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.
BRAZIL - IFC
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank is lending US$30 million to Brazilian footwear producer Sao Paulo Alpargatas S.A. (SPASA), to finance its on-going investment programme, modernising production facilities and increasing capacity. The company has been identified by the IFC as a company that would effectively use such finance; since 1997, it has improved performance and market position by upgrading product quality and lowering costs, notably through new manufacturing technologies and relocating production facilities to the impoverished north-east of Brazil, an area which the World Bank wants to help develop.…
SRI LANKA PRICES
BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA, in Columbo
THE SRI Lankan government is preparing to impose a minimum price floor on shoe imports of US$5 per pair, say Columbo press reports. Officials are also discussing limits on the amount of shoes that can be imported into the country in personal baggage.…
SKECHERS - INDIA
BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
SKECHERS – the Californian footwear brand promoted by pop icon Britney Spears – is launching two new lines in the Indian market, consolidating a patchy local portfolio: Skechers Retros, (trainers) and Skechers 4 Wheelers, (skateboard shoes). The brand has an exclusive distribution tie-up with speciality retailing store Planet Sports, in Delhi, Mumbai (Bombay), Pune, Hyderabad and elsewhere.…
CAPROLACTAM
BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has ordered a reduction in the state aid proposed by the German government to help the company Capro Schwedt to build a new plant for the production of caprolactam, the main input material for the production of synthetic fibres.…
CITES MEETING
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A RESTRICTED trade in cloth from wool culled from captured wild vicuna in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile has been approved by a conference of parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).…
BRAZIL
BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Union is to remove all textile import quotas applied to Brazil under a
Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two sides this month (November). In return, Brazil will respect maximum tariff levels, refrain from applying non-tariff barriers to EU exports, and discontinue the application of an additional tax on textile and clothing imports.…
INDIA POLYESTER
Keith Nuthall
EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have been asked to approve definitive anti-dumping and countervailing duties for Indian exports of polyester textured filament yarn into Europe, after European Commission investigations concluded that under-priced consignments were damaging EU producers.
Brussels has formally proposed that Indian exports are saddled with a 7.9% anti-dumping duty, with lower duties being levied on products from companies that cooperated with Commission inquiries into the problem.…
INDIA BED LINEN
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is toasting a victory over India at the World Trade Organisation in the long-running bed-linen anti-dumping duties case; a disputes panel rejected India’s claims that the EU had failed to implement an order made last year by another panel that it should reform its protection against Indian linen.…
DEWAN SALMAN
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation of the World Bank is to invest US$35 million in Pakistan’s Dewan Salman Fibre Ltd, the largest producer of polyester staple fibre in the country. The money – a senior loan of US$30 million, a convertible loan of US$4 million, and a US$1million participation in a convertible preferred stock issue – will help the company expand its polyester staple fibre capacity by adding a specialty fibre line of 20,000 tonnes per annum, refinancing debt, and funding its need for permanent working capital.…
BOLKESTEIN SPEECH
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) commissioner has called on EU governments to reconsider the phasing out of nuclear energy, which he says has been approved on the basis of “the moral high ground and….of often unjustified emotions.”
Internal market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein (CORRECT SPELLING) said that technological advances were tackling the environmental difficulties surrounding nuclear energy and although problems still exist, “they do not justify the total phasing out of nuclear energy now carried out by a number of Member States.”…