Search Results for: japan

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INTRODUCTION

THE WORLD’S multilateral food trading system today stands at a crossroads: faced with the suspension of the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Development Round, it can either retreat to protectionism, leavened by a series of competitive bilateral trade deals, or it can grasp the nettle of liberal free trade, slash subsidies and tariffs, and then watch the economic rewards roll in.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has cleared joint control of a Cypriot company Coke Oven Overseas Contribution Ltd by Mitsui & Co, of Japan, and the Evraz Group, of Luxembourg. The joint venture will exploit the Denisovskaya coal field in Yakutia, east Siberia, selling to Asian customers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

JAPAN and the European Commission have signed an ‘Agreement for Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy’, designed to underpin future commercial and investment cooperation in the nuclear sector. The deal will run for at least 30 years, providing for cooperation regarding the development of nuclear technology, nuclear reactors, nuclear safety, radiation protection, the nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear safeguards.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MULTILATERAL Investment Guarantee Agency, or MIGA, is the international organisation companies turn to when they want to invest in a jurisdiction where their assets might not be that safe. Oil and gas companies have long used MIGA to cover risks that are too tasty for the private insurance industry, and at December 2005, MIGA had supported 13 oil and gas projects, with guarantees totalling US$707 million, with a standard leverage of five-to-one, so investments covered are actually five times larger.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MULTILATERAL Investment Guarantee Agency, or MIGA, is the international organisation companies turn to when they want to invest in a jurisdiction where their assets might not be that safe. Non-ferrous metal miners and processors use MIGA to cover risks that are too tough for the private insurance industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has cut fines imposed by the European Commission on Germany’s BASF for participating in vitamin cartels, from Euro 296.16 million to Euro 236.84 million, with judges saying Brussels made some errors in calculating the penalty.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced plans to spend Euro 702,993 over three years on promoting Portuguese Madeira wine in the USA, Canada, Brazil and Japan. The money will be funelled to the

Instituto do Vinho da Madeira (IVM), and will be matched by funding from the Portugal government and private sources.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, in London

EUROPEAN and US regulatory bodies have agreed to co-operate to develop common testing and engineering standards for mobile air conditioning systems such as those used in automobiles. Because some of the gases used in these systems, such as HFC 134a, are far more lethal to the environment than carbon dioxide, the European Union (EU) has agreed to start phasing them out in 2011 and stop using them in new autos from 2017.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MULTILATERAL Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), of the World Bank, has issued US$313 million in guarantees to an international consortium wanting to develop a gold mine in remote, desolate Chukotka, Siberia. The money has been pledged to developer Canada’s Bema Gold Corporation and backers Société Générale, of France: Bayerische Hypo-Und Vereinsbank, of Germany; and Mitsubishi, of Japan.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

JAPAN and South Korea have struck a deal solving a long-running World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute over Japanese restrictions on imports of South Korean laver seaweed. Seoul has argued that Japan’s import quotas of this product break Tokyo’s WTO commitments under the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).…