Search Results for: World Trade Organisation

BY ALAN OSBORN
ITALY has been ordered by the European Court of Justice to cease allowing its museums and other cultural sites to discriminate against foreign European Union nationals over admission charges for its museums and other cultural sites. The European Commission said that in following up complaints from the public it had concluded that “the scheme of preferential rates applicable to persons aged over 60 or 65 years for admission to various Italian museums did indeed entail discrimination.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ONGOING review of the European Union’s (EU) common market organisation in tobacco is to be a priority of the EU’s financial watchdog the Court of Auditors in the coming year. The job was highlighted in the key agricultural policy section of the court’s 2003 work programme.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
WE are not inclined to disagree with those who say the enlargement of the European Union from 15 to 25 countries in 2004 is to be done on terms much less damaging to present EU farmers, and conversely much less favourable to incoming farmers, than seemed probable a year ago.…

BY MARK ROWE
A SONG or customs passed down through generations by an aboriginal tribe can reveal as much about that society as a physical artefact such as their traditional clothing or funerary urns. But while these last two items can be preserved for posterity easily enough, the challenge to retain more intangible objects such as a musical story is far greater.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GROCERY Manufacturers of America group has applauded a new trade agreement between the United States and Chile. The GMA says the pact will spur freer trade of processed food to south America, and singles out the agreement’s proposed reductions in tariffs for such items as breakfast cereals, pasta and french fries.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE FLOODS in central Europe last August and September took a tragic toll of lives, disrupted local economies and devastated numerous museums with the irretrievable loss of cultural artefacts. In Dresden, the worst hit city, thousands of artworks had to be moved when both the Zwinger Palace, site of one of Europe’s great art museums, and the Albertinum Museum became victims of rising floodwater.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) is approaching a key deadline in the agricultural section of its ongoing Doha Development Round. Its 146 member countries have until March 31 to complete a so-called ‘modalities’ agreement for the discussions. This should include binding targets for the talks on future tariff levels, import quota sizes, export subsidies and production grants.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THERE is an American company – St Lawrence of Florida – which will insure you against anything coming from outer space, be it an asteroid crashing on to the earth or abduction by aliens. The latter costs US$22.95 for cover of US$10 million.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Civil Aviation Organisation has claimed that September 11 did not significantly dampen demand for air travel last year, releasing air traffic figures pointing to a two per cent rise in increase over 2001 for total and international scheduled traffic in tonne-kilometres.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
The new European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will attempt to re-build public confidence in food safety throughout the 15-member European Union after the BSE and other scares by convincing consumers that the scientific assessment of risk is in the hands of a fully independent body with no interest in “cooking the books.”…