Archive

Keith Nuthall
LITHUANIA has informed the WTO how it will undertake its liberalisaton commitments under the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing. Because the Baltic republic has recently joined the world trade body, it is to implement the ATC’s first three stages at the same time.…

Keith Nuthall
IN a surprise judgement, the European Court of Justice has blocked European Union retailers from re-importing textile products from eastern European countries or other non-EU countries, without permission from trademark holders.

By doing so, the ECJ ignored one of its advocate generals, who had advised that manufacturers should not block such parallel imports; this was unusual, as judges normally back such preliminary judgements.…

Keith Nuthall
POLAND has refused to accept a recommendation from the Textiles Monitoring Bureau of the World Trade Organisation that it lift transitional safeguard duties imposed on imports of acrylic/modacrylic staple yarn, pure or mixed with wool or fine animal hair, from Romania.…

BY RICHARD HURST, in Johannesburg
THE UNITED States’ House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly to double the quota of clothing and textile products that a group of African countries can export to the US duty free, increasing them from 1.5 per cent of overall US imports to three per cent.…

Keith Nuthall
MEMBER countries of the World Trade Organisation have agreed to speed up the implementation of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, in a bid to mollify criticism from developing world governments that their exporters have not benefited from the ATC as widely as the had hoped.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE RELIANCE of part of the Irish power sector on the locally sourced fuel of peat is to continue into the next two decades, after a state aid scheme allowing the Irish government to fund its use was agreed by the European Commission.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE INSTITUTIONS of the European Union should be given an explicit authority to help formulate and shape its Member States energy policies, notably by promoting co-generation and renewables, the European Parliament’s industry committee has said.

Responding, to the European Commission’s green paper on energy supply, the committee has called for energy to be made a key priority of the EU, by including a chapter on the subject in the next revision of the EU treaties.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WATER pricing reform is on its way in the European Union. The water framework directive passed last year imposes a commitment on Member States by the year 2010 to ensure that their pricing policies “provide adequate incentives for users to use water resources efficiently.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s environment committee has called for the European Union to have a comprehensive water pricing policy, with meters being installed on farms, industry and private households across its territory.

A report adopted by its MEP’s says that such a move is crucial, if the threat of acute water shortages over the coming decades is to be averted.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INSTITUTIONS of the European Union should be given an explicit authority to help formulate and shape its Member States energy policies, the European Parliament’s industry committee has said. Responding, to the European Commission’s green paper on energy supply, the committee has called for energy to be made a key priority of the EU, by including a chapter on the subject in the next revision of the EU treaties.…