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.
BRAIN DRAIN
BY ALAN OSBORN
THE USA takes more scientists and engineers from Britain than from any other country in the western industrial world, according to the latest Science, Technology and Industry indicators published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The report shows that 7,086 scientists and engineers from the UK are at present employed in the US, followed by 5,351 from Canada, 2,298 from Germany and 1,843 from Korea.…
CHINA WTO
BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHINA should formally become a member of the World Trade Organisation by March 2002, a move that will make it subject to the rights and obligations of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing. The accession follows 15 years of negotiations, and was approved by a formal meeting of the WTO’s China working party.…
EU ROUND UP
KEITH NUTHALL
IT is common knowledge that the European Union is becoming increasingly involved in public water policy, legislating to control the environmental quality of water supplies and watercourses. Brussels ambitions to improve water services do not, however, end at the external borders of the EU.…
TAX REGIMES
Keith Nuthall
EUROPEAN Union competition Commissioner Mario Monti has announced that Brussels is to clamp down on special tax regimes affecting financial services in 11 Member States, which it claims are probably so lax, they constitute illegal state aid payments that could unfairly favour local companies.…
TAX HARMONISATION LATEST
Keith Nuthall
DETAILS of the European Commission’s plans to reduce the contrasts between tax regimes in EU Member States have been released, with Brussels publishing its policy paper “Towards an Internal Market without Tax Obstacles.”
As predicted in Accountancy Age, the Commission is aiming in the long term for the creation of a consolidated tax base for businesses operating across the EU, with the report highlighting the 30 per cent variations in national company tax rates.…
TAX HARMONISATION
BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission is preparing a potentially groundbreaking initiative to overcome the problems created by the existence of 15 different tax systems throughout the European Union, which could involve setting a harmonised EU corporation tax. In a report due to be released shortly, obtained by Accountancy Age, the Commission says differing tax national systems have caused losses in economic efficiency, generated compliance costs and contributed to a lack of transparency.…
BELGIUM/FINLAND
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening to take Belgium and Finland to the European Court of Justice, claiming that their mandatory no-claims bonus systems for motor insurance breaks the EU’s third non-life insurance directive.
Brussels claims that the regulations deny insurers the freedom to set scales of premiums allowed in the EU legislation.…
SA AD BAN
BY RICHARD HURST, in Johannesburg
THE SOUTH African drinks industry has attacked a government announcement that it intends to curb alcohol advertising on television and also order that health-warning labels be added to containers in all the country’s 11 official languages.…
SICILY STATE AID
BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has dashed the hopes of Sicilian wine-growers awaiting compensation from the Italian government for unused replanting rights. The island’s regional government had planned to pay some two billion Lire, (about Euro 1 million), to the growers, whose rights had become worthless as a result of drought in 1988-1990.…
MCAUSLAN
BY MONICA DOBIE, in Montreal
MONTREAL based brewery, McAuslan Brewing, has announced plans to build a new CAN$7 million brewery, which will see the size of its current operations rise from a 30,000 hectolitre capacity to 200,000 hectolitres.
The 45-thousand-square-foot brewery will allow the company to produce ales and lagers and also provide the space to brew New Brunswick-based Moosehead beer under license, a deal recently agreed upon.…