Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EU’S anti-fraud organisation OLAF has held its annual Task Group Cigarettes meeting, in Seville, Spain, with European customs departments, to discuss the targeting of their collective fight against cigarette smuggling.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE KING of Thailand has become involved in a landmark trade ruling that could have major implications for Thailand’s huge trade in counterfeit T-shirts. The Thai Intellectual Property department has ruled that the manufacturer of a T-shirt carrying the picture of a stray dog adopted by King Bhumibol Adulyadej has copyright of the image for the rest of their life – and for a further 50 years beyond that.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE INDONESIAN government is to launch a campaign to revitalise the country’s footwear industry and dramatically increase its capacity. Under the plan, the industry, which employs around 389,000 people at present, is expected to expand by a further 100,000 or so workers in the next few years as the government pushes to boost exports of domestic products.…

Keith Nuthall
SHOE, fashion footwear and accessory designs are to receive uniform legal protection across the European Union in the future because of the agreement by the EU Council of Ministers of a new Regulation on the subject; it accords designers legal protection from the theft of their ideas, short of patent or copyright protection, but significant enough to deter plagiarists.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA, in Columbo
SRI Lanka’s Bata Shoe Company of Ceylon Ltd is continuing to lose money according to a report on the first nine months of the current financial year. To September 30, 2001, the company suffered a 10 per cent drop in turnover to SL Rupees 734.5 million and also a substantial increase in its operating losses, which grew to SL Rupees 62.8 million from SL Rupees 34.4 million a year earlier.…

BY MARK ROWE
JAPANESE synthetic fibre giant Toray International, one of the world’s largest textile and chemical companies has teamed up with and Mitsui Soko, Japan’s second largest warehousing company, and online logistics firm Bolero International.The companies are jointly running a phased testing of bolero.net…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced reforms to its state aid rules for large-scale projects, which particularly affect the European Union’s synthetic fibre sector. From January 1, 2003, the industry will be subject to transitional rules maintaining the strict approach of the current sector specific rules; in particular, projects will not be eligible for investment aid.…

Keith Nuthall
INDIA V USA

THE EUROPEAN Union and Bangladesh are to join formal World Trade Organisation talks launched by India, which is challenge changes made by the USA to its rules of origin legislation, that New Delhi claims favour the American and European Union textile industries, unfairly discriminating against Indian producers.…

Keith Nuthall
NEW World Trade Organisation member Taiwan has told the institution’s Textile Monitoring Body how it intends to implement the first three stages of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, with which it must now comply. Taipei said that for the first stage, restrictive import quotas would be removed from product lines representing 16.05 per cent of its total textiles imports in 1990, 17.15 per cent for the second stage and 18.36 for the third stage.…

BY RICHARD HURST, in Johannesburg
THE CUT, make and trim operation at South Africa’s Mooi River Textiles company is currently under review. German entrepreneur Claas Daun acquired the business from Anglo American a few years ago. A spokesman for Daun’s corporation in South Africa said that the factory, which employs 150 people, had continued to lose money and unfortunately a number of jobs in the area would be affected.…