Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States has lost an appeal lodged against a negative disputes panel ruling at the World Trade Organisation over definitive safeguard duties that it had imposed on imports of circular welded carbon quality line pipe from South Korea.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE THAI government has imposed provisional anti-dumping duties between five and 25 per cent on hot and cold rolled steel products from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Spain and Germany, launching a definitive duty inquiry. Preliminary investigations by a government committee concluded that hot-rolled steel in sheets and coils, cold-rolled steel in coils, coated steel and stainless steel from these countries were being dumped in Thailand.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States has released details of the talks held with the European Union over its threatened safeguard duties on certain steel imports into America. Washington said that it had responded to questions about the US International Trade Commission’s timeframe for identifying and defining like products; the establishment of a causal link between increased imports and serious injury to US producers; and the methodology for selecting a safeguard measure, among other issues.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers (general affairs) has extended the double-checking system on certain steel exports to the EU from Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic until this December 31. The regime is designed to detect any abuses of the trade preferences enjoyed by these countries under association agreements with the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced that it intends to apply the same strict state aid rules for the European Union steel industry that have applied in the past under the regulations of the European Coal and Steel Community, which expires on July 23.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
TALKS were held this week between the USA and the European Union (Feb 13) in Washington DC over the threat of safeguard duties that the Bush administration is threatening to impose on certain steel imports into America. Unusually in a case where the EU is a complainant, the US suggested the formal talks; while accepting the offer in a note to the World Trade Organisation, Brussels said that it also wanted a further round of talks, quoting WTO safeguard rules requiring “adequate opportunity for prior consultation on the measure that the United States is seeking to apply.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GENERAL sale to the public of special paints, printing inks, varnishes and adhesives containing 43 dangerous chemicals is to be banned from April 2003, if a proposal from the European Commission is accepted by the EU Council of Ministers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE MARITIME Museum of Finland and Britain’s Mary Rose Trust have teamed up with four other archeological groups to explore four important European shipwrecks, creating what will be a virtual exhibition of their findings.

Internet sites will publish pictures and information about the sites, which include:

*A late 13th Century cog, (small, trade vessel), off Mecklenburg, Germany;

*The Vrouw Maria, a Dutch sailing ship that sank off Finland in 1771, carrying artworks and treasures from Amsterdam to St Petersburg for Catherine the Great.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND MARK ROWE
ALTHOUGH the future of the controversial bilateral open skies agreements, struck between the United States and a string of European Union Member States, has been thrown into doubt by an advocate general of the European Court of Justice, this is by no means regarded as a disaster by Europe’s airport industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Labour Organisation has estimated that the aviation and associated industries have shed 400,000 jobs worldwide since September 11, because of the terrorist attacks themselves and ongoing global economic slump that they worsened. Jobs have been lost in airports, airlines, air navigation services, equipment manufacturers, catering companies and car rental facilities, said the ILO.…