Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union has agreed to exempt Poland until 2009 from new rules setting higher levels of minimum excise rates on cigarettes when it becomes a Member State, maybe in 2004. A current proposal would raise the minimum threshold to Euro 60 per 1,000 cigarettes from July, maybe doubling cigarette prices in Poland, damaging legitimate sales and reducing tax revenues.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A DATABASE providing information about workplace smoking issues has been set up by the International Labour Organisation. It includes descriptions of relevant legislation, journal articles, books, government documents, reports, kits, case law, training materials, and analysis, including notes on productivity costs caused by tobacco usage.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE SASKATCHEWAN provincial government in Canada has recently passed a restrictive act that prohibits the advertising and displaying of tobacco products in retail outlets where people under the age of eighteen are allowed on the premises.

Shopkeepers are forced to hide cigarettes from patrons by enclosing them in non- transparent cabinets, behind curtains or blinds or selling them from under the counter.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE CRUCIAL question of whether the European Commission’s new proposed directive on tobacco advertising will stand up legally is still unclear after a hearing on the subject in the European Parliament. Last year the measure was rejected on the grounds that it attempted to set health policy, an area where the EU has no constitutional role.…

BY RICHARD HURST, in Johannesburg
TROUBLED South African textile company Mooi-River Textiles, based in KwaZulu Natal, may remain open, despite concerns of imminent closure. The announcement follows a report that the company would be reopening talks with the South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union to save the business’s 140 jobs.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced an in-depth investigation into the proposed acquisition of the textile division of the Swiss company Sulzer by Italy’s Promatech SpA, a subsidiary of Radici, the Italian leader in the weaving machines sector. The Commission said the competition authorities of a number of EU countries had requested the probe on the grounds that the deal would create or strengthen a dominant position in the sector, (potentially harming choice) and could affect cross-border trade.…

Keith Nuthall
TEXTILE imports from the United States will carry retaliatory tariffs imposed by the European Union because of the erection of controversial ‘safeguard’ duties by Washington to protect the American steel industry.

The European Commission is asking EU ministers to approve duties on a selected range of products.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has ordered Belgian synthetic fibres conglomerate Beaulieu to repay Euro 2.8 million owing to the regional government of Wallonia. It had tried to settle a BEF 113 million debt by handing over 9,704 shares in the Verlipack II company.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHINA has delivered a promise to publish liberalised import quotas in April fulfilling its commitments under the WTO’s Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, including clothing and textile lines accounting for 51 per cent of its total 1992 imports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHINA has been rapped for delaying the establishment of import quotas allowing European Union clothing exporters to sell into this huge emerging market. Under the terms of China’s accession to the World Trade Organisation, quotas should have been created by January.…