Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EASTERN European countries applying to join the European Union should be given transitional periods to align their excise duties on cigarettes with the laws loosely harmonising those of existing Member States, says the European Commission.

It has formally suggested that Poland, Romania and Slovenia should have two years from the time that they join the EU in which to amend their rates, and that Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia should have three years’ grace.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has struck a trade deal with Pakistan that will reward its support for the west in the war in Afghanistan by scrapping EU import tariffs on Pakistani clothing exports and increasing import quotas by 15 per cent.…

KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN enterprise commissioner Erkki Liikanen has told the European Congress of the Confederation of Linen and Hemp that he wants plans to spend Brussels’ money earmarked for promoting EU agricultural products abroad on marketing textile products made from fibre plants grown in Europe, notably linen.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has blocked the planned takeover by London-based CVC Capital Partners Group Ltd, (CVC), of Austrian man-made fibres manufacturer Lenzing AG. Because CVC already controls Acordis, Lenzing’s principal rival in Europe, and only rival in the United States, Brussels has ruled that a merged company would have a dominant position in a number of fibres markets, that could “reduce choice and lead to higher prices for customers and end consumers.”…

Keith Nuthall
MINISTERS at the November’s World Trade Organisation summit in Doha, Qatar, may be asked to agree speeding up the implementation of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, as part of a bid to clear away developing country objections to the launch of a full-scale trade round at the meeting.…

Keith Nuthall
CERTAIN heavy-duty yarns have been included on a list of dual-use goods proposed by the European Commission for tight export restrictions from the EU, because of concerns that they be used to create weapons for terrorists and the military of unreliable foreign regimes.…

Keith Nuthall
A GERMAN fraudster has fled the European Union after investigators unmasked his certificate of origin scam involving Malaysian textile products, mostly denim jeans. Acting as an importer, he fraudulently exploited preferential trade regimes for Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Lesotho, by claiming that its Malaysian products were from these countries, losing EU coffers at least Euro 4.5 million in duty.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission is planning new trade measures to help Pakistani exports, specifically targeting clothing and textiles, which account for three-quarters of the country’s sales to the EU. In a move linked to helping Pakistan deal with the current war on its Afghan neighbour, the plan is to remove all tariffs on clothing and to increase quotas for Pakistani textiles and clothing by 15 per cent.…

Keith Nuthall
THE UNITED States has been told it should scrap or amend safeguard restrictions on the amount of combed cotton yarn that can be imported from Pakistan, by the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organisation’s disputes settlement procedures.

Washington had contested an earlier judgement that it had broken WTO rules in the way that it imposed the trade barrier, but key elements of its case were rejected by the appeals body.…

Keith Nuthall
A SURVEY of Wastes Spread on Land produced by the European Commission has supported moves to improve the quality of sludge produced by the textile industry, through the replacement of chemical products, such as chromium and copper salts, by products with a lower environmental impact.…