Archive

BY PHILIP FINE

CLASS-ACTION status has been granted by the US Federal Court to a group of 30,000 workers who allege sweatshop conditions in clothing factories in Saipan. The Pacific Island has US territorial status, making it immune to tariffs and able to affix US origin labels to clothing.…

BY PHILIP FINE

AN AMERICAN inspections system has substantially decreased the incidences of salmonella in raw meat and poultry, according to data released last month (April, 2002) by the US Department of Agriculture.
The Pathogen Reduction/Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (PR/HACCP) is a science-based system that since 1998 has required establishments to develop a plan to prevent hazards and reduce pathogens in products.…

BY PHILIP FINE, in Montreal

LOW-FARE airlines are gaining a greater presence in north America, but according to the President and CEO of The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) they still have along way to go before taking on the major airlines.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has warned that world cotton prices are likely to be depressed should the US Congress approve the US Farm Bill as currently framed. The law will increase subsidies to American growers, boosting flat rate payments, loans guaranteeing farmers a fixed price for their crop and grants providing farms with an overall minimum income.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
SYDNEY is the “defamation capital of the English-speaking world” according to a British legal expert working in Australia’s largest city. Based on his research, figures show that one writ is served for every 79,000 people in the state of New South Wales; a higher rate than England, (one writ per 121,000 people), and much higher than the United States, where the proportion us one writ per 2.3 million people.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union has welcomed the confirmation by Palestinian president Yasser Arafat of a law guaranteeing the independence of his nascent state’s judiciary. Brussels wants a reconstituted Palestinian authority to be more democratic and transparent than the government so comprehensively dislocated by Israel and has been imposing conditions on the Arafat administration for the resumption of full-scale EU aid, including the establishment of real judicial independence.…

Keith Nuthall
THE BULGARIAN government is to stem a boom in imports of white tinplate crown corks; Sofia is imposing temporary safeguard duties to protect Bulgaria’s production of this key drinks packaging product, used to seal glass bottles. It told the World Trade Organisation that imports in 1999 increased by 673 per cent compared to 1998, and by 874 per cent in 2000, which “contributed significantly to domestic products’ price decline and to reduced profitability.”…

Keith Nuthall
FRANCE’S Loi Evin, which restricts the display of advertisements for alcoholic drinks, has come under attack from an unlikely source, a case at the European Court of Justice involving Newcastle United Football Club.

The team – locally known as the Magpies – is fighting legal action brought by Bacardi-Martini and Cellier des Dauphins.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A LONG-RUNNING German coal industry case involving the acquisition in 1998 of Saarbergwerke AG and Preussag Anthrazit GmbH by RAG Aktiengesellschaft (RAG) took another turn on Tuesday (May 7), when the European Commission approved the deal, nullifying a European Court of First Instance ruling.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
ENGINEERS in Australia have developed what they claim is a cleaner, safer and more economical industrial mixer that has important applications for the mining industry.

The Soliquid mixer blends solids and liquids in a continuously flowing stream by creating a vortex, but without using any blades or other external parts.…