Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union has initiated formal talks – the first stage of disputes proceedings at the World Trade Organisation – over import restrictions imposed by the Indian government on a range or products including penicillin, its salts, and derivatives, rifampicin, streptomycins or their derivatives, and first aid boxes or kits.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union funded research project has identified four strains of lactobacilli that could help treat intestinal inflammations and infections. The DEPROHEALTH scheme has received Euro1.4 million in Brussels money; its aim is to develop oral probiotic bacteria vaccines to counter conditions such as rotavirus, which causes infant diarrhoea, and Chrohn’s disease.…

BY MARK ROWE
For the majority of Hong Kongers, Christmas comes a poor second to the Chinese New Year in terms of present buying – with a corresponding knock-on effect for book retailers. But even allowing for this, retailers have reported disappointing levels of sales over the Christmas period.…

BY MARK ROWE
Book sales in Singapore for the Christmas period remained buoyant for larger retailers, defying the city state’s generally dismal retail climate.

Kinokuniya, one of the biggest retailers, pushed an aggressive holiday advertising and promotion campaign that helped it achieve almost 10 per cent growth for the year.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
INDEPENDENT Canadian booksellers were rescued from what could have been a poor Christmas season, by shoppers who bought cheaper paperbacks according to the Canadian Booksellers Association.

The group reported that sales of hardback fiction and other expensive books were slow this year.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE CHROMATE-BASED azo dye known widely as “navy blue,” which is used to colour textile and leather products, is to be banned in the 15 European Union countries from June 2004. The European Commission said the chemical, a mixture of disodium and trisodium, will join a list of azo dyes already proscribed or due to be outlawed later in the year under an amendment of the EU’s chemicals marketing and use directive adopted last year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW international aid scheme – which will help fund the marketing of organic dyes made in developing countries – has been given US$2.5 million by the Swiss government. This BioTrade Facilitation Programme is to be administered by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Trade Centre, (an UNCTAD/World Trade Organisation joint venture).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CHROMATE-BASED azo dye known popularly as “navy blue” is to be banned from use throughout the 15 European Union countries from June 2004, the European Commission has announced. The dye, a mixture of disodium and trisodium, is one of the most widely used in the leather industry but the ban will come as little surprise given the growing weight of scientific evidence that it is poisonous to aquatic life, particularly fish.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SPANISH government is seeking to head off a move at the European Parliament to persuade the European Commission that Spain’s ambitious national hydrological plan breaks European Union (EU) environmental legislation and so should not be eligible for funding from Brussels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank is planning to provide Italy’s EniPower with a substantial Euro 400 million loan to help design, construct and operate a series of combined cycle gas turbines which would provide electricity to Italy’s national grid and stream to associated industrial sites.…