Archive

Keith Nuthall
THE PORTUGUESE government has been ordered to scrap its reduced five per cent rate of VAT on wine sales, with the European Court of Justice ruling that it contravened the EU’s Sixth VAT Directive, which attempts to harmonise the application of sales taxes.…

BY KATE REW
FOR bar and pub drinkers bored by their regular social company, Belgian beer company Stella Artois and Internet consumer-site beer.com have set up a network of web-cameras, called StellaCam. It is supposedly the world’s first two-way interactive webcam and allows users to drink beer with punters all over the globe through high-speed connections with a video and audio link.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission is to apply further pressure on Member States to harmonise their drinks excise duty rates later this year, when it releases a report on alcohol taxation. The paper will focus on the problems created in the EU’s Internal Market by wide contrasts between rates and its effect on competition between different categories of alcoholic drinks.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has voted to impose definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of polyester textured filament yarn from Thailand and Indonesia. Thai companies will have to pay additional duties of 20.2 per cent, with ministers approving lower duties for two companies, namely Tuntex (Thailand) PLC, (6.7 per cent) and Sunflag (Thailand) Ltd, (4.8 per cent).…

Keith Nuthall
THE EU Council of Ministers, (Internal Market), has backed plans to review within three years whether the use of short-chain chlorinated paraffin, (SCCP), as a flame retardant in textiles, should also be restricted or banned, because of concerns about its potential pollution of water sources.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has formally approved reforms to the European aid system for Greek cotton production. Ministers sanctioned an increase by two per cent to a planned 50 per cent reduction to the guide price affecting subsidies.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EU Council of Ministers has agreed to impose definitive countervailing duties on imports of synthetic polyester fibres from Australia and Indonesia, which will prevent European producers facing unfair competition because of subsidies paid to their rivals in these Asia-Pacific countries.…

Keith Nuthall
DEVELOPING countries that export textiles and clothing, have rejectred calls by their rich trading partners, that they should open their domestic markets in return for further import concessions being offered by developed countries.

Meeting in Guatemala, the International Textiles and Clothing Bureau’s Council of Representatives “categorically rejected” bids by the European Union and the United States “to demand additional market access concessions from developing countries as a condition to fully comply with their obligations under the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing of the World Trade Organization.”…

Keith Nuthall
THE GOVERNMENTS of Japan and Cyprus have informed the World Trade Organisation of how they intend to implement its third stage of commitments made under the WTO’s Agreement on Textiles and Clothing.…

KEITH NUTHALL
ITALIAN textile houses have welcomed US Congress’ adoption of reforms to America’s rules of origin for textile products, which they claimed discriminated against European Union exports and broke World Trade Organisation rules.

When implementing the Uruguay Round GATT agreement, the United States had passed a law that insisted that cotton, silk and man-made fibres fabrics entering the EU at loom state to be dyed and printed, no longer qualified as EU products when they were exported.…