Search Results for: Czech Republic

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SERIES of exemptions from the European Union’s (EU) new directive imposing minimum rates of energy taxation on coal have been proposed by the European Commission for seven of the 10 eastern and southern European countries joining the EU in May.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
HONDURAS has formally requested that a World Trade Organisation disputes panel be created to settle a diplomatic row with the Dominican Republic over allegations of unfair restrictions on the import of Honduran cigarettes. The Dominican government has used procedural tactics to delay the establishment of a panel, but Honduras can insist on its creation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CONCERNS have been raised by eastern and central European environmental groups about the possible worsening of drinking water quality that could be caused by the construction of the planned Danube-Oder-Elbe canal. The Czech Republic’s Friends of the Earth branch is leading green groups from Germany, Austria, Poland and Slovakia in pressing the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers to avoid including the project in its priority list for funding from the trans-European transport networks (TENs) scheme.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CZECH Republic has announced that it is extending the life of its 80 per cent safeguard duty on sugar imports until December 2004, claiming that its producers would be flooded by imports (mostly from Poland and the EU), if it lifted the protection.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A RULING from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over the protracted row over the rights to the names Budweiser and Bud could weaken an attempt to prevent US-based Annheuser Busch from importing its beer into Austria. Its Czech Republic rival Budejovicky Budvar has been trying to block such imports – named ‘American Bud’ – on the grounds that a bilateral convention between Austria and the Czech Republic reserves the name “Bud” for Czech beer in Austrian markets.…

BY RICHARD HURST
JOHANNESBURG-based bulk materials handling and minerals processing specialist Osborn has been awarded a US$977,000 contract by Société des Mines du Liptako (SML) South Africa, which recently announced the start of the Samira Hill gold-mining project in Niger. Noel Bessler, sales manager at Osborn said: “Osborn’s participation in the project includes the refurbishment of an existing mill, the supply of proprietary screens, feeders and the plant’s conveyors”.…

BY RICHARD HURST
THE US$5 million second phase of the Dikulushi copper-silver mine, in south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is to start soon, by the second week in November, according to Bill Turner, managing director of Australia’s Anvil Mining. He said that the new phase would extend the life span of the mine by another five years allowing the mine to produce 42 million pounds of copper and 1.8 million ounces of silver.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Investment bank (EIB) has drawn up plans to lend Euro 270 million to the Czech airport authority CSL to design and construct a new terminal (Terminal North II) at Prague Ruzyne International Airport. The new terminal would be dedicated to flights from countries in the Schengen area bloc.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHINA has played tit-for-tat in unusually public diplomatic spat over temporary’ safeguard duties that were imposed by Beijing last May on US exports of nine steel products. The United States had published a pointed set of questions about whether the duties had actually lapsed as planned by November and over exemptions from such tariffs for South Korea and Slovakia on the apparently dubious grounds that they were “developing countries”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A RULING on car registration legislation at the European Court of Justice could remove red tape demands on European fleet managers whose companies’ employ workers living in more than one European Union country. Judges have stated national governments cannot insist a worker’s company car be registered in their home country, rather than where a company and its fleet management is based.…