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.
TRIPS NEGOTIATIONS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
DRINKS industry lobbyists are waiting for the imminent release of a draft proposal to create a deal at the World Trade Organisation over a geographical indication register for traditionally made wines and spirits. WTO members have long tried to bridge the gap between the USA, which wants a powerless register for guidance on protected terms and the EU, which wants registration to grant compulsory worldwide protection.…
RUSSIA CULL
BY MARK ROWE
RUSSIA has ordered its farmers to destroy almost 90,000 chicks it fears comes from the Netherlands because of the avian-flu outbreak in that country. The virus was founding in imported Dutch hatching eggs in two towns south of Moscow and the Russian agriculture ministry has asked European veterinary services to provide additional safety guarantees about egg and chick exports.…
WTO TALKS TIMETABLE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
COUNTRIES who failed to agree a set of binding ‘modalities’ targets for the ongoing World Trade Organisation agricultural talks have backed a timetable of meetings to try and secure a deal by September. They backed a plan proposed by talks chairman Stuart Harbinson to “organise technical and other consultations in order to facilitate progress on all fronts.”…
THAILAND - WTO
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE THAI government has launched disputes proceedings at the World Trade Organisation over the reclassification of European Union’s customs coding for frozen boneless salted chicken cuts. In the past, they were classified as salted meat (duty rate15.4 per cent), now they are classed as frozen chicken at the higher duty of Euro102.4 per 100 kg.…
ESTONIA PORK
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ESTONIAN government has launched an inquiry that is expected to lead it to impose temporary safeguard duties on pigmeat imports. The Baltic republic told the World Trade Organisation it was concerned about the effect on domestic producers of a rise in imports of fresh, frozen or chilled carcasses, half carcasses, hams, shoulders and other cuts.…
SWINE FEVER
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has given the go ahead for the EU’s Community Reference Laboratory to evaluate a new classical swine fever discriminatory test, enabling pigs with a swine fever vaccine to be distinguished from those with the disease.…
FEED CONTROLS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A WIDE-RANGING European Union regulation on improving health controls on the production, transportation and consumption of animal feed has been proposed by the European Commission. It urges a wide application of HACCP principles (hazard analysis and critical control points) in feed manufacture and use.…
STEERING COMMITTEE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s Scientific Steering Committee – the body offering the European Commission expert advice on food safety issues – has held its final meeting, six years after its creation. Its functions are to be taken over by the new European Food Safety Authority.…
POLES V CZECHS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE POLISH government is launching a disputes case at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), complaining about the Czech Republic’s imposition of 50 per cent additional duties on Polish pig-meat exports. Poland says that the duty is illegally discriminatory, as they have not been imposed on imports from other countries.…
EASTERN EUROPE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is granting 512 meat processing establishments in six eastern European countries additional time to bring their health standards in line with European Union law once their home states join the EU next May.
A memorandum released by the European Commission’s enlargement directorate general, says that 332 of these operations are in Poland, where the deadline for compliance has been extended to December 2007; 14 establishments in Lithuania have until January 2007.…