Search Results for: World Trade Organisation

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has suggested the creation of a ‘Made in Europe’ label to promote the sale of quality European clothing competing against cheap imports from developing countries. Part of a grand plan to boost the European Union clothing and textile industry, a label could offer consumers a “guarantee of high environmental and social standards” in clothes production, said EU trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy.…

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.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE 19th century saw imperial rivalry create the “Great Game”, when Russia and the British Empire tweaked one another’s tails in the region that following Russia’s Bolshevik revolution became known as Soviet Central Asia. The old Great Game was tied to control of India, and to gems and gold.…

BY RICHARD HURST
MOZAMBIQUE President Joachim Chissano has announced that his country would begin initiating steps to become involved in the downstream activities of aluminium production. Speaking at the inauguration of the Mozal II project in Maputo on Thursday (9-10), Chissano revealed that his government had been engaged in talks with various investors to fund aluminium-manufacturing facilities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked European Union (EU) ministers to freeze Ukraine steel makers’ market access for 2004 at this year’s level, while negotiations continue to agree a comprehensive ferrous products trade deal. These have been (and still are) hampered by the Ukraine’s levying of a Euro 30 per tonne tax on ferrous scrap exports, which the Commission opposes, along with the Ukraine government’s refusal to reimburse VAT to local ferrous scrap dealers.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON
WHAT price safety? Ports and shippers racing to comply with an extremely tight deadline to meet the new International Marine Organisation security requirements are still not sure what the final bill will be. However, with the newly added SOLAS (safety of life at sea convention) special measures and the also new International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) code due to come into effect on 1 July 2004, those who are not already well down the line to meeting the requirements will find the costs rising sharply as demand for security services steps up.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CURRENT European Commission leadership, under Italy’s Romano Prodi, was supposed to be the clean-hands team, ridding the institution of the corruption and mismanagement that thrived under his predecessor Jacques Santer. The ongoing Eurostat scandal is undermining that reputation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally threatened Sweden with legal action at the European Court of Justice over a ban on its residents ordering private deliveries of alcohol via independent import delivery services. Under Swedish law, private individuals can, under certain conditions, bring alcohol into Sweden for their own use, if they do so personally.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A POLITICAL battle is brewing between the European Union (EU) insurance industry and the European Parliament over a safety net law defining the minimum cover that must be offered by insurers selling compulsory motoring policies, which are required by national laws.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally threatened Sweden with legal action at the European Court of Justice over a ban on its residents ordering private deliveries of alcohol via independent import delivery services. Under Swedish law, private individuals can, under certain conditions, bring alcohol into Sweden for their own use, if they do so personally.…