Search Results for: China

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Labour Organisation has released a report detailing how employment in the global oil and gas sectors has “shrunk dramatically” over the past 25 years. Citing “changing corporate structures and privatisation” as key reasons for the change, the Geneva based UN agency says that in the US alone, worker numbers slumped from a peak of 1.65 million workers in 1982 to roughly 640,000 by 2000.…

Keith Nuthall
NEW World Trade Organisation member Taiwan has told the institution’s Textile Monitoring Body how it intends to implement the first three stages of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, with which it must now comply. Taipei said that for the first stage, restrictive import quotas would be removed from product lines representing 16.05 per cent of its total textiles imports in 1990, 17.15 per cent for the second stage and 18.36 for the third stage.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHINA has attacked a ban by the EU on certain Chinese food imports on health grounds as ‘unacceptable’ and warned it could seriously affect bilateral trade. The European Commission voted to ban honey, poultry and rabbit meat, plus shrimps and prawns, following the discovery of “serious deficiencies” in China’s medical residue control system and “problems related to the use of banned substances in the veterinary field.”…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
THE INDIAN government is planning to kick-start its shoe component leather industry, as part of a plan to boost the country’s share of the global leather trade to 10 per cent from its current level of around seven per cent.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
AN AUSTRALIAN company has made a breakthrough in developing insect-repellent clothing. In tests, cloth samples impregnated with a synthetic pyrethroid repellent killed most mosquitoes before they even touched the material.

Its manufacturing method applies the chemicals with the softeners onto the fabric and becomes part of the chemical finish on the treated textile.…

BY MARK ROWE
BMW has appointed a woman to head its Asian head office in Singapore, a move unprecedented in the history of the country. Birgit Maier is set to take up the position of managing director of BMW Asia in April, replacing the present chief, Felix Herrnberger.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to approve anti-dumping duties of 28 per cent on Chinese exports into the EU of zinc oxide. The European Commission has made a formal application for this special protection after an inquiry confirmed conclusions reached in a preliminary study.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been formally asked to approve the shipping agreement negotiated with China last year by the European Commission; the deal covers commercial, safety and security maritime issues and could be formally signed at a planned EU-China summit at the end of this year.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Union is to suspend Chinese imports of rabbit meat and poultry following the discovery of “serious deficiencies” in China’s medical residue control system and “problems related to the use of banned substances in the veterinary field.”…

BY MARK ROWE
ERNST and Young have been appointed by China’s largest bank to audit its books amid concerns about the high rate of non-performing loans in the country. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has hired the company to audit about a fifth of its business, the first time the bank has used foreign auditors for its accounts.…