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BY MATTHEW BRACE
THE CLUTCH of much-maligned offshore financial centres (OFCs) on remote Pacific islands have been swamped by so many accusations of impropriety, they are now struggling to stay afloat.

Labelled as palm-fringed, sun-drenched laundries for the world’s dirty money, these tiny island states and dependent territories are trying to fend off attempts by international organisations to excommunicate them from the global financial church.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States, with Argentina, Canada and Egypt have decided to challenge at the WTO the EU’s five-year de facto moratorium on imports of biotech foods and crops. EU trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said Brussels would fight the case, maintaining that “the EU’s regulatory system for GMO’s authorisation is in line with WTO rules.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is to sign a controversial extradition agreement with the US, with the deal being approved by the EU justice and home affairs council, despite concerns raised by the European Parliament. Its text should be initialled at the EU-US summit on June 25 in Washington.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SOMALI Livestock Board has been established in Somalia, inspecting and certifying quality meat exports from a country with no effective national government since 1991. The move was welcomed by the United Nations Development Programme and its Food and Agricultural Organisation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AMERICAN pork exports are thriving according to a new report from the United States Trade Representative (USTR) office. Overseas sales of swine, pork and pork products have increased three times in volume and 2.5 times in value since 1993, with the US now exporting more than 700 tonnes of pork worldwide worth over US$1.5 billion.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE US government has signed a bilateral textile pact with Vietnam that gives the south-east Asian country the most generous access to the American market ever granted in an initial two-country agreement, according to a critical American Textile Manufacturers’ Institute (ATMI).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
RUSSIA has unambiguously staked its claim to territorial rights to wide swathes of the Arctic Ocean between its northern coast and the North Pole, waters that are currently frozen for most of the year, but which may become more accessible to submarine mining thanks to global warming.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
GERMANY has been preventing a collective acceptance by the 15 EU countries on the United Nations Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. As in the negotiations at the World Health Organisation over the convention, at EU Council of Ministers meetings Germany has stood out, (mirroring the US position), against key aspects of the text, notably the ban on tobacco advertising.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
GERMANY has been preventing a collective acceptance by the 15 EU countries on the United Nations Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. As in the negotiations at the World Health Organisation over the convention, at EU Council of Ministers meetings Germany has stood out, (mirroring the US position), against key aspects of the text, notably the ban on tobacco advertising.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) may like to pose as the globe’s environmental crusader, setting a good example to the bad old dirty United States, but the latest figures from the European Environment Agency (EEA) – for 2001 – have shown that for a second year running, EU greenhouse gas emissions have risen.…