Archive

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE FORMER European Commissioner Edith Cresson, who was also once the prime minister of France, has been formally charged with corruption by a Belgian judicial body headed by magistrate Jean-Claude Van Espen. The charge of “counterfeiting and benefiting from professional contracts” arises from Mme Cresson’s activities during her spell as the EU’s education commissioner between 1995 and 1999.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Parliament now seems almost certain to refuse to rubber stamp the books for the EU’s Pounds 65 billion budget ()for 2001 next month (April) following new disclosures in the row over revelations of serious weaknesses in the European Commission’s accounting procedures by its former chief accountant Marta Andreason.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE MEXICAN government is has launched formal disputes talks at the World Trade Organisation, over claims that the United States’ reimposition of anti-dumping duties on its exports of ‘oil country tubular goods’ broke global trading regulations. Mexico City says Washington’s erred during its 2001 sunset review of the duties, assessing whether abolition might attract cut-priced Mexican pipelines.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has decided not to seek a renewal of anti-dumping duties on farmed Atlantic salmon from Norway which are due to expire this month (April) and has decided against imposing similar duties on farmed salmon from the Faroes and Chile.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UN Food and Agricultural Organisation has released a series of papers on genetically modified food, with a memorandum on fish highlighting the significant commercial opportunities to fish farmers, but also the potential dire environmental after effects of escapes by GM fish.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL initiative has been launched that will boost the quality of processed fish products from developing countries, to ease the health and safety difficulties that they encounter when exporting to richer countries. This Aquatic Food Product Initiative (AFPI) has set up an interactive Internet portal to supply the latest fish product safety information to boost training and best practice.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EU Council of Ministers has exempted three Norwegian companies from the EU anti-dumping and countervailing duties imposed on farmed Norway salmon, agreeing that they are new exporters untainted by dumping. They are Vestmar, Gaia Seafood and Polar Quality.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WORLD Trade Organisation member countries last week failed to agree liberalisation targets for the WTO’s three-years-old agricultural talks. Member countries had until March 31 to approve so-called modalities, binding global targets for cutting tariffs, quotas and subsidies, which would be realised in detailed bilateral horsetrading over the next two years.…

BY MARK ROWE
INTERPOL has agreed to a request from Russian authorities to help locate the missing vodka magnate Yury Shefler, wanted by Russian prosecutors in connection with allegations of threatening to kill a government official.

A spokesman for the organisation’s Moscow bureau confirmed that Interpol offices across Western Europe were now liaising in the search for SPI Group owner Shefler.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development is planning to lend Euro 12.5 million to Serbia & Montenegro fruit juice company fresh&Co. The loan will help the company strengthen its brands and its distribution networks. A bank memorandum said that the loan would enable the company to “provide a good example to other local food companies and retailers of good practice in distribution,” adding it would “also contribute to continued improvement of quality and availability of fruit juices in the market.”…