Archive

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE
A JAPANESE company has developed a system for manufacturing clean seawater ice, which is softer than freshwater ice and so can be used to transport fish products to market in cool temperatures without the scarring or bruising that often occurs.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE TEXAS Eastern Products Pipeline Company (TEPPCO) has anounced it will acquire Jonah Gas Gathering Company, a subsidiary of Canada’s Alberta Energy Company for approximately US$360 million. TEPPCO will acquire 300 miles of pipeline, five compressor stations totaling 33,000 horsepower and related metering facilities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHINA is to abolish its laws requiring international oil companies to channel their crude and processed oil through state importers. The promise has been accepted as part of Beijing’s price for membership of the World Trade Organisation which was approved by the WTO’s China accession working party last month (September).…

KEITH NUTHALL
AN EAST Asia Ministerial Conference on Forest Law Enforcement and Governance has accepted an unprecedented declaration committing their countries to combat illegal logging, associated illegal trade, and other forest crimes. The comminique said that this was the first ever international commitment by governments to combat corruption in the forestry sector.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE TEXTILES Monitoring Bureau of the World Trade Organisation has recommended that Poland lifts transitional safeguard duties that it has imposed on imports of acrylic/modacrylic staple yarn, pure or mixed with wool or fine animal hair, from Romania. In a report, it has claimed that Poland should not have concluded that its domesrtic production industry suffered “serious damage” from the imports in 2000.…

Keith Nuthall
THE TRADE in textiles between China and the rest of the world is set to grow sharply, with the agreement being forged to allow Chinese membership of the World Trade Organisation, after 15 years of negotiations.

It means that China has acceded to the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, being subject to its rights and obligations, including the fact that, as for all WTO members, its quotas on textiles should be scrapped by December 31, 2004.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has ordered the German government to recover state aid of Euro 5.9 million, (DM 11.6 million), that was paid to a flax and textile spinning mill in Saxony, after an inquiry concluded that it had wrongfully claimed small business grants, while being covertly controlled by a larger group.…

KEITH NUTHALL
INDIA is disputing whether the EU has complied with the WTO ruling that it broke world trading rules when protecting its cotton-type bed linen producers with anti-dumping duties. Brussels has claimed that it has fulfilled instructions from a disputes panel by suspending the duties, but New Delhi has reserved the right to launch a fresh action, especially if moves are made by next March to renew the duties.…

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
THE TRADE in clothing between China and the rest of the world is set to grow sharply, with the agreement being forged to allow Chinese membership of the World Trade Organisation, after 15 years of negotiations.

It means that China has acceded to the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, being subject to its rights and obligations, including the fact that, as for all WTO members, its quotas on textiles should be scrapped by December 31, 2004.…