Search Results for: World Trade Organisation

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A MEETING of gas industry representatives, regulators and consumers from across the European Union has agreed good practice guidelines for third party access to the EU’s gas transmission network, a move that the European Commission has hailed as “significant progress in creating a single internal market for gas.”…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney
AUSTRALIAN scientists are experimenting with an early warning device that monitors water quality in tuna cages and phones its vital information back to shore. The aim of the machine is to save the fish farming industry in Australia and others around the world millions of dollars.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney
AN AUSTRALIAN early warning device that monitors water quality in tuna cages and phones its information back to shore is proving to be a lifesaver for aquaculture fish stocks; the slightest change in conditions can wipe out millions of dollars worth of marine stocks and cripple sectors of the industry.…

Keith Nuthall
THE ISRAELI bombing of Gaza International Airport during the ongoing hostilities involving the Palestinian Authority has been “strongly condemned” by the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The military action destroyed both the runway and its air navigation facilities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union has proposed reforms to the World Trade Organisation’s trade related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) agreement that would enable developing countries with no domestic drug production to gain access to essential medicines. At a meeting of TRIPS council, Brussels proposed an amendment allowing the importing council to licence manufacture of medicines in another country, in case of an emergency.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN an increasingly borderless world, the power of international intellectual property conventions is growing ever stronger and agriculture is being affected by this trend as much as mining and IT.

Take new crop varieties. In the EU, since 1995 Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) has been established.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
INDONESIA has emerged as a major producer of desiccated coconut during the last three years, and is now threatening Sri Lanka’s position in the world market, the chairman of the island’s desiccated coconut millers association has claimed.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE UNITED States faces another World Trade Organisation battle over tariffs, this time with Thailand over Washington’s intention to waive clothing duties on exports from South American countries. The Thai government has warned that its industries will suffer heavily if the US waives duties on garments and footwear exported from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
THE INDIAN Council for Leather Exports is lobbying its government to allow the duty-free free import of “essential inputs” and a cut in duty on machinery parts, to boost exports. Notably, it wants duty-free import for inputs for manufacturing safety shoes and boots, winter-lined work gloves, saddlery items, packaging materials and trade samples.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Union’s Council of Ministers has just approved – in principle – a proposed directive on insurance mediation. Final agreement on the legislation could come by midsummer. The directive requires that all those carrying out insurance or reinsurance mediation be formally authorised by the statutory authorities of Member States on the basis of appropriate knowledge and ability, good repute, the possession of professional indemnity insurance and financial capacity where appropriate.…