Archive

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has slammed the door shut on entreaties from the American government to abandon its plans to exempt EU-based suppliers of digital products from charging VAT when they sell to customers in non-EU countries.…

Keith Nuthall
MEMBER States of the European Union have 18 months to implement a new directive on collateral, which will harmonise national laws limiting credit risks in financial transactions through the posting of securities and cash as collateral.

In Brussels-terms, the new European legislation has been passed speedily, having been first tabled by the European Commission last March.…

Keith Nuthall
FORMAL guidelines have been issued by the European Commission, which call on EU Member States to ensure that auditors should be banned from carrying out a statutory audit if they have any possibly compromising relationship with a client.

These, said Brussels official Regulation, “may include any financial, business, employment or other link, or any situations where the auditors provide to the same client services additional to the audit.”…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA, in Columbo
THE WORK of chartered accountants in India will next year be checked against the standards of their national professional organisation; the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has launched a “peer review” of its members, to help “firms in their quest for enhancement of the quality of work.”…

Keith Nuthall
A BOOKLET has been published by the International Chamber of Commerce that advises accountants and their clients on how to protect themselves from being swindled by fraudsters. ‘Trade Finance Fraud,’ produced by the ICC’s Commercial Crime Services department includes case studies demonstrating the techniques fraudsters use to cheat victims of millions of Pounds, Euros and dollars through “phony documentation, non-existent consignments, containers packed with worthless rubbish and a multitude of other devices.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Union has lifted a ban on the imports of certain fish, (including farmed fish), and fish products from China following the presentation of new information by the Chinese authorities and the favourable results of tests carried out by the EU Food and Veterinary Office.…

KEITH NUTHALL
AQUACULTURE takes centre stage in the new proposals for reforming the European Union Common Fisheries Policy in which the need to conserve dwindling wild fish stocks is clearly recognised. With Brussels moving to limit and reduce the size of fishing fleets, the European Commission’s new ‘road map’ for a reviewed CFP highlights fish farming as “a valuable alternative source of employment in coastal areas as well as offering quality fisheries products to consumers.”…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
ELECTRONIC noses being tested in Australia could be used to monitor smell levels from meat processing centres. The odour sentinels, created by the Centre for ChemoSensory Research, in Sydney, contain conductive material which detects smells above certain levels of intensity and can identify the source.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has extended a ban on the export of all live pigs, together with porcine semen, ova and embryos, to parts of France, Germany and Luxembourg following new outbreaks of classical swine fever. At the same time it has ordered a one-month extension of controls in Spain until 30 June.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AUSTRALIAN officials have been overseeing the slaughter of 250,000 chickens on a large farm in Victoria, because of an outbreak of Newcastle disease. So far, reported the Office International des Epizooties, (zoonoses), health checks on surrounding farms within a 10 km radius had not revealed any signs that the disease has spread.…