Search Results for: World Trade Organisation

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.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union has lifted quotas and tariffs restricting imports of clothing products from the Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Bosnia. This follows a promise from these countries that they would reduce tariff and quota barriers restricting the export of EU-made clothing products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States Trade Representatives Office has launched an environmental review of America’s existing trade agreements. It will alert Washington to potential environmental drawbacks of the deals, and will especially focus on the ongoing World Trade Organisation round on agricultural products and services.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MEMBER governments of the World Trade Organisation are to examine in detail proposals made by the Australian government for the dismantling of bureaucratic barriers that prevent architects from practising abroad. Its detailed suggestions were made in the ongoing WTO services round, which has just reached the end of its first stage.…

Keith Nuthall
ESTONIA has announced how it intends to implement the first three phases of the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, fulfilling commitments made on its 1999 accession, to comply with WTO treaties.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank has created an anti-corruption department that will investigate allegations of fraud within the organisation’s staff or in projects it funds. The bank has recently appointed a director of the department, Maarten de Jong, a Dutchman, Managing Director of the European Institute for Law Enforcement Cooperation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL action plan to fight forest fires is being drawn up with the assistance of the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation. Experts from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Turkey and USA have been discussing proposals for a system involving mutual assistance and coordinated approaches to forest fire management.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE ADVISORY Committee on Paper and Wood Products of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has met to discuss issues related to climate change and the paper and wood products industry, and review recent progress made in forestry and the environmental certification of forest products.…

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 KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States government has formally appealed against the ruling of the World Trade Organisation’s disputes settlement body, which criticised the way it had erected anti-dumping duties against imports of Japanese hot-rolled steel products.

In a note to the WTO’s appellate body, American diplomats have contested “certain legal interpretations developed by the (disputes) Panel,” claiming that its conclusions “are in error and are based upon erroneous findings on issues of law.”…