Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN, MONICA DOBIE AND PHILIP FINE

IF there is one striking characteristic about Washington’s Bush Administration, it must be its almost unprecedented ability to infuriate the entire world with its unilateralism, especially its self-serving trade policies.

For years, the US government has actually played Mary Poppins on food production subsidies, claiming that its handouts do not encourage farmers to overproduce when prices are low.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE US Senate has introduced legislation to reduce obesity, particularly among American children and adolescents. If passed, the US$215 million Improved Nutrition and Physical Activity Act would take on the ‘significant problems associated with obesity,’ mostly by funding measures to encourage better nutrition and more physical activity; this includes federal funding for research and information campaigns.…

BY PHILIP FINE

AMERICAN dyers and finishers are celebrating after the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act was amended by US House of Representatives to clarify the definition of US fabric bought by Caribbean clothing manufacturers wishing to take advantage of the law’s preferential trade terms.…

BY PHILIP FINE

The US Justice Department, on behalf of the country’s Internal Revenue Service, has filed suit against the US member companies of KPMG and BDO International. It says the accounting firms failed to provide the government with key tax shelter information.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EU Council of Ministers has postponed for two months the implementation of duties retaliating against the US’ controversial safeguard duties on steel. Ministers will now decide on September 30 whether to install the duties, after Washington removed some steel tariffs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Trade Organisation’s general council has been asked to approve global trading laws stating that unbleached or pre-bleached fabrics must be subject to permanent dying or printing, with at least two preparatory or finishing operations, to be considered a new product under global rules of origin legislation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A STAY of execution has been granted to American knitwear exporters, after the European Union Council of Ministers decided it would postpone the implementation of a first round of protective duties, erected in retaliation to the US’ controversial safeguard duties on steel.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Trade Organisation’s general council has been asked to approve global trading regulations stating that where shapes and parts previously knitted or crocheted into shape are assembled into clothing, they should generally be considered a new product.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved a scheme for the development of the natural gas infrastructure in Northern Ireland that will mean supplies from the Republic of Ireland being pumped into the north for the first time. The Commission said that eventually the infrastructure may be extended to north-westerly regions of Ireland, such as Donegal, which are not currently served by natural gas and it therefore “takes a big step towards the development of an all-island natural gas infrastructure.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A BID by Northumbrian Water to comply with the European Union’s revised drinking water and urban wastewater treatment directives could net the utility up to Pounds 100 million in loans from the European Investment Bank. Its officials are considering funding a number of water supply and wastewater schemes throughout Northumbrian’s northern England service area.…