Archive

Keith Nuthall
THE INTERNATIONAL Chamber of Commerce (ICC) is fighting a legal decision it fears could make United States courts de facto global anti-trust regulators, even in cases with no direct impact on the USA. It has asked the US Supreme Court to overturn a DC Court of Appeals ruling allowing non-US plaintiffs to bring foreign anti-trust claims to American courts claiming a case might have a “direct, substantial, and reasonably foreseeable effect on US domestic or foreign commerce.”…

Keith Nuthall
AN INTERNET public consultation has been launched by the European Commission into a planned directive on the transfer of a company’s registered office from one European Union (EU) country to another. The draft directive is designed to free companies from having to liquidate themselves and create a fresh company in the new host state.…

Keith Nuthall
BELEAGURED European Union (EU) anti-fraud unit OLAF is to come under further pressure this year, being audited by the EU’s financial watchdog the Court of Auditors. Its president Juan Manuel Fabra Vallés told the European Parliament that the probe would be a key priority for this year and would examine OLAF’s “efficiency and effectiveness.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, in Paris
THE WORLD’S premier anti-money laundering operation has released a detailed report detailing how corrupt accountants are increasingly using their expertise to help criminals clean dirty money. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says that accountants are not only advising criminals on money laundering, but arranging paperwork and even conducting illicit transactions themselves.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission is to investigate alleged increased shipments of farmed Atlantic salmon into the European Union (EU) to see if temporary protective safeguard duties should be erected. The probe follows complaints by Britain and Ireland who said imports of farmed salmon, mainly from Norway, and to a lesser extent from the Faeroe Islands and Chile, had increased by 14.7 per cent in January-September 2003 compared to the same period in 2002.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s environment committee has proposed tightening tabled regulations allowing the use of intelligent packaging within the European Union, that can alert consumers about freshness via chemical reactions within materials in contact with food. MEPs suggested amendments toughening rules on market approvals for this packaging, improving labelling and boosting the traceability of affected products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) is concerned that countries hit by the recent bird-flu outbreak are preparing to restock flocks before proving the virus has been eradicated by tests. The FAO said without these precautions, the disease might “flare up again”, noting that some Asian countries were already preparing to declare flu-free zones.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE US government has released further details of its free trade agreement with Morocco. Processed poultry will gain immediate duty free access to Morocco, while lower tariff quotas have been opened for US fresh beef and poultry, to be expanded in the next few years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NEW European Union (EU) guidelines on using animal wastes (uncontaminated with BSE) as organic fertilisers should be drawn up by the European Commission, the European Food Safety Authority scientific panel on biological hazards has said. There should also be further research into the disappearance over time of bacteria and viruses contained in this fertiliser, it advised.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed formal safeguard duties on EU imports of certain preserved citrus fruits – such as mandarins, tangerines and satsumas – of Euro 301 per tonne above set annual quotas, (of 31,420 for 2004). Brussels blames an import boom, damaging EU producers.…