Search Results for: World Trade Organisation

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FIGHT against cigarette smuggling was a key priority of EU anti-fraud organisation OLAF in 2000-2001, says its new annual report. Its officers have tracked the routes and means of transport used to move illicit cigarettes in ex-Yugoslavian countries and established the final destination of contraband cigarettes and staging post warehouses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WHEN scent companies mix essential oils and other ingredients to produce perfumes and toilet waters, they have legally created a new locally manufactured medicine, the rules of origin committee of the World Trade Organisation has decided.

The decision means that worldwide, such scents would in future be affected by duties, quotas and other import and export regulations relating to the country where they were mixed, rather than where the ingredients were produced.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WHEN pharmaceutical companies dilute imported medicinal ingredients to make a final product, they have in most instances legally created a new locally manufactured medicine, the rules of origin committee of the World Trade Organisation has ruled.

The decision means that worldwide, such products would in future be affected by duties, quotas and other import and export regulations relating to the country where they were diluted, rather than where the ingredients were produced.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A GLOBAL convention, controlling the use of potentially harmful anti-fouling paints on ships, has been formally agreed by the International Maritime Organisation; the agreement – which has been discussed since 1992 – will ban the painting or repainting of organotin compounds on ships by January, 2003.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADIAN beer giant Molson has launched a new Indian Pale Ale, albeit a brand without the characteristic bitterness of the style. Part of the Molson Speciality Brands, the company describes Rickard’s Pale as being “reminicsent of traditional IPA’s without the hoppy taste.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
AN UPDATED list of sensitive “dual-use” products and technologies published by the European Commission will allow some exporters a little more marketing freedom than in the past, despite the recent heightened concern about terrorism.

The revised list of items that are considered to be dangerous in the wrong hands allows for higher thresholds in a number of areas and this will permit some exporters, notably of computers, to increase sales without having to seek prior permission from Brussels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Trade Organisation has agreed to launch a new wide-ranging round of talks on liberalising international commerce, negotiations that will include industrial goods, which will be combined with the ongoing discussions on services and agricultural products.

Ministers at the summit in Doha, Qatar, struck a deal after six days of bargaining, with their task being made achievable by the wide-ranging draft communiqué that was drawn up beforehand.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE MULTILERAL Investment Guarantee Agency, (MIGA), of the World Bank has dismissed claims that the Barrick Gold Corporation, of Canada, and the Tanzanian government were implicated in the alleged deaths of miners during an official operation to fill unsafe mine shafts in 1996.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MEMBER countries of the World Trade Organisation have agreed to speed up the implementation of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, in a bid to mollify criticism from developing world governments that their exporters have not benefited from the ATC as widely as the had hoped.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Trade Organisation has agreed at its ministerial meeting in Qatar, to intensify its ongoing agriculture talks, which cover meat and meat products. Ministers laid down a deadline of the next WTO summit, which must take place in 2003, for member governments to propose a complete list of formal concessions they are prepared to make on quotas, tariffs, subsidies and other trade barriers.…