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.
WHO FRAMEWORK CONVENTION
BY ALAN OSBORN
AFTER four years of negotiation a binding international tobacco control treaty has been agreed by the 171 member states of the World Health Organisation. The final, and acrimonious, round of talks on a text for the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) ended on February 28.…
IRISH CIGARETTE BAN
BY MONICA DOBIE
IRELAND will ban smoking in all public places including pubs and restaurants from January 2004 onwards. The announcement came as Ireland’s Office of Tobacco Control released a study which found that people who work in smoky environments are up to 30 per cent more likely to develop heart disease and cancer because of passive smoking.…
BRAZIL-USA - WTO
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States has delayed the establishment of a disputes panel at the World Trade Organisation over Brazil’s complaint about American government subsidies to producers, users and exporters of upland cotton. Washington formally opposed Brazil’s bid to create a panel at a meeting of the WTO disputes settlement body, forcing the Brazilians to make a second application, if they want the case to go ahead.…
LOTUS EFFECT
BY JONATHAN THOMSON
SCIENTISTS have developed a spray that allows surfaces to become self-cleaning. German chemical company BASF is working on the coating to stop dirt clinging to leather, textiles and paper. The spray is based around the “lotus effect” – water on lotus leaves form beads which simply roll off.…
EU REGULATION SHAKE-UP
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has approved some wide-ranging reforms to EU textile trade regulations – noted last year by Textile Month – covering the import of samples and the imposition of possible safeguard duties on Chinese imports.…
VIETNAM AGREEMENT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission and Vietnam have struck a new textile and clothing trade deal which would give the south east Asian country increases in European Union (EU) textile and clothing quotas worth Euro 200 million a year. In return, the Vietnam government has pledged significant tariff reductions in the sectors, along with other liberalisation commitments.…
SPANISH STATE AID
BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has ordered the Spanish government to reclaim Euro 104 million, (about Pounds 64.5 million), from the troubled textile company Hilados y Tejidos Puigneró. The Barcelona-based company, which produces yarns, fabrics and finished textile products, ran into debt in the 1990’s and the Spanish authorities were unable to recover money owed to them.…
SPAIN REPAYMENT
Keith Nuthall
Spain has been ordered to repay 21 million euros (about pounds 13.6
million) of EU aid in respect of “serious deficiencies in the
administration and control of the aid for flax and hemp production.”
Omissions by the Spanish authorities “led to an exceptionally high risk
for the EU budget,” said farm Commissioner Franz Fischler.…
INDIA BED-LINEN AGAIN
BY KEITH NUTHALL
JUST as a punch-drunk boxer cannot resist another slug in the ring, the Indian government is refusing to throw in the towel in its interminably long World Trade Organisation dispute with the European Union over Brussels’ anti-dumping duties on bed-linen from India.…
SRI LANKA SHOE CENTRE
BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA, in Columbo
THE SRI Lanka government wants to set up a SLRupees 1.5 billion (US$15.48 million) footwear manufacturing centre at Homagama, near the capital Columbo, bringing 150 shoe factories and workshops together, with the aim of boosting cooperation and developing products for the export market.…