Search Results for: japan

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PLANS to develop a new kind of European Union patent, which would allow R&D units to gain protection for their inventions across the EU by making one comparatively simple application, are being discussed. A so-called Community Patent would be easier to operate than the existing European Patents, which have to be translated into the official language of each Member State in which it is to apply.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SHIPPING industry is looking forward to the anticipated accession of China to the World Trade Organisation, which after 15 years of often tortuous negotiations, is likely to be rubber stamped this autumn and become reality next Spring.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GOVERNMENT of Canada has formally made an application to host the ITER international fusion test reactor, at a site near Clarington, Ontario. Ottawa’s move was made in Moscow by its ambassador to Russia, Rod Irwin, in the presence of representatives of other countries involved in the project; it is the first such bid.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE
A MICRO-hydraulic power generation system has been developed by Toshiba Engineering Corp., of Japan; called Hydro-eKIDS, it can generate electricity as long as a head of about 2m is available.

The company is promoting the equipment by stressing its flexibility regarding available water flows.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DIPLOMATS are working hard to lay the groundwork for the launch of a new general round of trade talks at the World Trade Organisation, when the international commerce body holds its biennial ruling ministerial meeting this November.

By the time trade ministers congregate in Doha, Qatar, it is hoped that the bulk of a deal will have been stitched up behind the scenes, allowing governments to rubber stamp a move into negotiations mirroring the depth and breadth of the Uruguay Round that set up the WTO in 1994.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SOUTH Korea has announced that its half of the 2002 World Cup finals will be free from “tobacco sales, consumption, promotion and sponsorship.” The tough line on smoking in and around matches has been welcomed by both the World Health Organisation and EU health Commissioner David Byrne, who said: “This decision clearly puts tobacco products offside the World Cup.”…

Keith Nuthall
THE GOVERNMENTS of Japan and Cyprus have informed the World Trade Organisation of how they intend to implement its third stage of commitments made under the WTO’s Agreement on Textiles and Clothing.…

BY SIMON WILCOX, in Singapore
IN a dim and distant era before electronics and semiconductors, Singapore was a tiny backwater in the Malay kingdom of Johor-Riau, its inhabitants depending on jungle produce, fishing, small-scale trading and a little piracy for their livelihood.…

BY MONICA DOBIE AND KEITH NUTHALL
DAIMLER Chrysler Canada and Ford Canada have been trying to persuade the Canadian federal government to replace the now defunct 1965 Canada/United States auto pact with a system of assistance that would not be so open to a challenge at the World Trade Organisation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GLOBAL trade in industrial goods could receive the same boost as is planned by the ongoing World Trade Organisation rounds in services and agriculture, if developed countries succeed in launching a new general round at the planned WTO ministerial conference, in Qatar, in November 9-13.…