Search Results for: International law

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BRITISH Maritime Law Association has called on European Union legislators to be careful when framing any possible directive on environmental liability, to make sure that its regulations do not clash with existing international conventions on sea pollution.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Chamber of Commerce has released an anti-counterfeiting guide, describing the wide range of options that companies can take, when trying to protect products and packaging against counterfeiters, especially by using specialist inks and dyes.

These include overt and covert methods, about which the guide gives practical advice to companies as to which to employ in a particular situation.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADA and the US have failed to solve the looming softwood lumber dispute at the Summit of the Americas, in Quebec City.

The US International Trade Commission will probably now hear claims by the American timber industry that Canada has flooded the US with cheap timber illegally and investigate how it contributed to the closure of 150 American lumber mills.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE NEW Electricity Trading Arrangements (NETA) introduced in the UK on 27

March have begun smoothly, in spite of warnings earlier in the year from

electricity companies that insufficient testing of the system had taken

place and that market conditions were not favourable.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States and the European Union are poised for another battle of wits at the World Trade Organisation, over the rights of governments to protect their own audio-visual sectors, especially through the use of subsidies.

WTO members are about to examine in detail proposals made by the USA on the liberalisation of the international audio-visual sector, which it wants to promote through the ongoing WTO round on service industries.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A DRAFT timetable for the setting up of anti-dumping and countervailing duties by the United States, on softwood lumber from Canada, has been released by the US International Trade Administration. It says that the American Department of Commerce will probably start inquiries on April 23, making a preliminary judgement on anti-dumping by September 10 and countervailing duties by June 27, a final judgement on November 26 and September 10, respectively, with duties being imposed on January 10 next year and this November 1.…

BY KATE REW
IN the 21st century, water may be as important to the Texas economy as oil and gas were in the last. In an American state where the urban population is expected to double over the next 50 years and where the majority of surface reservoirs have already been developed, the importance of ground water sources is paramount.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE IMPORTANCE of European Union employment within the UK and other EU Member States is widely accepted and its authority is only going to grow over the next 10 years. This is because of the planned accession of eastern European countries to the European Union, meaning that EU employment directives will shape the law of their lands and that their national courts will become subject to the rulings and case law of the European Court of Justice, a key guardian of EU legislation.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE SUPPLY and quality of water services and their environmental management have been near the top of the research agendas of institutions of the European Union this year, with the European Commission’s directorate generals (DG) for research and the environment being particularly active.…

BY MIKE FOX
THE CANADIAN energy company Hydro-Quebec has been ordered to pay more than CAN$20 million plus interest to a group of 15 Vermont utilities, to compensate for loss of power during the January 1998 “ice storm”. Quebec Hydro was selling them electricity under a 30 year contract from 1991, but cut off supplies for 66 days after the storm brought down power lines and transmission towers across Quebec, as a result of thick ice building up on all exposed equipment.…