Archive
International News Services archives articles supplied to clients one year or more after initial publication. These articles are protected by a password and not made available to readers without permission from clients. They are used as a background resource by agency journalists. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.
EGYPT/LAOS DEALS
KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has provisionally approved agreements on liberalising the trade in textile products between the EU, Egypt and Laos that were negotiated last year. The deals can now come into affect, while ministers consider whether to accept them formally and permanently.…
INDIA V USA
KEITH NUTHALL
INDIA has triggered the first stage of World Trade Organisation disputes proceedings in a bid to force the United States to abolish changes made to its rules of origin legislation, that New Delhi claims favour the American and European Union textile industries.…
AFRICAN QUOTAS
BY RICHARD HURST
USA President George W. Bush has approved 35 African countries as eligible for tariff preferences regarding clothing and textile exports to America under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), with Zimbabwe and Gambia being notable sub-Saharan African pariahs from the move.…
DESIGN DIRECTIVE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
CLOTHING and textile 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.…
CAMBODIA REPORT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FUTURE of US tariff preferences for Cambodian clothing exports looks guaranteed for another year, after an International Labour Organisation gave the country another relatively clean bill of health regarding working standards in its garment industry. While stressing problems regarding wages, overtime and unions, the UN agency concluded improvements were made to working conditions in various factories following earlier reports.…
INDONESIA RAGS
BY MARK ROWE
INDONESIAN textile producers have warned that their industry faces thousands of job losses as smuggled used garments flood the Indonesian market. The past few months have seen a rise in smuggled goods from China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the United States and some European countries.…
BED LINEN
Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has suspended anti-dumping duties on imports of cotton-type bed linen from Egypt, ahead of the February 28 date when they were due to lapse, signalling it is unlikely to press for their renewal.…
INSECT REPELLENT
BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney
JUNGLE travellers will soon be donning insect-repellent clothing instead of normal jackets or trousers that need constant re-spraying and are damaged by the toxins. Melbourne’s Global Speciality Chemicals has devised a way of binding the insect-repellent “permethrin” to cloth so it remains deadly to insects for months, if not years.…
CAPROLACTUM
Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a formal investigation into proposals from the German government to grant Euro 92.71 million to a new company, Capro Schwedt GmbH, for the setting up of a plant in Schwedt, Brandenburg, to produce synthetic fibre production staple caprolactam.…
TEMELIN
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has stated that the mass petition brought by Austria’s far right Freedom Party against the continued operation of the Temelin Nuclear Plant will not hinder negotiations on granting EU membership to its home country, the Czech Republic.…