Search Results for: World Trade Organisation

BY MARK ROWE
Huntsman Corp, the world’s largest privately-held chemical firm, aims to start construction by mid-year of a US$1 billion complex in China that will dramatically increase its production of components for the car industry. The plant, pending approval from China’s ruling cabinet, will make 160,000 tonnes of crude methylene diisocyanate (MDI) and 130,000 tonnes of toluene diisocyanate (TDI) a year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EXPORT assistance will be given to Lusophone countries by the World Intellectual Property Organisation to help them establish collective copyright management societies. It is part of cooperation deal signed between WIPO and Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries, whose members are Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, and Sao Tome and Principe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHINA has sought to bury grumbling amongst its fellow World Trade Organisation member countries that it has been slow to implement pledges to liberalise quotas, by delivering on its promise to publish import quotas in April that fulfill its commitments under the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing and cover many knitted lines.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
INTERNATIONAL moves to remove the maximum permitted dose of irradiation for food could lead to a major world trade dispute, which could undermine European Union regulations, says the London-based Food Irradiation Campaign, (FIC).

A joint study by the Food and Agricultural Organisation, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Health Organisation has concluded that “no upper dose limit need be imposed” as irradiated foods are deemed “wholesome throughout the technologically useful dose range.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A LAPSED double-checking system for imports of Romanian steel products into the European Union is to be reinstated from July, assuming EU ministers approve a proposal from the European Commission. The system was established when Romania and the EU signed an association agreement, (a broad trade and political relations deal), in 1996, but its legal authority lapsed last December.…

BY MARK ROWE
INTERNATIONAL maritime authorities have savaged Cambodia’s shipping safety record and called for its flag to be banned from all trade. At least 25 Cambodia-registered ships have been wrecked or stranded since 1995 and there have been a further 41 collisions, nine fires and 45 arrests, according to shipping-records collator, Seaway Data.…

BY PHILIP FINE

US textile manufacturers are anxious to tell US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill how his department’s high dollar policy has contributed to devastating job losses for the country’s textile and apparel workers.

American Textile Manufacturers Institute spokesman, Cass Johnson, says his organisation would be attending O’Neill’s senate banking hearings on May 1st and will also lobby federal officials on how propping up US currency has translated into his sector losing 13 per cent of its workforce in one year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NATIONAL regulations in Norway are being challenged for allowing state electricity operators to secure unlimited concessions to exploit waterfalls for hydro-electric projects, whilst time limiting those available to private generating companies to 60 years.

The Surveillance Authority of the European Free Trade Area, (EFTA), may try to overturn the law at the EFTA court, which has precedence over Norwegian law.…

Keith Nuthall
CHINA has sought to bury grumbling amongst its fellow World Trade Organisation member countries that it has been slow to implement promises made on joining the institution to liberalise its imports, by fulfilling a promise to publish quotas in April under its Agreement on Textiles and Clothing commitments.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON
THE USA dominates the world’s soft-drinks markets with its Coca Cola, Pepsi and affiliated brands, so can the big players in the European bottled mineral water industry achieve a similar success with brands such as Evian, Volvic and Perrier?…