Search Results for: World Trade Organisation⊂mit=Search

BY KEITH NUTHALL
US Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick has backed launching a case against the European Union for refusing to accept genetically modified food. Such a suit would seek to overturn Brussels’ de facto four year-old moratorium on GM food imports.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE CANADIAN government has stepped up to the baseball plate in response to calls from domestic and international law enforcement agencies that it raises its game in detecting, deterring and preventing money laundering, especially and terrorist financing. The result has been three new regulations that were brought into effect in January of this year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked European Union (EU) ministers to give it the authority to block future trans-Atlantic deals involving American and EU airlines by ensuring that special open-skies deals negotiated between a Member State and the USA are officially banned.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
TWO international organisations have highlighted opportunities for European water companies, which may be called upon in the next few decades to boost supplies to arid parts of the world, notably the Middle East.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) World Water Development Report says this region is the poorest in terms of water availability, with Kuwait being the most parched (10 m³ is available per person annually), followed by Gaza Strip (52 m³), the United Arab Emirates (58 m³), Bahamas (66 m³), Qatar (94 m³), Maldives (103 m³), Libya (113 m³), Saudi Arabia (118 m³), and Malta (129 m³).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has been laying preparations for possible fuel shortages associated with a possible war in the Middle East, summoning its special group on petroleum provisions to analyse existing European Union (EU) fuel stocks and supplies. The Commission wants every Member State to stockpile enough fuel to last for 40 days of standard consumption.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE UNITED States has offered several trading partners a complete elimination within five years of the tariffs it currently places on textile and apparel imports. US Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick announced the decision as part of its first offer for the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, a trading bloc of the western hemispheric countries (Cuba excluded).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
HEADS of veterinary services from all African countries have agreed that better monitoring of livestock movements, including the identification of animals, is required to stem the flow of disease amongst the continent’s farms. The Conference of the Regional Commission for Africa of the Organisation International des Épizooties agreed the steps would promote trade and local meat supplies.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
INDIA’S four-day 18th International Leather Fair, in Chennai (Madras), this month (Feb) concluded INDRupees 5,090 million (US$106.8 million) worth of business, said its organisers. Staged at the Chennai Trade Centre, it attracted more than 8,000 visitors, said the Indian Trade Promotion Organisation, of whom five per cent were from abroad, including representatives from 20 countries, notably from Italy, Germany, Spain, Brazil and China.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IF there was ever a good example to show how the economic interests of humankind generally trump those of the environment, look no further than the Aral Sea, or rather, seas, as it is today. Once a beautiful 66,900 square km inland great lake, it has since the 1960’s shrunk to less than half this size and split in two.…

BY EDWARD PETERS
FOR a snapshot of the current state of the Chinese tobacco industry, casual observers need go no further than the massive adverts blanketing some of the main highways in Shanghai, which is generally considered to be the most go-ahead city in the People’s Republic (PRC).…