Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PEPSICO’S Quaker Foods and pharmaceutical giant Novartis have scrapped a two-year American joint venture called Altus Foods, that was planning to develop several foods with special nutritional benefits.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has hailed the entry into force of the first set of the European Union’s new so-called farm-to-fork food legislation that will underpin the work of the new European Food Safety Authority. The new laws include the start of the reinforced rapid alert system for feed and food risks, involving obligatory notification of any direct or indirect risk to human health, animal health or the environment to an network linking national authorities, the EFSA and the European Commission;

*New emergency powers for the European Commission to suspend or control sales when a feed or food constitute a serious health risk and where a national government cannot control the situation acting alone or where non-EU food is involved.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CLASSICAL swine fever has been detected at three locations in Luxembourg and the export of all live pigs and porcine semen, ova and embryos, as well as the shipment of pigs through the tiny country, has been banned by the European commission.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A JAM factory will be opened by the Chunnakam Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society near Jaffna, Sri Lanka, the first food plant launched in this contested region since government forces regained control from the Tamil Tigers in 1996.…

BY RICHARD HURST
SOUTH African exporters of low value items, notably steel and coal, are reported to be negotiating with the National Ports Authority (NPA) for reductions in the cargo dues that have resulted from recent tariff increases. Steel maker Iscor’s corporate affairs executive Phaldie Kalam said that it was concerned that they would still be paying more, despite the relief offered by the NPA.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CZECH Republic has launched an investigation into concerns about increases in imports of certain welded tubes and pipes, of iron or non-alloy steel and of circular or non-circular cross-section, which it claims are damaging its producer industry to such an extent that temporary safeguard duties may have to be imposed.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
A SRI Lankan metal company is to try and exploit the advantages of the Indo-Lankan Free Trade Agreement by exporting its aluminium extrusions to the south Indian cities of Madras, Bangalore, Trivandrum and Cochin.

Lanka Aluminium Industries Ltd is planning to team up with Jindal Aluminium, of India, in its bid to move out its small domestic market.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CHILEAN government has expanded the safeguard duty investigation on steel imports that it launched in December, so it can take into account the chain of events sparked by the Bush administration’s imposition of wide-ranging steel tariffs.

In a statement to the World Trade Organisation, Santiago said that the decision was taken “on the basis of the emergency measures adopted in recent weeks by a group of producer countries, the implications of which on the domestic industry can not yet be fully appreciated.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
Coils, hot-rolled, pickled, classified under tariff heading 7208.2600; 2) Coils, hot-rolled, pickled, classified under tariff heading 7208.2700, of a thickness of 1.8 mm or more and a width of 1070 mm or less; 3) Coils, hot-rolled, classified under tariff heading 7208.3600, of a thickness of up to 12 mm; 4) Coils, hot-rolled, classified under tariff heading 7208.3700, of a width of 1070 mm or less; 5) Coils and sheets, hot-rolled, classified under tariff headings 7208.3800 and 7208.5300, respectively; 6) Coils and sheets, hot-rolled, classified under tariff headings 7208.3900 and 7208.5400, respectively, of a thickness of 1.8 mm or more; 7) Coils and sheets, cold-rolled (cold-reduced), classified under tariff headings 7209.1600 and 7209.2600, respectively, of a thickness of up to 1.9 mm; 8) Coils and sheets, cold-rolled (cold-reduced), classified under tariff headings 7209.1700 and 7209.2700, respectively; 9) Coils and sheets, cold-rolled (cold-reduced), classified under tariff headings 7209.1800 and 7209.2800 respectively, of a thickness of 0.35 mm or more; 10) Flat-rolled products, plated or coated with tin, in coils or sheets, classified under tariff heading 7210.1200, of a thickness of between 0.18 mm and 0.35 mm; 11) Flat-rolled products, plated or coated with aluminium-zinc alloys, in coils or sheets, classified under tariff heading 7210.6100, of a thickness of between 0.35 mm and 0.80 mm and a width of 1000 mm or less; 12) Milling bars and rods, classified under tariff heading 7228.3000, measuring between 25.4 mm and 101.6 mm in diameter; 13) Concrete-reinforcing bars and rods, classified under tariff headings 7213.1000 and 7214.2000 respectively, measuring between 8 mm and 36 mm in diameter; 14) Bars and rods, classified under tariff headings 7213.9110, 7213.9120 and 7213.9190, measuring 5.5 mm or more in diameter; 15) Bars and rods of rectangular (other than square) cross-section, classified under tariff heading 7214.9100, of a thickness of between 3 mm and 12 mm; 16) Other bars and rods other than of rectangular cross-section, classified under tariff heading 7214.9900: of circular cross-section, measuring between 6 mm and 38 mm in diameter; of square cross-section, with sides measuring between 10 mm and 25 mm; of hexagonal cross-section, the distance between the faces measuring from 19 mm to 31.8 mm; bars and rods with concave grooves in the faces and rounded edges (“star-shaped” cross-section) and sides measuring between 10.5 mm and 12.5 mm; 17) L sections, classified under tariff heading 7216.2100, of a height of between 20 mm and 65 mm; and 18) L sections, classified under tariff heading 7216.4000, of a height of 80 mm.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared a scheme to set up a new company specialising in the processing of hot-rolled flat steel products in the Netherlands.

The new venture to be know as Metalix, has been formed by IHC (a subsidiary of the IHC Caland Group) and ODS (a subsidiary of Klöckner & Co.…