Archive

Keith Nuthall
THE UNITED States government has informed the disputes settlement body of the World Trade Organisation that it “intended to comply” with the final Havana Club ruling issued at the start of this year, although it warned diplomats that it “would require for that purpose a reasonable period of time.”…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
AN AUSTRALIAN team has invented a new particle separator that could have a major impact on the mining industry.

Researchers from the University of Melbourne, have developed the machine, after studying in great detail how compounds, including ores, avalanche naturally under gravity when in a tumbler.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
Australian researchers have invented a super-microscope that minutely examines the chemical components of a wide range of minerals and then produces a clear image to work from.

It is being hailed as a breakthrough by geologists and mining companies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A HANDBOOK on ‘Safety and health in small-scale surface mines’ has been published by the International Labour Organisation, which wants to improve the working conditions of the 13 million miners it says work in smaller operations. It especially addresses countries where health and safety regimes are weak, setting out basic principles where there is a lack of regulation and stresses the important role of mines inspectorates.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADA’S three big tobacco firms, Rothmans Benson & Hedges Inc., JTI-Macdonald Corp. and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. are involved in a lawsuit in the Quebec Superior Court to challenge the country’s federal Tobacco Act that the companies claim infringes their constitutional right of freedom of expression with regard to the advertising of cigarettes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers and the European Commission have rejected claims that their new regime setting the minimum EU excise duty rates for cigarettes is so tough and inflexible, it will promote smuggling in countries where consumers usually pay lower duties.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union health and consumer protection Commissioner David Byrne has revealed that the European Commission “will shortly launch a major advertising campaign to increase awareness among teenagers of the negative effects of tobacco consumption.” Speaking about the World No Smoking Day initiative, he said that the move was part of Brussels “tobacco control strategy.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has ruled that the imposition by France of heavier duties on light-tobacco cigarettes, (which are mostly imported), than for dark-tobacco cigarettes, (which are almost exclusively home produced), breaks EU law. Ordering the French government to harmonise the taxes, the court dismissed France’s arguments that light and dark tobacco are essentially different products and liable to different tax regimes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EU health and consumer affairs Commissioner David Byrne has thrown a lyrical punch at Japan Tobacco International, which has taken the European Commission to the European Court of Justice over its restrictions on “light” and “low tar” descriptors.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SPLIT has emerged in the European Union Council of Ministers over the possible scrapping of subsidies to tobacco producers under a possible review the common market regime, which should happen this year. On one side in a debate at a recent agriculture council were a group including many of the EU’s tobacco growing countries, (Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, France, Greece, Spain and Portugal), who are opposed to cuts, whilst other Member States, (notably Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden), backed a recital to a current proposal to adjust subsidies over the next two years that calls on the EU to review the regime this year “to allow the progressive deletion of subsidies.”…