Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A HIGH-LEVEL meeting of the Montreal Protocol controlling ozone-depleting chemicals has reviewed data on the use of CFCs by developing countries, concluding that while most are in compliance, 25 of 136 had increased their consumption in 1999. The meeting, in Sri Lanka, also agreed a study to help governments decide how to replenish the protocol fund helping developing countries phase-out ozone depleting chemicals.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BRITAIN has been told by the European Commission that its administrative procedures for the parallel import of pesticides, herbicides and other plant protection products constitute a barrier to the free movement of goods and could lead to legal action against the UK in the European Court of Justice.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A FORMAL state aid investigation has been launched by the European Commission into exemptions from excise duty on heavy oils used for the production of the aluminium raw material alumina, allowed by the governments of Ireland, France and Italy

They have used powers available to them under the 1992 Directive on the approximation of the rates of excise duties on mineral oils, to exempt alumina producers in, respectively, the Shannon region, Gardanne and Sardinia, from paying excise on the oils.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRAZIL has requested formal talks with the United States at the World Trade Organisation to pressure Washington into lifting anti-dumping duties that it has imposed on Brazilian exports of silicon metal.

These were imposed in 1991 and include metal produced by the Companhia Brasileira Carbureto de Cálcio, (CBCC); it has regularly participated in annual administrative reviews of its dumping margin, applying the duties to be scrapped.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE MULTILERAL Investment Guarantee Agency, (MIGA), of the World Bank has dismissed claims that the Barrick Gold Corporation, of Canada, and the Tanzanian government were implicated in the alleged deaths of miners during an official operation to fill unsafe mine shafts in 1996.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SYSTEM of tax exemptions allowing French companies to deduct liability for losses incurred by subsidiaries or branches abroad breaks the European Coal and Steel Community’s Steel Aid Code, the European Commission has ruled.

Following an investigation, it has concluded that none of the exemptions provided for, such as aid for research and development, environmental protection or closures, are applicable.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE VENEZUELAN government has informed the WTO of a safeguards duty investigation into imports of U sections of iron or steel, hot-drawn or extruded, of a height of between 80 mm and 120 mm, and of I sections of iron or steel, hot-drawn or extruded, of a height of between 80 mm and 140 mm.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GOOD practice regarding the prevention of mercury pollution, during the production of the metal, and its emission as an unwanted by-product, has been collected in a Position Paper on Mercury, released by the European Commission.

It tries to measure the effect of the metal on the EU environment and human health and makes recommendations on how to limit its impact.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission is proposing an outright ban on the use of the chemical product hexachloroethane (HCE) in the manufacture of non-ferrous metals because, it says, it “poses an unacceptable environmental risk, in particular to aquatic organisms.” The ban is to begin on June 30, 2003.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States has lost a disputes panel case 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.

Although the panel rejected a number of South Korean complaints, it upheld enough of them to conclude that the US should “bring its safeguard measure into conformity with its WTO obligations.”…