Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States and Australia have struck a free trade deal that will ease access into the US market for Australian wool exporters. A note from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said: “For our wool industry, an industry priority of zero tariff for greasy wool, a premier Australian export industry, will be achieved within four years, and for other wool items within 10 years.”…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Brisbane
THE AUSTRALIAN footwear industry is cautious about the new Australia-US Free Trade Agreement. Almost all lines will immediately be tariff-free if the deal is ratified, with 17 products losing tariffs over the next decade. The industry has not yet received the final list of products affected, however.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE
AN INDIAN-Italian sole-making joint venture is doubling its production. Suolificio Chennai (Madras), linking India’s Forward Shoes with Italy’s sole maker Suolificio Malaspina, was set up in 2001 to produce 500,000 pairs of soles; it doubled its capacity last year and plans to do so again this year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched its first stranded costs inquiry into the energy sector of an eastern European country joining the European Union (EU) in May. Brussels thinks subsidies paid to Polish power operators by Poland’s government, compensating for the cancellation of long-term supply agreements with the Polish Power Grid Company, could break EU state aid rules.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is to redraft its controversial proposals on nuclear safety, radioactive waste and Euratom spending, after accepting that a blocking minority opposed to the plans exists at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers. The move will – claim opponents – buy the Commission time, allowing it to release fresh proposals in April, one month before 10 new member countries join the EU, many from nuclear power states from eastern Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has called for a moratorium on new pollution control proposals from the European Commission, claiming that national governments have quite enough new European legislation to absorb and administer anyway. Overwhelmingly backing a non-binding report on the Commission’s recent policy paper on integrated pollution prevention and control, MEPs called on the Commission and ministers “not to supplement or expand the relevant legislation at present.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) electricity federation Eurelectric has called for the creation of a pan-EU market for renewable energy, that avoids relying on long-term subsidies such as grid feed-in laws, used in countries such as Germany.

The group has released a report warning that if the EU’s renewable energy directive’s 2010 targets on production and consumption are met, “a very substantial level of expenditure will result if the existing direct support schemes continue.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SUBSTANTIAL Euro 300 million loan could be paid to Italy’s Eni by the European Investment Bank (EIB) to significantly boost the country’s Adriatic and Ionian Sea natural gas production. The planned investment would help Eni drill and work 85 wells, involving the installation of eight new platforms and about 125 km of sub-sea pipelines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INVESTMENTS in the waste water systems of the Spanish Basque province of Guipuzcoa that are likely to be supported by the European Investment Bank (EIB) should also positively benefit the environmental health of water supplies in France’s Basque country.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has drawn up plans to lend Bulgaria Euro 35 million to install flue gas desulphurisation plants and other clean-up technologies at the 1,450 MW lignite-fired Maritza East 2 power plant.…