS
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.…
Roman Polanski case highlights the global politics of extradition
By Katherine Dunn, International News Services
The travails of Roman Polanski in Switzerland this autumn have offered some lessons to the world’s wanted over extradition laws and how to deal with them. The Polish director has of course been living in France, with little fear of extradition, since 1978, when he fled the USA facing statutory rape charges. Only now of course this autumn was he arrested on an American warrant on a visit to Switzerland, while movie stars and directors crowed for his release.
Now, he is out on bail, secured with the help of French president Nicholas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, who intervened on Polanski’s behalf.
As Polanski languishes in Alpine house arrest in a luxury Swiss chalet, it’s clear that extradition is still, at base, a political decision – and to avoid it, one key is not supporting international causes unpopular with powerful governments.…
MOVE OF EFSA OFFICIAL TO SYNGENTA RAISES CONCERNS IN BIOTECH EXPERT GROUP
BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has insisted it acted properly in the case of Dr Suzy Renkens, a former senior official engaged in GMO affairs who took up a job with the Swiss GM company Syngenta months after leaving the European Union (EU) agency.…
SWITZERLAND: Melting glaciers leach forgotten chemicals
By Emma Jackson
‘Out of sight, out of mind’ may have worked for chemical cleanups in the 1950s, but now Swiss researchers from several national institutes have discovered that long-banned chemicals are popping back into view – turning up in glacial lake sediments at levels not seen since they were in use over 50 years ago.…
MELTING GLACIERS LEACH FORGOTTEN CHEMICALS
BY EMMA JACKSON
‘OUT of sight, out of mind’ may have worked for chemical cleanups in the 1950s, but now Swiss researchers have discovered banned chemicals used more than 50 years ago are turning up in glacial lake sediments through climate change-induced glacial melting.…
INDIA SEEKS TEXTILE INVESTMENT FROM EUROPE
BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA
THE INDIAN government is launching a campaign to attract foreign investment from Europe for its textile and clothing industry. On October 26, its textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran along with a business delegation will make a nine-day visit to Switzerland, Italy and Turkey, followed by another trip to Germany and France in November.…
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA TOBACCO MARKET AND INDUSTRY REPORT
BY MARK ROWE
The Republic of Bosnia & Herzegovina is a confusing place politically, and so understanding its tobacco market and industry is similarly difficult. Importantly, it comprises two entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Srpska and while there is also no domestic tobacco industry in the Republic of Srpska; there is within the Federation, the location of the vast majority of the country’s tobacco production.…
TOBACCO TRAVELLER - COLLECTION 2009 - EGYPT, TUNISIA, SYRIA AND IRAN
BY PAUL COCHRANE
EGYPT
Eastern Tobacco Company
450 Al Ahram Street, Giza
Tel : +20-18-5724711- 5724332 – 5724945
+20-23-5793326
www.easternegypt.com
British American Tobacco Egypt
City Stars Complex
Star Capital – Tower 4A
Omar Ebn El Khattab Street
Postal Code 11771
Heliopolis, Cairo
T: (+20) 2 480 1080
Japan Tobacco International (Regional)
2nd Floor, Lophitis Business Centre
249, 28th October Street & Emiliou Hourmouziou Corner
CY-3035, Lemesos
P.O.…
TWISTY MOUNTAIN ROADS AND COLD WINTERS ADD CHALLENGES FOR SWISS TRUCKING
BY SHABTAI GOLD
THE CREW over at Top Gear, the BBC petrol-lovers show, recently declared that the Switzerland part of the Alpine mountain range has some of the best roads in the world for driving. But they were in top sports cars, costing a fortune and hardly designed for bringing farmers’ produce to the supermarkets.…
ARGENTINA CONTINUES TO EXPAND ITS SOY EXPORT TRANSPORT FACILITIES
BY PACIFICA GODDARD
TRANSPORT infrastructure investments to help grow Argentina’s major (but currently troubled) soy export sector have continued, with the hope that the recent growth in the industry will become permanent.
In the mid-1990’s Argentina was producing a modest 11 to 12 million metric tonnes (mt) of soy per year.…
University course to serve emerging global civil service cadre
By Alan Osborn
A Swiss university has launched a course to bring modern business skills to the elite public servants of tomorrow – the people who run the key international organisations and agencies that increasingly shape the modern world. The International Organisations Master of Business Administration (IOMBA) programme has been set up by the University of Geneva to correct what the school sees as a major deficiency at present – the lack of proper managerial skills among those who staff these global bodies.…
SCANT INTERNATIONAL MONEY LAUNDERING STANDARDS EXIST FOR STOCK EXCHANGE LISTING CONTROLS
BY ANDREW CAVE
WHO regulates money laundering at the stock exchange listings of companies around the world? If this is a beguilingly simplistic question, then the answer is anything but.
The reply depends not only upon which country one is referring to but also on which companies list in which market and in which stock exchange sector.…
SWITZERLAND: Business skills course for international organisations
By Alan Osborn
A Swiss university is offering a course designed to train professionals for careers in international organisations and agencies.
Increasingly, decisions affecting the global economy, international security, the environment and even health and social matters, are being devised and put into effect by multilateral institutions, both governmental and non-governmental.…
LINDT RISKS LOSS OF CHOCOLATE EASTER BUNNY TRADEMARK
BY KEITH NUTHALL
SWISS chocolate giant Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli will – as expected – have to demonstrate to Austrian judges that its trademarking of the shape and wrapping of its popular Easter bunny line was not designed to drive a rival chocolate bunny maker out of business.…
LINDT RISKS LOSS OF CHOCOLATE EASTER BUNNY TRADEMARK
BY KEITH NUTHALL
SWISS chocolate giant Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli may lose European Union (EU) trademark rights to the shape and wrapping of its popular Easter bunny line. This follows a European Court of Justice (ECJ) preliminary ruling, which concluded Austrian courts could void the registration, if filed in "bad faith".…
LINDT RISKSEFSA BACKS REDUCTION IN ANIMAL TESTING
BY KEITH NUTHALL
SWISS chocolate giant Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli may lose European Union (EU) trademark rights to the shape and wrapping of its popular Easter bunny line. This follows a European Court of Justice (ECJ) preliminary ruling, which concluded Austrian courts could void the registration, if filed in "bad faith" to prevent other companies using an existing bunny chocolate design.…
SWISS TO NEGOTIATE FREE TRADE DEAL FOR PROCESSED FOOD WITH EU
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission will stage negotiations with Switzerland to forge a trade liberalisation deal for processed food. The agreement would build on the existing free trade deal on food commodities between the European Union (EU) and Switzerland, which remains outside the EU.…
EASTERN EUROPEAN WINES AND SPIRITS GET PROTECTION IN WEALTHY SWISS MARKET
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A REVISED food and drink trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and Switzerland will provide wines and spirits from the 12 countries joining the EU since 2004 with key geographical indication protection in key Swiss export markets.…
EUROPEAN SCIENTISTS IDENTIFY CELL PROTEINS THAT INTERACT WITH BACTERIA
BY KEITH NUTHALL
POTENTIALLY important findings for developing anti-bacterial drugs have been discovered by German, Swiss and Irish scientists. They identified 39 proteins interacting with bacteria damaging and entering human cells. Until now, only a few proteins had been listed, said a Cell Host and Microbe journal note.…
SWISS TO NEGOTIATE FREE TRADE DEAL FOR PROCESSED FOOD WITH EU
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has given the go-ahead for a swift launch of negotiations with Switzerland to forge a trade liberalisation deal for processed food. The agreement would build on the existing free trade deal on food commodities between the EU and Switzerland, which has steadfastly refused to become a member state.…
DUTY FREE EU TRADE LOOMS FOR SWISS CHOCOLATE MAKERS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
SWISS chocolate manufacturers should be key beneficiaries of a new trade deal to result from newly authorised negotiations between the European Union (EU) and Switzerland. The agreement would create "full liberalisation" for sales in processed food between them and build on an existing free trade deal on food commodities.…
OECD AND SWITZERLAND CLASH OVER BANKING TRANSPARENCY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Switzerland have staged a public row over Swiss bank secrecy.
In a highly undiplomatic letter to Hans-Rudolf Merz, the Swiss president, OECD secretary general Angel Gurría complained that "some Swiss officials have characterised the OECD as not having been fair to the Swiss government on…international cooperation on tax matters", and that he wanted to "prove the inaccuracy of such statements".…
BANGLADESH KNITWEAR SECTOR REMAINS STRONG DESPITE GLOBAL RECESSION'S CONTINUED PRESSURE
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.…
PERSONAL CARE PRODUCT INDUSTRY FIGHTS TO PRESERVE ITS REPUTATION AGAINST COUNTERFEITERS AND PIRATES
BY KEITH NUTHALL, JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo, EMMA JACKSON and LEAH GERMAIN
TIME was when counterfeit personal care products were commonly crude fake perfumes pedalled in markets and workplaces during the Christmas and other festive periods to bargain hunters who knew they were buying rubbish.…
LEGAL SHOWDOWN LOOMS OVER CHOCOLATE EASTER BUNNIES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
LAWYERS for Swiss chocolate giant Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli will be closely monitoring the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for a preliminary ruling, on whether it can trademark the shape and wrapping of its popular Easter bunny line.…
ISO OFFERS NUCLEAR SECTOR GLOBAL STANDARDS TO SPREAD BEST PRACTICE
BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON and ALAN OSBORN
THE NUCLEAR energy industry has always been a global business, and since the fall of communism, it has become more, not less international. As a result, the need for common standards and practices, relevant to the industry, its suppliers and its customers is becoming increasingly important.…
JAPANESE CONFECTIONERY INDUSTRY ROBUST IN RECESSION
BY JULIAN RYALL
THEY may be putting off the new car purchase and the long-haul holiday this year, but Japanese consumers are finding that they cannot do without all their little luxuries.
For the 25th consecutive month, confectionery sales increased in Japan in January.…
BASF PLEDGES UV FILTER LICENCE AGREEMENT TO SECURE CIBA TAKEOVER
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A PROPOSED acquisition of chemical producer Ciba, of Switzerland, by BASF SE of Germany, has been cleared by the European Commission, after the German chemicals giant agreed to allow to share certain UV filters owned by the Swiss firm.…
EU SCIENTISTS RECOMMEND PROBE INTO ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE RISK OF ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A CALL has been made by senior European Union (EU) scientists for studies into concerns that electromagnetic fields, such as those caused by power cables and mobile phones, could cause Alzheimer’s disease. It comes in a report from the EU’s scientific committee on emerging and newly identified health risks, which has reviewed the ever-growing scientific literature on environmental health concerns about electromagnetic fields (ELF is a common acronym).…
Roman Polanski case highlights the global politics of extradition
By Katherine Dunn
The travails of Roman Polanski in Switzerland this autumn have offered some lessons to the world’s wanted over extradition laws and how to deal with them. The Polish director has of course been living in France, with little fear of extradition, since 1978, when he fled the USA facing statutory rape charges.…
SWISS MEAT DEAL APPROVED DESPITE PRODUCT CLASH
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ACQUISITION of sole control of German meat and sausage company Zimbo Fleisch- und Wurstwaren by Switzerland’s Bell Holding has been approved by the European Commission on competition grounds, despite the Swiss company also selling these products.
ENDS…
EU AND SWITZERLAND STRIKE FOOD HEALTH CONTROL AGREEMENT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
SWITZERLAND will participate in the European Union’s (EU) rapid alert system for contaminated and unhealthy food products RASFF. This means warnings about food identified in Switzerland as potentially dangerous will be circulated around the EU – important given the volumes of Swiss-sourced food exported to member states.…
ECJ THROW OUT SWISS COSMETICS COMPANY TRADEMARK APPEAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) Court of First Instance has dismissed an appeal brought by Swiss cosmetics firm Galderma against the European Union (EU)-wide registration by Tihomir Lelas, of Croatia, of the trademark Nanolat for soaps, cosmetics and hair lotions.…
EUROPE: European academics are anti-commercial crime resource for businesses
By Alan Osborn
Many European academics and experts in the study of commercial crime are more than happy to discuss the state of play in the sector in an informal way with outsiders; others may be a little more cautious. But all are likely to suggest ways to gain further assistance.…
GERMAN CONFECTIONER LOSES ECJ TRADEMARK CASE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
GERMAN confectionery manufacturer Paul Reber GmbH has lost a European Court of Justice (ECJ) bid to secure European Union trademark rights for the term ‘Mozart’ for selling chocolate-coated marzipan and praline balls. Because these are generally known in Germany and Austria as ‘Mozartkugel’, Swiss confectioner Lindt & Sprüngli successfully argued the proposed trademark was generic and not eligible for legal protection.…
GERMAN CONFECTIONER LOSES ECJ TRADEMARK CASE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
GERMAN confectionery manufacturer Paul Reber GmbH has lost a European Court of Justice bid to secure European Union trademark rights for the term ‘Mozart’ for selling chocolate-coated marzipan and praline balls. Because these are generally known as ‘Mozartkugel’, Swiss confectioner Lindt & Sprüngli successfully argued the proposed trademark was generic and not eligible for legal protection.…
ANTI-COUNTERFEITING OF GOODS PACT DEBATED IN GENEVA BY TOP WORLD POWERS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A GROUP of influential countries are debating forging an international anti-counterfeiting of goods agreement, which would see them cooperate against the production and trade in fake tobacco products. Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States have been discussing the idea in Geneva.…
LATIN AMERICA'S ECONOMIC SUCCESS IS CREATING WIDER OPPORTUNITIES FOR COMMERCIAL CRIME
BY PACIFICA GODDARD, in Caracas
IN Latin America, the combination of economic growth, weak law enforcement, and a culture that turns a blind eye to corruption, creates an increasingly fertile setting for a variety of commercial crimes, Pacifica Goddard reports from Caracas.…
GERMAN RESEARCHERS DEVELOP GUARANTEED GREEN LIGHT TRAFFIC ADVICE SYSTEM
BY KEITH NUTHALL
IMAGINE an intelligent transport system so clever, that it could tell a motorist how fast to drive in a city to avoid all red lights in a given journey. And then also imagine a system that could also advise a driver how to motor at the most constant speed possible, avoiding unnecessary accelerations and braking, saving gallons of fuel and engine wear-and-tear to boot.…
GERMANY: German researchers develop in-car computer navigation system to avoid red lights
By Keith Nuthall
Imagine an intelligent transport system so clever, that it could tell a motorist how fast to drive in a city to avoid all red lights in a given journey. And then also imagine a system that could also advise a driver how to motor at the most constant speed possible, avoiding unnecessary accelerations and braking, saving gallons of fuel and engine wear-and-tear to boot.…
EU - Higher education services talks at WTO to get push as global trade talks start last stage
By Monica Dobie
European university scientists have designed a virtual reality system that allows users to visit and walk around a digitised environment, helping the tourist, town planning, architectural and medical sectors. As a test, their ‘CyberCarpet’ system has allowed users to visit the Roman Empire Italian town of Pompeii and experience it before it was decimated by Vesuvius in 79AD.…
EU ROUND UP - CO2 CAP FOR VEHICLES PROPOSED BY BRUSSELS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
HEAVIER vehicles such as SUVs and luxury models will be able to breach a proposed European Union (EU) carbon dioxide cap, under formally proposed legislation now tabled by the European Commission. Pressure from German manufacturers forced Brussels into abandoning an absolute cap for all new models of 130 grams of CO2 per kilometre.…
MAGNETIC SHAPE-MEMORY FOAM COULD HELP CARMAKERS DEVELOP SMALLER, LIGHTER AUTOS
BY MONICA DOBIE
RESEARCHERS from the Boise State University in Idaho and Northwestern University in Illinois, have developed a new material called "magnetic shape-memory foam" whose strength and lightweight properties could be used to help automobile makers develop lighter vehicles with a smaller price tag.…
EU MINISTERS ASKED TO APPROVE NEW SWISS FOOD TRADE DEAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A REVISED food trade deal has been negotiated between the European Union (EU) and Switzerland, which includes low or duty-free quotas for EU and Swiss confectionary ingredients. Examples include imports into the EU of cherries, raspberries and other sweet fruits, and imports into Switzerland of EU nuts, sweet fruits and acacia honey.…
EU MINISTERS CREATE SWISS PORK AND SAUSAGE QUOTA
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has opened a 1,900 tonne annual quota for duty free imports into the EU from Switzerland of boneless ham in brine (enclosed in a bladder or artificial gut); smoked boneless pork chops; pork sausages (excluding wild boar); and pork neck.…
COMCO CONFIRMS CONCERNS OVER COOP DISTRIBUTIS DEAL
BY MARK ROWE
SWITZERLAND’S competition and monopolies agency Comco has explained its concerns to just-food.com behind its launch of a four-month investigation into Swiss-based Coop’s planned acquisition of Carrefour’s stake in retailer Distributis AG amid concerns that the move may breach competition laws.…
EU MINISTERS CREATE SWISS SAUSAGE QUOTA
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has opened a 1,900 tonne quota for duty free imports into the EU from Switzerland of boneless ham in brine; smoked boneless pork chops; pork sausages; and pork neck.
ENDS…
EUROPEAN ACADEMICS ARE ANTI-COMMERCIAL CRIME RESOURCE FOR BUSINESSES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
MANY European academics and experts in the study of commercial crime are more than happy to discuss the state of play in the sector in an informal way with outsiders; others may be a little more cautious. But all are likely to suggest ways to gain further assistance.…
COLUMBIA'S BOGOTÁ AIRPORT EL NUEVO DORADO FACES MAJOR REVAMP
BY SUZANNE KOELEGA
AMIDST country-wide political, health and economical reforms, Colombia’s largest airport, El Dorado International Airport, has embarked on a major reconstruction project. Construction has started and should be completed by 2011.
Colombian civil aviation authorities on September 20, 2007, gave the green light for the US$640 million project.…
ISO OFFERS EXPERT GLOBAL ASSISTANCE TO RECYCLING INDUSTRY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
FOR the best way of showing the relevance of the International organisation for Standardization (ISO) (NOTE: ISO USES AMERICAN SPELLING FOR ITS NAME) to the recycling industry, look no further than the globally recognised symbol for the sector – the Möbius loop.…
ISO OFFERS TOBACCO INDUSTRY GLOBAL QUALITY PRACTICE TEMPLATES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE TOBACCO sector has always been a worldwide business, relying on raw materials and products being shipped to and from all continents, and with the growth of new emerging markets, it is if anything becoming increasingly globalised. As a result, the need for common standards and practices, relevant to the industry, its suppliers and its customers is becoming more important.…
SWISS ASK EU FOR GRUYÈRE PROTECTION
BY ALAN OSBORN
SWITZERLAND has asked the European Commission to register the name of the well-known Swiss cheese Gruyère under regulations providing it with protected designation of origin under European Union (EU) law. The request was made on July 6, less than two weeks after France made a similar request in respect of cheese of the same name.…
ISO OFFERS OIL AND NATURAL GAS SECTOR GOOD GLOBAL PRACTICE ADVICE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE OIL and gas sector was always a global business, and with world trade increasing and new reserves being opened up in all continents and oceans, it is becoming ever more international. As a result, the need for common standards and practices, relevant to the industry, its suppliers and its customers is becoming increasingly important.…
ISO OFFERS OIL AND NATURAL GAS SECTOR GOOD GLOBAL PRACTICE ADVICE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE OIL and gas sector was always a global business, and with world trade increasing and new reserves being opened up in all continents and oceans, it is becoming ever more international. As a result, the need for common standards and practices, relevant to the industry, its suppliers and its customers is becoming increasingly important.…
ISO OFFERS DETAILED GUIDELINES AND ADVICE TO GLOBAL COSMETICS SECTOR
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE COSMETICS, perfume and personal hygiene sector is becoming increasingly globalised and so as a result, the need for common standards and practices, relevant to the industry, its suppliers and its customers is becoming increasingly important.
The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) (NOTE: ISO USES AMERICAN SPELLING FOR ITS NAME) is the global body coordinating and publishing this kind of professional advice.…
ISO OFFERS POWER INDUSTRY GLOBAL BEST PRACTICE STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE POWER generation industry has always been a globalised business, especially regarding the manufacture of equipment, but with the opening of national electricity markets, especially in Europe, it has become increasingly international. As a result, the need for common standards and practices, relevant to the industry, its suppliers and its customers is becoming more and more important.…
ISO OFFERS NUCLEAR INDUSTRY GLOBAL BEST PRACTICE STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE NUCLEAR energy industry has always been a global business, and since the fall of communism, it has become more, not less international. As a result, the need for common standards and practices, relevant to the industry, its suppliers and its customers is becoming increasingly important.…
ISO OFFERS CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY USEFUL MANAGEMENT GUIDANCE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
MANY lessons have been learned from the tragic deaths of 2,974 people in the World Trade Centre attacks of September 11, and one of the most important for the construction industry could be that fire insulation of steel structures need better protection against major impacts.…
ISO OFFERS PAINT, COATINGS INDUSTRY DETAILED GOOD PRACTICE STANDARDS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
IT was with sound reasoning that the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) (NOTE: ISO USES AMERICAN SPELLING FOR ITS NAME) last year picked the paint and coatings sector to launch its new collection of CD compilations of its standards.…
THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut
The cosmetics and personal care market in the UAE was worth more than US$414 million in retail sales last year, according to market data group Euromonitor. Demand is being driven in the UAE by an estimated 6.2 million tourists a year, a 23.5% rise in GDP in nominal terms in 2006, and by radical changes in the UAE’s population- from 2.4 million in 1995 to 4.3 million this year.…
FINANCIAL ADVISORS STRUGGLE TO IMPLEMENT EU MONEY LAUNDERING LEGISLATION
BY ALAN OSBORN
As with many financial service providers in the EU, the definition of financial adviser differs, often significantly, from one country to another. In its very basic sense – i.e. the provision of financial advice pure and simple, without the add-on of other services that could involve the handling of client money – the profession of fee-paid advisor is a limited one and probably confined to only a few thousand people in Luxembourg, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.…
VITAMIN D IS NEW OLD-FASHIONED TB TREATMENT SAY LONDON SCIENTISTS
BY MONICA DOBIE
AN OLD-FASHIONED treatment for tuberculosis might be reintroduced now the disease has proved resistant to new-fashioned antibiotics. A British study has found that a single dose of vitamin D may be enough to boost the immune system to fight against tuberculosis.…
ISO OFFERS OILS AND FATS SECTOR GOOD GLOBAL PRACTICE ADVICE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE OILS and fats sector is becoming increasingly globalised and so as a result, the need for common standards and practices, relevant to the industry, its suppliers and its customers is becoming increasingly important.
The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) (NOTE: ISO USES AMERICAN SPELLING FOR ITS NAME) is the global body coordinating and publishing this kind of professional advice.…
UNITED NATIONS MOVES TOWARDS ADOPTING INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC SECTOR ACCOUNTING STANDARDS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THERE can be fewer larger accountancy jobs than a complete overhaul of the accounting systems of all United Nations organisations, but such a project is underway, and – some would say true to form – the UN is now splashing cash on external accounting consultants.…
EUROPEAN COMMISSION HELPS BLOCK SWISS PACKAGING DEAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A PLANNED forced merger of the carton packaging businesses of Norway Elopak and Switzerland’s SIG has been abandoned, after the European Commission opened a detailed competition inquiry. Brussels has acknowledged the deal has collapsed, with a public tender offer for SIG shares by Elopak owner Ferd and Luxembourg-based investment fund CVC failing.…
EU RESEARCHERS DEVELOP NEW FLEXIBLE POLYMER SOLAR PANEL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project has developed a thin polymer solar battery flexible enough for use in flat but bendable electronic objects such as smart cards and curved mobile phones. The EURO-PSB project has created a prototype battery weighing just two grams and less than one millimetre thick, producing 0.6 volts in charge, which can be increased by adding extra strips to a cell.…
TUNISIA AND EFTA LAUNCH FREE TRADE NEGOTIATIONS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
SWISS tobacco manufacturers are set to benefit from free trade agreement negotiations launched between the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) – of which Switzerland is a key member – and Tunisia. An EFTA note on the talks stressed that Switzerland’s third largest export item to Tunisia was tobacco, representing 10% of all consignments.…
BULGARIA CENTRE OF FOOD, DRINK FRAUD ALLEGATIONS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
NEW European Union (EU) member state Bulgaria is at the centre of two food and drink fraud allegations. The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States wants further action over counterfeit spirits from Bulgaria. It has welcomed increased seizures – 1,296 cases of fake US whiskeys in 2006, compared with 284 in 2005, for instance.…
BIOTECHNOLOGY GROUP ACCUSES SWITZERLAND AND ISRAEL OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY VIOLATIONS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A REPORT from the US-based Biotechnology Industry Organisation for the US Trade Representative office has accused Switzerland an Israel of intellectual property violations in its sector, which covers bio-pharmaceuticals. Calling for Switzerland to be placed on a US-government watch list, it said reforms to the Swiss patent law agreed by the country’s national council in December could “undermine…patent protection for certain biotechnology inventions in Switzerland.”…
ISO STANDARDS HELP CONFECTONARY PRODUCERS BOOST MANAGEMENT AND SAFETY PERFORMANCE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
IT is maybe reassuring that during an era when confectionary 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.…
ISO STANDARDS HELP ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING PRACTITIONERS FIGHT DIRTY MONEY FLOWS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Organization for Standardization (ISO) (NOTE – IT USES ‘Z’s TO SPELL ITS NAME) is not one of the global three musketeers charged with fighting money laundering and terrorist financing – namely, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).…
ISO LAUNCHES COMPETITION TO ENCOURAGE UNIVERSITY USE OF GLOBAL STANDARDS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
UNIVERSITIES and colleges that promote the usefulness of global standards in research, business and public administration will be honoured this summer in new award launched by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). Nominations for entries have now closed and winners of the Swiss Francs 15,000 (GBPounds 6,143) ISO Award for Higher Education in Standardisation will be will be announced in September 2007, at the ISO general assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.…
EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL GETS FORMAL LAUNCH
BY LARS RUGAARD, in Berlin
THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) ambitious European Research Council (ERC) was launched this week (Tue and Wed 27/28-2) as the provider of what it’s founding ruling committee called the “Champion’s League of Researchers”. Armed with a Euro 7 billion budget from the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme, the council is meant to provide researchers in the EU with innovation and competition stimuli, thus enhancing the EU’s research and economic performance.…
GLOBAL HEALTH NGO URGES EU ACTION AGAINST NOVARTIS IN INDIA PHARMA CASE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL health group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has made an unusual appeal to the European Union (EU) to back the Indian government in its legal fight with Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis over generic drugs. The company claims that India, whose generic drug sector produces a large proportion of medicines used in developing countries, insufficiently protects new drug products from being copied.…
ISO STANDARDS BOOST ANTI-FRAUD CONTROLS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITH commercial crime becoming ever more international, it makes sense for companies and public organisations to fight its attacks in similar ways, so they can better coordinate their efforts. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) (NOTE – ISO USES AMERICAN SPELLINGS FOR ITS NAME) offers management and technical guidance to help.…
PURCHASES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
ISO’s anti-fraud-related standards, doubtless sound very useful, and they are. But sadly, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and as ISO is not funded by taxpayers, it charges for copies of its standards. These don’t come cheap, sometimes running into hundreds of Swiss Francs, but they are usually at least affordable to medium-sized companies.…
EU RESEARCH NEEDS TO BE MORE PRACTICAL SAYS UNIVERSIITY ASSOCIATION
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A study made for the European Universities Association has found that while universities in Europe are providing a “solid research base” they are failing to extend this into the areas of research applicability and technology knowledge transfer. “Some adjustments are still needed in order to prepare graduates and to adapt their skills to the challenges of the current and expanding regional knowledge economy,” says the report The Rise of Knowledge Regions by the Swiss-based higher education consultant Dr Sybille Reichert which is based on studies of four European city-regions: Barcelona, Brno, Manchester and øresund.…
EU RAPEX SERVICE REPORTS SKIN LIGHTENER BANS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE consumer control authorities have seized two skin lightener products because of concerns that they break the European Union’s (EU) cosmetics directive. One product was an Italy-made prosone gel made by Nichben Pharmaceutical Industries, sold in 30ml bottles.…
SWITZERLAND AND EU PLAN POWER DEAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has been authorised by the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers to negotiate a comprehensive energy agreement with Switzerland, which would see the landlocked country participating in liberalised EU electricity markets. A memorandum from the council confirmed that the Swiss would have to sign onto EU electricity market rules, including those on trading power and allowing the purchase by EU operators of Switzerland generators.…
VIRTUAL CO-DRIVER RESEARCH TO BOOST IN-CAR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
BY DEIRDRE MASON, in London
A CAR that can think for its driver is a step nearer reality, thanks to a new European Union (EU)-funded project now underway in Switzerland. The 10-partner BACS (Bayesian Approach to Cognitive Systems) project, co-ordinated by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, is creating thinking robots that can react in the right way to incomplete information, in the same way that humans and animals do.…
EUROPEAN COMMISSION APPROVES GERMAN-SWISS JOINT VENTURE AT CDG PARIS AIRPORT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared, using its competition authority powers, a proposed airline food catering joint venture at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport, between LSG – a subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa – and the Swiss company Gate Gourmet.…
NANOTECHNOLOGY TO BOOST POWER GENERATION AND CONSERVATION, EU CONFERENCE TOLD
BY MARK ROWE, in Munich
NANOTECHNOLOGY is on the verge of transforming the way in which energy production takes place. The use of components such as carbon nanotubes is forcing scientists to reassess the potential yields and efficiency associated with traditional energy production.…
URANIUM MINING ECJ SAFEGUARDS CASE GERMANY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
NON-EUROPEAN Union (EU) nuclear operators do not have to ask the European Commission permission to export uranium enriched within the EU, a European Court of Justice (ECJ) advocate general has concluded. Miguel Poiares Maduro was advising on a complex legal case focusing on the control of Brazilian-owned uranium transferred from Europe to the United States.…
URANIUM MINING ECJ SAFEGUARDS CASE GERMANY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
NON-EUROPEAN Union (EU) uranium owners do not have to ask the European Commission permission to export uranium enriched within the EU, a European Court of Justice (ECJ) advocate general has concluded. Miguel Poiares Maduro was advising on a complex legal case focusing on the control of Brazilian-owned uranium transferred from Europe to the United States.…
BIN LADIN - BIN LADEN SWITZERLAND TRADEMARK ECJ CASE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SWISS sportswear company has launched a European Union (EU) Court of First Instance case to secure EU-wide trademark rights to the controversial name ‘Binladin’ for clothing and headgear. Falcon Sporting Goods is appealing against a registration refusal by EU’s Office for Harmonisation for the Internal Market (Trademarks and Designs) – OHIM on "public policy" "morality" grounds.…
SWITZERLAND BAR SMOKING BAN REFERENDUM
BY KEITH NUTHALL
CITIZENS of a Swiss canton have exercised direct democracy to ban smoking from local bars, nightclubs and restaurants. The proposal was overwhelmingly approved by voters in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, north of Milan, with 79.1% (90,384) voting in favour, against 20.9% voting against (23,945).…
QUICK V NESTLÉ - ECJ
BY KEITH NUTHALL
BELGIAN fast food firm Quick has won a case at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) Court of First Instance, beating off an attempt by Swiss food and drinks giant Nestlé to secure EU trademark rights to the brand ‘Quickies’.…
WTO REPORT DOHA DEVELOPMENT ROUND - MODALITIES FOLLOW UP - ROUND CONCLUSION
BY KEITH NUTHALL
INTRODUCTION
THE WORLD’S multilateral food trading system today stands at a crossroads: faced with the suspension of the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Development Round, it can either retreat to protectionism, leavened by a series of competitive bilateral trade deals, or it can grasp the nettle of liberal free trade, slash subsidies and tariffs, and then watch the economic rewards roll in.…
WTO REPORT DOHA DEVELOPMENT ROUND - MODALITIES FOLLOW UP - ROUND CONCLUSION
BY KEITH NUTHALL
INTRODUCTION
THE WORLD’S multilateral food trading system today stands at a crossroads: faced with the suspension of the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Development Round, it can either retreat to protectionism, leavened by a series of competitive bilateral trade deals, or it can grasp the nettle of liberal free trade, slash subsidies and tariffs, and then watch the economic rewards roll in.…
EFTA ELECTRICITY COMPETITION INQUIRY NORWAY ICELAND LIECHTENSTEIN
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A PARALLEL electricity competition inquiry staged by the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) along with that held by the European Commission has concluded that Norway has some competition problems that could spark future legal action. The EFTA Surveillance Authority has similar competition powers to the Commission regarding the three European Economic Area (EEA) members of EFTA: Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.…
QUICK V NESTLÉ - ECJ
BY KEITH NUTHALL
BELGIAN fast food firm Quick has won a case at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) Court of First Instance, beating off an attempt by Swiss food and drinks giant Nestlé to secure European Union (EU) trademark rights to the brand ‘Quickies’.…
BIN LADEN TRADEMARK - SWITZERLAND SPORTSWEAR OHIM ECJ CASE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SWISS sportswear company has launched a case at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) Court of First Instance to secure European Union (EU)-wide trademark rights to the controversial name ‘Binladin’. Falcon Sporting Goods is appealing against a registration refusal by EU’s Office for Harmonisation for the Internal Market (Trademarks and Designs) – OHIM.…
EU WTO ROUND UP
BY KEITH NUTHALL
NEW EFSA BOSS BUDGET ROW – LATEST ADVICE
THE FRENCHWOMAN appointed to take the vacant top executive director job at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will need all her political skills to solve a potential budget crisis facing the agency.…
AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY DESIGN RIGHTS WIPO EU
BY DEIRDRE MASON, in London
THE POLITICAL institutions of the European Union (EU) are debating how to join an international system that would protect EU manufacturers’ design rights across a wide range of non-European countries in one simple operation. In an initiative that could help auto manufacturers secure the creative aspects of their vehicle design from plagiarism, the European Commission wants to link the EU’s existing Community Design system, (which protects manufacturers’ designs within the 25 EU member states), to a global design registration system run by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), a UN agency.…
WTO DOHA DEVELOPMENT ROUND NON-AGRICULTURAL MARKET ACCESS - COTTON SUBSIDIES HONG KONG SUMMIT DEAL - DYES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
DIPLOMATS at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) headquarters in Geneva are working to a tight deadline on agreeing detailed goals to liberalise trade in industrial goods such as dyes following the WTO’s Hong Kong summit in December. It agreed an overall agreement (called modalities in WTO jargon) on the industrial goods section of its Doha Development Round should be struck by April 30.…
WTO DOHA DEVELOPMENT ROUND HONG KONG SUMMIT INDUSTRIAL GOODS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
TRADE ministers have imposed a tight deadline on World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiators to agree detailed goals of the industrial goods section of its Doha Development Round of liberalisation negotiations – April 30. This is the date by which an overall "modalities" agreement must be struck, which will say how much particular bands (by value) of tariffs must be reduced by all WTO member countries.…
ISO FOOD CHAIN STANDARD
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has published a new standard for food safety management systems, designed to ensure there are no weak environmental health links in food supply chains. ISO 22000 specifies requirements for food safety management for sourcing, manufacturing, canning, boxing, bagging, bottling, delivering and selling food.…
SADIS FEATURE
BY MARK ROWE
THE METEROLOGICAL Office, the UK’s national weather service, the Met Office, has launched a new version of its satellite-distribution weather advice service. The new upgraded SADIS2G (second generation) is being rolled out to air traffic control units (ATCs) and will gradually supersede the existing SADIS system.…
AUSTRIA/SWITZERLAND FEATURE
BY ALAN OSBORN
IN both the Austrian and Swiss paint industries the European Union’s (EU) chemicals policy, and in particular next year’s introduction of the regulatory framework known as REACH, hang like a grim cloud over the near to mid term future.…
EURATOM -SWITZERLAND
BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have been asked to formally approve a deal struck between the European Commission and the Swiss government on deepening their cooperation in nuclear research projects. The agreement cements the participation of Swiss researchers in the Euratom components of multi-billion Euro EU framework programmes on research.…
ZINC POWER
KEITH NUTHALL
A SWISS research unit has developed a solar power reactor storing the power of the sun in zinc batteries. The Paul Scherrer Institute’s system concentrates the sun’s rays via mirrors onto zinc oxide ore, with a catalyst such as coal and coke.…
AVIATION BLACKLIST
BY ALAN OSBORN
A PROPOSAL by the European Commission to publish a blacklist of airlines with unsatisfactory safety records could mean the withdrawal of insurance cover for companies failing to measure up according to Commission officials. The Brussels plan has been made in the context of a recent sequence of aviation crashes off Italy, Greece, Canada and Venezuela where defective aircraft or negligence by operating personnel have come under suspicion.…
TETRA DEAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared the takeover by Swiss food packaging giant Tetra Laval of Italian food and drink filling and packaging company SIG Simonazzi, without imposing conditions. This follows a Brussels investigation focusing on the potential competition problems caused through their joint interests in aseptic PET and HDPE plastic packaging filling machines and non-aseptic PET filling machines.…
ZINC POWER
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SWISS research unit has developed a solar power reactor storing the power of the sun in zinc batteries. The Paul Scherrer institute’s system concentrates the sun’s rays via mirrors onto zinc oxide ore, with a catalyst such as coal and coke.…
NOVARTIS DEAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
SWISS pharmaceuticals giant Novartis’ acquisition of German generic medicine producer Hexal can go ahead, but only after a series of conditions imposed by the European Commission are met. Brussels has been concerned the takeover could cause competition problems regarding prescription calcitonins treating osteoporosis in Poland, over-the-counter topical anti-rheumatics in Germany and prescription anti-gout preparations in Denmark.…
EFTA BUSINESS INQUIRY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SURVEILLANCE Authority of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) has launched its own competition inquiry into business insurance services, in parallel with the investigation launched earlier this month by the European Commission. The EFTA probe will examine whether there are competition problems requiring immediate legal action or long-term reforms within the business insurance sectors of its member states Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.…
MERGERS ANALYSIS
BY ALAN OSBORN
WHY have there been so few cross-border mergers and consolidations in the European Union (EU) insurance industry? According to a recent report by the European Commission, cross-border deals accounted for only about 20% of the total value of deals in the financial sector, including insurance, between 1999 and 2004.…
ECJ SWISS PATENTS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has thwarted an attempt by pharmaceutical manufacturers to crush a legal technicality that has prevented them enjoying full supplementary patent protection rights across the European Union (EU). The problem arose when Novartis AG and Cor Therapeutics Inc (now Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc.)…
GIBRALTAR FEATURE MONEY LAUNDERING
BY ALAN OSBORN
THE HOT topic in Gibraltar’s financial circles at present is Spain’s accusation that the Rock’s authorities have not been co-operating in the fight against money laundering. This is not an unfamiliar charge in the perpetual diplomatic row between Madrid and the British territory, but the latest airing of it has gained extra bite because of the enormous scale of the alleged crime, according to local newspaper reports, to run up to Euro 600 million and maybe more.…
EU AVIATION SAFETY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has moved to plug a gap in aviation safety rules that could have helped allow last year’s Flash Airlines disaster at Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, which killed 148 people, mostly European tourists.
It has proposed a regulation telling European Union (EU) member states to publish a list of air carriers they have banned from their airspace over safety concerns, or whose movements are restricted for the same reason.…
WTO DOHA DEVELOPMENT ROUND HONG KONG SUMMIT INDUSTRIAL GOODS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
TRADE ministers have imposed a tight deadline on World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiators to agree detailed goals of the industrial goods section of its Doha Development Round of liberalisation negotiations – April 30. This is the date by which an overall "modalities" agreement must be struck, which will say how much particular bands (by value) of tariffs must be reduced by all WTO member countries.…
OLAF REPORT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INSTITUTIONS of the European Union (EU) always say they are getting a handle on the fraud that riddles their operations, but are they? Keith Nuthall looks at the latest annual report from EU fraud-fighters OLAF.
MEASURING fraud is notoriously difficult, given that the aim of this crime is to be as undetectable as possible.…
JAA CHIEF
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE JOINT Aviation Authorities (JAA) has a new chief executive, following with departure of Klaus Koplin on October 31. He has been replaced with former director general of the Swiss Civil Aviation Authority André Auer, 56, who served as president of the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) from 1997 to 2000.…
MICRO-FINANCE ANALYSIS
BY ALAN OSBORN
IS there a role for the insurance companies of rich countries to play in developing “micro finance” in the world’s very poorest regions? The question has become relevant following the launch earlier this month (November) of the International year of Microcredit 2005 by the UN’s Agricultural Fund for Development (IFAD).…
EASTERN EUROPE FEATURETTE
BY MARK ROWE
CHOCOLATE sells in eastern Europe. One of the curiosities of the old Soviet Empire was that, even in the darkest days of rule by Stalin and Brezhnev, the USSR imported vast amounts of cocoa, simply because the Kremlin thought it was good for the masses.…
JAA CHIEF CHANGE
Keith Nuthall
THE JOINT Aviation Authorities (JAA) has a new chief executive: former director general of the Swiss Civil Aviation Authority AndrÃ(c) Auer, 56.…
EU-SWISS DEAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission and Switzerland have negotiated a veterinary agreement so that when either side conducts emergency vaccinations to fight a disease, they share full information. The signatories have also agreed to share good practice, scientific knowledge and cooperate to fight zoonotic diseases.…
EU-SWITZERLAND DEAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A DETAILED agreement on mutual cooperation against fraud has been negotiated between the European Union (EU) and Switzerland. The deal now awaits confirmation from the Swiss federal parliament and the EU Council of Ministers before it comes into affect, probably next year.…
DISPUTED PROFESSOR
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is reconsidering the appointment of Swedish Professor Ragnar Rylander to its scientific committee on health and environmental risks, following political protests. The European Parliament claimed he was “found by the Swiss court of appeal…to have lied about secret links with the tobacco industry”.…
KROES HEARING
Keith Nuthall
NEELIE Kroes, the European Union (EU) Commissioner-designate for Competition – called the Commission’s second most important job after its president’s – vigorously defended herself at the European Parliament against allegations of divided loyalties today.
Appearing at a hearing before parliament’s economic committee earlier today, she endured a three hour grilling from cross-party tormentors who included her Dutch countryman Paul van Buitenen, formerly a whistle blower and now an MEP.…
LIECHTENSTEIN FEATURE
BY ALAN OSBORN
IT might be one of the world’s smallest countries but you could hardly ask for a more emphatic turnaround from villain to hero in the fight against money laundering than Liechtenstein has managed over the last five years.…
TETRA DEAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared the takeover by Swiss food packaging giant Tetra Laval of Italian food and drink filling and packaging company SIG Simonazzi.…
SAVINGS TAX DELAY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SWISS government has agreed in principle to charging a flat tax on bank accounts held by European Union (EU) citizens, removing the last hurdle to the EU passing its long-debated savings directive. However, because Switzerland will hold a referendum on the issue, the European Commission has proposed delaying the legislation’s launch date six months until June 2005.…
EUROPOL - SWITZERLAND
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has authorised Europol to strike a deal with Switzerland, on swapping information, including personal data, on illegal trafficking in nuclear and radioactive substances. Europol and Swiss law enforcement units would also swap data on terrorism.…
SAVINGS TAX
BY KEITH NUTHALL
SWITZERLAND has struck a deal with the European Union (EU) over the controversial savings tax issue, agreeing to levy a flat tax on EU citizens holding accounts in the country. The decision means the Swiss have joined Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino in imposing withholding taxes rather than change their laws on banking secrecy.…
GM DRINKS FEATURE
BY MARK ROWE
GIVEN the level of public concern over genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in what we drink and eat, most companies have chosen to tread warily around the issue and sought not to draw attention to it. In the Swedish town of Ystad, however, a small family brewery has adopted the opposite approach.…
ITALY FRAUD
BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHARGES have been laid against alleged fraudsters in an Italy-based cigarette smuggling scam costing European treasuries Euro 31.6 million in evaded duties. The public prosecutor of Asti, Italy, released details of the alleged con, involving 287,884 kg of cigarettes being smuggled accompanied by forged customs stamps being presented to Italian customs officials.…
LEARNING ROBOTS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project is trying to develop robots that learn new skills and communication devices that can talk to each other, all without human intervention. The Euro 4.3 million ECAgents project will attempt to bridge gaps “between complex systems research and IT”, said Stefano Nolfi, from lead project partner Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies in Rome.…
OIL FOR FOOD PANEL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations has unveiled a three-member panel charged with investigating allegations of substantial corruption within its now defunct Oil for Food Programme, under which Iraq’s deposed Baathist regime sold limited supplies of crude, supposedly to fund humanitarian supplies.…
EU HEALTH CARD
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTRODUCTION of a European Union (EU) health insurance card that would guarantee medical treatment for EU citizens on temporary stays in another EU country – maybe damaging demand for commercial travel insurance – has been approved by the EU Council of Ministers.…
EU HEALTH CARD
BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITISH nurses admitting foreign patients into hospitals and clinics will have to watch out for a new European Union (EU) health insurance card that will be introduced from June, which will grant EU citizens an automatic right to care on the National Health Service.…
SWISS-EU
BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN a move to prevent the spread of farm animal disease, Switzerland and the EU have agreed to inspect each other’s livestock, if they wander over unfenced Alpine borders.…
SWISS-EU
BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN a move to prevent the spread of farm animal disease, Switzerland and the EU have agreed to inspect each other’s livestock, if they wander over unfenced Alpine borders.…
SWITZERLAND - EURATOM
BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have been asked to approve a negotiated agreement that would allow Swiss researchers to take part in Euratom funded nuclear studies, via the EU’s sixth framework programme for research. The move would amend an existing EU-Switzerland scientific and technology agreement and was negotiated this September by the European Commission and the Swiss government.…
AUDIO-VISUAL PROJECT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded project has developed a technical system to search and retrieve the increasing amount of information held in digital moving image video, still photograph or audio archives. Its coordinators say that the project will be very useful for museums and research institutes who store such material.…
GERMANY - SWITZERLAND
Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has rebuffed a Switzerland request for it to declare that night flight restrictions, imposed by Germany on planes flying across its territory towards Zurich airport, break a European Union-Swiss aviation agreement. Brussels said they were legal by applying to all air carriers.…
GERMANY - SWITZERLAND
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has rebuffed a request from Switzerland for it to declare that night flight restrictions imposed by Germany on planes flying across its territory towards Zurich airport break a European Union-Swiss aviation agreement. Instead, the Commission has ruled the noise-related rules are legal.…
GM APPROVAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is inching towards breaking its de facto ban on approving new genetically modified foodstuffs, with its standing committee on the food chain and animal health discussing whether to approve the sale of a GM sweet corn (Bt-11), which is manufactured by Swiss company Syngenta to produces its own insecticide.…
SPAIN DEAL APPROVAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has granted competition clearance to the acquisition by Spain’s Vidacaixa of Swiss Life España (SLE) from the Swiss Life Insurance and Pension Company Holding. Brussels has investigated concerns that the merged company could be too dominant in the Spanish life insurance sector, but concluded that highest possible combined market share would “not exceed 20 per cent” and that “there remains a sufficient number of strong competitors”.…
GM APPROVAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is inching towards breaking its de facto ban on approving new genetically modified foodstuffs, with its standing committee on the food chain and animal health discussing whether to approve the sale of a GM sweet corn (Bt-11), which is manufactured by Swiss company Syngenta to produces its own insecticide.…
DETAILED PIECE UZBEKISTAN MONEY LAUNDERING
BY MARK ROWE
UZBEKISTAN has been at the forefront of international AML efforts in the central Asia region, a spokesman for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) told the Money Laundering Bulletin. Uzbekistan has the most advanced AML legislation and apparatus of all the former Soviet Central Asia and has signed more than 20 bilateral and multilateral agreements on cooperation in fighting illicit drug trafficking with its Central Asian neighbours, as well as with Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and Turkey, according to the International Money Laundering Information Network (IMOLIN), (whose contributing members include the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering, the United Nations and the World Customs Organisation).…
ITALY BLACKOUT CAUSES
BY ALAN OSBORN
A FIERCE row over the blame for the electricity blackout which affected virtually the whole of Italy on September 28 has broken out between the Italian, Swiss and French governments, which may delay Rome’s moves towards liberalisation of its energy markets.…
BELGIUM STATE AID CASE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has blocked the participation of Belgium’s Wallonia regional government in a joint venture with Swiss steel specialist Duferco and France’s Usinor to produce carbon steel and alloy slabs. The new company – called Carsid SA – was to work from the Usinor Sacilor controlled Cockerill Sambre mill in Charleroi, following a 2001 closure announcement by Usinor of the plant’s hot-rolling line.…
BSE - SWITZERLAND
BY KEITH NUTHALL
REFORMS are being made to the EU-Switzerland agricultural trade agreement, to ensure Swiss regulations controlling BSE are recognised by all EU Member States, prompting the lifting of beef import restrictions by various European countries.…
EXEMPTIONS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
Utilities may not like this legislation, but EU Commissioner Frits Bolkestein is not keen either. Every Member State has secured a number of detailed exemptions from the minimum rates, prompting the Dutchman to call it a piece of legal (Swiss) Gruyere cheese.…
US ENERGY COMPANY TO SELL EUROPEAN NATURAL GAS BUSINESS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
Duke Energy Corp, a diversified US energy company based in Charlotte, is in discussions with “several potential buyers” for its European natural gas business, the company has announced. It gave no details of the possible buyers or price.…
AFGHAN UPDATE
BY MARK ROWE
THE ‘LOOTING of civilisation’ in Baghdad, with its vivid images of wanton destruction and looting inflicted upon the Iraqi national museum, was all too familiar for those who have followed events in Afghanistan. But everyone must hope the parallels stop there, for the experience of those quietly seeking to recover Afghanistan’s glorious archaeological past does not bode well for the long-term restoration of Iraq’s treasures.…
DEPLETED URANIUM
BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS AMERICAN and British military forces secure control of Iraq from the regime of dictator Saddam Hussein using the latest military technology, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has released a cautionary report confirming for the first time that depleted uranium shells can and have contaminated drinking water.…
CROSS BORDER TAX
Keith Nuthall
A MODEL tax system for construction projects that cross national borders within Europe has been devised by the European Commission for work on a new bridge spanning the Rhine between Germany and Switzerland. The Commission has proposed that standard EU VAT laws are suspended, suggesting that all relevant good and services should attract German VAT and no Swiss VAT.…
CORRUPTION PAPERS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A PHD in rocket science is not required to understand that corruption is a problem worldwide. But such a qualification – and more – would be required to devise an effective plan to fight this financial plague. The United Nations’ (UN) is drafting an international convention on corruption and asked a string of experts to write reports to illuminate some issues.…
WITHHOLDING TAX
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is moving towards a deal with Switzerland over the payment of a withholding tax to avoid releasing information about EU citizens owning Swiss bank savings accounts. It wants to protect these clients from tax demands from their home countries.…
WITHOLDING TAX
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is moving closer to a deal with Switzerland, where Berne would agree to pay Brussels a withholding tax to avoid releasing information about EU citizens owning Swiss bank savings accounts. It wants avoid exposing these clients to tax demands from their home countries.…
ORGANIC DYES - UNCTAD
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW international aid scheme – which will help fund the marketing of organic dyes made in developing countries – has been given US$2.5 million by the Swiss government. This BioTrade Facilitation Programme is to be administered by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Trade Centre, (an UNCTAD/World Trade Organisation joint venture).…
SWISS MUSEUM AWARD
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE COUNCIL of Europe has awarded its 2003 Museum Prize to the Laténium in Hauterive, Switzerland, which displays exhibits on the La Tène late Iron Age culture from central and north-western Europe. The culture is named after the nearby site on the banks of Lake Neuchâtel where its Celtic artefacts were first identified.…
WITHOLDING TAX
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is moving towards a deal with Switzerland over the payment of a withholding tax to avoid releasing information about EU citizens owning Swiss bank savings accounts. It wants avoid exposing these clients to tax demands from their home countries.…
WITHOLDING TAX
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is moving closer to a deal with Switzerland, where Berne would agree to pay Brussels a withholding tax to avoid releasing information about EU citizens owning Swiss bank savings accounts. It wants avoid exposing these clients to tax demands from their home countries.…
FISH FEATURE
BY ALAN OSBORN and MARK ROWE, in London, MONICA DOBIE and PHILIP FINE in Montreal, MATTHEW BRACE in Brisbane, and RICHARD HURST in Johannesburg
Introduction
Europe
Cuts to EU catch quotas
New sources of fish
Affect on fish producers
Wild alternatives to cod
Farmed cod
North America
USA – Healthier local stocks
USA – Demand up
USA – Fish imports
Canada – Farmed fish exports
Canada – GM issues
Australasia
Australia – New wild sources
Australia – Aquaculture
Australia – Wild fish innovation
Australia and New Zealand – sustainability
South Africa – Export increase and conservation
Japan – Local and regional supply
Japan – Maintaining quality
Japan – Non-Asian sources
Introduction
ONCE it was said, cod was so abundant that fishermen in some parts of the world boasted they could walk on the backs of the fish to find their catch.…
CELENESE & CLARIANT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has authorised the acquisition by German chemicals firm Celanese AG of the emulsions and emulsion powders business of Swiss company Clariant AG. Concluding that the deal does not raise any competition concerns within the European Union, Brussels cleared the takeover without conditions.…
LEGAL AND POLICY COMMITTEE
BY ALAN OSBORN
AS with any organisation that represents members with a common basic purpose but often with radically different approaches towards achieving it, CANSO has had some difficulty in defining its voice in the community in which it operates. Indeed it is a fairly new organisation, formally set up in 1998, and composed of leading civil air navigation service operators who until then had been used to speaking their own minds without any need to temper their opinions.…
GLOBAL WARMING
Keith Nuthall
ACCOUNTANTS should help develop standardised accounting methods to operate greenhouse gas trading systems created because of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, says a new United Nations report, co-authored by finance industry heavy hitters, such as the Dresdner Bank Prudential and Swiss Re.…
WIPO ASSEMBLY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GENERAL Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organisation has streamlined and simplified the international patent application filing system as operated under its Patent Cooperation Treaty. Delegates agreed to integrate two key processes, namely an international search looking for existing patents that might throw doubt on the uniqueness of an invention and an examination of the application itself, checking whether it is novel, involves an inventive step and can be exploited industrially.…
END OF THE WORLD
Keith Nuthall
INSURANCE companies must brace themselves for exposure to US$150 billion in liabilities from natural disasters linked to global warming, says a new United Nations report, co-authored by industry heavy hitters, such as Prudential and Swiss Re. ‘Climate Change and the Financial Services Industry’ advises the insurance industry to follow an action plan, to withstand policy payouts for floods, storms, forest-fires and other natural disasters, which it says “appear to be doubling every decade and have reached one trillion US dollars in the past 15 years.”…
SWISS ROLLS
Keith Nuthall
SWITZERLAND has failed to come up with an adequate proposal for
supplying information about savings accounts held by EU residents and may
face financial sanctions unless it complies, the EU Commissioner for the
internal market Frits Bolkestein has told EU finance ministers.…
SWISS BANKS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
SWITZERLAND has failed to come up with an adequate proposal for supplying information about tax evasion through Swiss savings accounts held by EU residents and may face financial sanctions unless it complies, the EU Commissioner for the internal market Frits Bolkestein has told EU finance ministers.…
SOUTH-EAST ASIA
BY MARK ROWE
MONEY launderers looking to process their criminal gains look favourably upon south-east Asia. Authorities in the region are under-funded and overworked, while cash-transactions are a cultural norm, making it easy to ensure that money you would prefer not to be traced can simply disappear, with little likelihood that anyone will have the time to investigate the transaction.…
AVIATION SECURITY FEATURE
BY KEITH NUTHALL AND PHILIP FINE
IN the aftermath of the September 11 tragedy, the shocking images of two planes slamming into two of the most famous buildings in the world fuelled a strong desire tighten up security systems around the world, especially in civil aviation.…
SPS COMMITTEE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
SWITZERLAND has complained to a key World Trade Organisation committee that its beef imports are being unfairly restricted by the USA because of concerns that they are contaminated with BSE. It has claimed at the WTO Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Committee that the US should not, for example, be insisting on the onsite inspection of Swiss meat plants, because the Office International des Épizooties has classified Switzerland as having a low incidence the disease.…
PROMATECH
ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared the acquisition by the Italian weaving machinery manufacturer Promatech SpA, of Sulzer Textil, the textile machinery division of the Swiss company Sulzer Ltd.
Competition approval was given after Promatech agreed to divest itself of rapier weaving machines operations in Verona in Italy and Solothurn in Switzerland.…
CITES REFORMS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A MOVE to liberalise the global trade in artificially propagated orchids has been made by the USA, which has formally proposed that six species are exempted from controls under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).…
INREON
BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared the start-up of inreon, (NOTE: all letters in lower case) an online business-to-business reinsurance trading platform set up by Swiss Re and Munich Re. The service will enable insurers to obtain bids from reinsurers on big property and catastrophic risks and conclude contracts online.…
DURBAN
BY RICHARD HURST, in Johannesburg
BIDDERS for the new international airport north of Durban South Africa have begun to stake claims in the project with interest being drawn from Swiss technology group ABB and the investment arm of Australia’s Macquarie Bank.…
SULZER INQUIRY
BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced an in-depth investigation into the proposed acquisition of the textile division of the Swiss company Sulzer by Italy’s Promatech SpA, a subsidiary of Radici, the Italian leader in the weaving machines sector. The Commission said the competition authorities of a number of EU countries had requested the probe on the grounds that the deal would create or strengthen a dominant position in the sector, (potentially harming choice) and could affect cross-border trade.…
INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION ROUND-UP
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UN Food and Agricultural Organisation and the UN Conference on Trade and Development are developing a task force helping developing countries establish administrative regimes guarantee that locally produced organic foods were made without artificial aids. UNCTAD promotes organic production as sustainable, because its labour intensity and lack of expensive chemical inputs matches poor countries’ economic realities.…
VITAMIN CARTEL
BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
THE EUROPEAN Commission has fined eight companies a total of Euro 855.22 million for participating in secret market-sharing and price-fixing cartels affecting the production of vitamins including those sold to the confectionary industry to make nutrient enriched products.…
DE PALACIO - TUNNELS
KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has called for swift political agreement on a range of draft proposals promoting the safety of both road tunnels and hauliers themselves, as a response to the latest trans-Alpine disaster at St Gothard, Switzerland.
EU transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio has called for “concerted action” between the EU and the Swiss government, implementing initiatives “with vigour and as rapidly as possible.”…
CARTEL FINES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has fined eight companies a total of Euro 855.22 million for participating in secret market-sharing and price-fixing cartels affecting the production of vitamins including those sold to the cosmetics industry. There were eight cartels, said the Commission, operating between 1989 and 1999.…
CHEMICAL COMPANIES FINED OVER MARKET SHARING ALLEGATIONS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
Six chemical companies have been fined a total of 57.53 million euros (about pounds 34.5 million) by the European Commission for price-fixing and market-sharing in respect of sodium gluconate, a chemical mainly used to clean metal and glass.…
DROIT DE SUITE
BY ALAN OSBORN AND KEITH NUTHALL
HOW will Britain’s museums be affected now that the UK is about to fall into line with other European countries and introduce a so-called droit de suite (NOTE: in italics), giving artists the right to a percentage of the price when their works are re-sold?…
ENGINE MANAGEMENT
BY KATE REW
A NEW engine management control system, which for the first time uses cylinder pressure sensors, has been successfully demonstrated by a consortium led by UK engineering consulting company, Ricardo, with the collaboration of DaimlerChrysler and a high-tech Swiss company, Kistler.…
TRIPS COUNCIL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
OFFICIALS at the World Trade Organisation have been asked to draw up a detailed report on how the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, (TRIPs), should be amended to take account of e-commerce.
The proposal was tabled by the Switzerland at last week’s meeting of the WTO’s TRIPs Council.…
TRIPS COUNCIL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
OFFICIALS at the World Trade Organisation have been asked to draw up a detailed report on how the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, (TRIPs), should be amended to take account of e-commerce.
The proposal was tabled by the Swiss government at last week’s meeting of the WTO’s TRIPs Council.…
ANTI-COUNTERFEITING GUIDE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Chamber of Commerce has released an anti-counterfeiting guide, describing the wide range of options that companies can take, when trying to protect products and packaging against counterfeiters, especially by using specialist inks and dyes.
These include overt and covert methods, about which the guide gives practical advice to companies as to which to employ in a particular situation.…