Archive
International News Services archives articles supplied to clients one year or more after initial publication. These articles are protected by a password and not made available to readers without permission from clients. They are used as a background resource by agency journalists. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.
WAGES STUDY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
FOR a truly well-paid metalworking job – go to Romania, my son. That would appear to be the message of recent collective pay award statistics released by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, (an EU agency).…
EU CHEMICAL CONTROLS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed the potentially toxic solvent toluene should not be used to make spray paints, where its concentration is 0.1 per cent or more by mass. If the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers agrees, these spray paints could not be used or sold in the EU.…
GRAPHITE ELECTRODE CARTEL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice’s Court of First Instance has cut by Euro 153 million the fines previously imposed by the European Commission on eight American, German and Japanese companies for operating an international cartel in the graphite electrode sector.…
COLLECTING SOCIETIES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
PUBLISHERS have been warned they could lose control of fees they charge for library and other licensed reproductions of their works if the European Commission pursues plans to frame European Union (EU) legislation on collecting societies. Britain’s Publishers Licensing Society has broadly welcomed the proposals as improving transparency across the EU, but says booksellers will have to scrutinise the detail of any forthcoming legislation for common rules on royalties.…
CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
RETAILERS should be able to negotiate cheaper bank charges for handling foreign credit card transactions, the European Commission has claimed, after its pressure helped push VISA and Master Card Europe into publishing fees for such purchases. Until now, their complex formulas have been kept under wraps.…
ATC PHASE OUT ATTACK
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States, European Union, and other textile importers have been attacked for delaying restrictive quota abolition under the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Textile and Clothing. The International Textiles and Clothing Bureau (ITCB) of exporting countries said “the large bulk of quotas” would disappear on the agreement’s January 1, 2005, final deadline.…
IMF - MIDDLE EAST
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) will establish this year a Middle East Regional Technical Assistance Centre in Beirut, Lebanon, to provide macroeconomic and financial management training to Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Syria, West Bank and Gaza, and Yemen.…
IFC - BUSES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation of the World Bank is making its first investment in the bus sector, investing US$20 million in Mexico’s Inversionistas en Autotransportes Mexicanos S.A. de C.V. (IAMSA), supporting a US$369 million fleet renovation and acquisition programme.…
US - AGOA
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States Trade Representative has claimed more than 95 per cent of US imports from sub-Saharan African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) eligible countries now enter America duty free. Exports rose by 55 per cent to US$14 billion from 2002 to 2003, mainly through higher oil sales.…
BIO RESOURCES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ZERO Emissions Research Initiative – helping Africa sustainably exploit local biological resources – is examining using ganoderma mushrooms as medicines, possibly for HIV/AIDS. It is also considering exports of Termitomyces titanicus, the world’s largest edible umbrella mushroom and the Congo basin’s edible goliath frog.…