Search Results for: China

by Alan Osborn

A string of trade deficits by European food and drink producers was reversed in 2005 thanks to a rise of 5.2% in exports – the best performance since 2000, says the EU Confederation of Food and Drink Industries (CIAA).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union and China have agreed to improve cooperation in imposing import-export controls to prevent breaches of both sides’ food safety controls, which both sides accept pose significant health hazards to consumers. EU and Chinese officials will exchange intelligence about illegal consignments gleaned from spot-checks and investigations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and China have agreed to improve cooperation in imposing import-export controls to prevent breaches of both sides’ food safety controls, which both sides accept pose significant health hazards to consumers. EU and Chinese officials will exchange intelligence about illegal food consignments gleaned from spot-checks and investigations.…

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS, in Johannesburg

THE SOUTH African government has delayed the imposition of import quotas on China-made clothes and textile imports, following pressure from the country’s big clothing retailers. Chinese exporters will now be unfettered until January 1, 2007, rather than September 28.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

The European Commission has ordered the 25 EU member states to step up controls at borders following a disclosure that illegal genetically modified rice from China has found its way into the French, German and UK markets. Brussels said that traders who brought in the rice were "not doing enough" to check the food and were violating EU laws aimed at keeping out illegal GMOs.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

CONTRARY to Islamic stereotyping, lingerie sales are extremely healthy in the Middle East, although the brand is not as important as the style.

Indeed, there is lingerie openly on display that in Europe would usually be confined to sex shops.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank is pumping US$50 million into a Chinese plant converting coal into 400,000 tons-a-year of dimethyl ether (DME), a liquid fuel significantly cleaner than its hard fuel source. China’s Xinao Group will use cheap coal from Inner Mongolia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FIRST public operation of a hydrogen fuel-cell bus in China has begun, plying an 18.2 km route in Beijing. A hydrogen-refuelling centre will also be fully operational by September. The UN Development Programme and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) have supported the project, which will see three more fuel-cell buses operating in Beijing later this year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH the European Union’s (EU) key metal consumers – amongst them the construction industry – facing ever increasing Chinese competition for supplies, the European Commission has launched a comprehensive review of EU metal industry laws and policies.

Said a Commission report: "As regards consumption of metals, the EU was still in the lead for aluminium, copper, lead and nickel in 2004.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed re-imposing 52.6% anti-dumping duties on exports into the European Union (EU) of silicon carbide from China, while suggesting they are lifted for Russia and the Ukraine. Following a review into duties in place – at least formally – since 1986 – Brussels concluded for China, exporters were continuing to dump the processed mineral, and that "there is no reason to believe that this behaviour would change."…