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.
SYRIA COTTON
BY MONICA DOBIE
THE EUROPEAN Commission is be investigating trends in Syrian cotton exports which have been booming since 1996, when sales went from almost nil in 1996 to 10 per cent of the EU’s total cotton yarn imports in 2000.…
ATC THIRD STAGE
Keith Nuthall
THE UNITED States has announced that it will further liberalise its import restrictions on clothing and textiles, adding additional concessions to the third tranche of its scheduled implementation of the WTO Agreement on Textile and Clothing. Countries that have recently made their first announcement regarding the ATC’s third stage include Paraguay and Liechtenstein.…
ECB REPORT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Central Bank has concluded that the liberalisation of the EU telecommunications markets has contributed to a sharp cut in prices and that planned additional reforms are likely to make European charges cheaper still; it also concludes that reforms are likely to harmonise future electricity prices.…
ENVIRONMENT REPORT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union countries are still achieving economic growth at the cost of exhausting the world’s natural energy and mineral resources, a report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) has claimed.
Based on data for years up to 1997, the agency concludes that: “EU countries have made little progress towards preventing economic growth from translating into higher natural resources use.…
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A DIRECTIVE to improve energy efficiency in new and renovated buildings, (above 1,500 square metres), by up to 22 per cent in the year 2010, has been proposed by the European Commission. It would order national integrated minimum energy performance standards for each building type, covering insulation, heating, ventilation, lighting, orientation, heat recovery, and renewable energy sources.…
SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
IT is a pre-requisite of successful policy making that public authorities need to have an accurate picture of the status quo, and also an effective way of measuring the results of reforms. Maybe nowhere is this truer than with the complex subject of sustainable agriculture and rural development.…
US TRADE REVIEW
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States Trade Representatives Office has launched an environmental review of America’s existing trade agreements. It will alert Washington to potential environmental drawbacks of the deals, and will especially focus on the ongoing World Trade Organisation round on agricultural products and services.…
ENVIRONMENTAL LIABILITY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CHARTERED Institution of Water and Environmental Management has welcomed the European Commission’s white paper proposing that an environmental liability regime is set up within the EU, where polluters are held financially responsible for damage to eco-systems that they cause.…
EU KYOTO REPORT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE MEMBER States of the European Union reduced their emissions of the six key greenhouse gases by four per cent between 1990 and 1999, three per cent of which was achieved in 1998-9, according to a report from the European Environment Agency.…
CANADA E COLI
BY MONICA DOBIE
CONSUMERS in Canada have been warned by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency not to eat some Lakeside Packers ground beef products because it may contain the strain of E-coli bacteria that killed seven people and made thousands ill last year in the Walkerton outbreak, in Ontario.…