Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to approve a plan to regularly collate new European statistics on science, technology and innovation, allowing Brussels to supply improved guidance on the status quo and possible reforms.

The European Commission has formally proposed that the EU should acquire a legal duty to run a “statistical information system” on the subjects, “to support and monitor” R&D policies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FINLAND is the world’s most technologically advanced country, according to a United Nations Development Programme, (UNDP), report, which puts the UK at number seven in its league table, also behind the USA, Sweden, Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON AND KEITH NUTHALL
THE PROGRESS of a revolution in robotics that could lead to the development of “digital matter” is being hampered by “rogue academics” and flawed US government investment, according to British inventor, Joe Michael.

Three-dimensional objects that can be morphed into any shape and perform an infinite number of tasks at the bequest of their masters may sound like Hollywood-style fantasy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHINA has been granted membership of the World Trade Organisation, following 15 years of often intense negotiations, although its automobile industry is to retain a significant level of tariff protection.

For industrial goods the average bound tariff level will fall to 8.9 per cent with a range from 0 to 47 per cent, with the highest rates applied to photographic film and automobiles and related products.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
NEW and potentially significant opportunities for British and other Western architects to practise in China have been opened up by an agreement on the terms for China to join the World Trade Organisation. China’s commitments will allow access for foreign service providers guaranteed by “transparent and automatic licensing procedures” which are set out in detail in its Protocol of Accession.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
FOLLOWING last week’s (19/9/01) agreement on the terms of China’s accession to the World Trade Organisation, the way has been opened for British and other retailers to set up wholly owned enterprises in the world’s most populous country.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ARGENTINA has until February 28 next year to implement a World Trade Organisation ruling that it should dismantle tanning industry controls on the export of raw and semi-tanned bovine hides, an WTO arbitrator has ruled.

The European Union – which brought the case in the first place – had called for arbitration after failing to reach agreement with Buenos Aires over the matter.…

Keith Nuthall
FURTHER details have emerged about the concessions in the textile trade that have been agreed by China to secure accession to the World Trade Organisation. According to an EU briefing paper, the right for foreign private firms to import silk directly from China has been confirmed.…

BY KATE REW
AMERICAN bra manufacturers are responding to growing demand from larger women who are no longer content to wear cumbersome, corset-like structures but would prefer flimsier, sexier bras which are both comfortable and flatter their fuller figures. For a long time this market, which stands at around 40 per cent of intimate wear and is growing all the time, has been overlooked, according to Joyce Baran, Vice President of Merchandising and Design, Liz Claiborne Intimates.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
KNITTED clothing and textile manufacturing countries that are members of the World Trade Organisation have attacked the world’s major importers – the US, the EU, and Canada – for failing to even approach the liberalisation targets imposed by the WTO’s Agreement on Textiles and Clothing.…