Search Results for: America

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) trade deal struck with South America’s Mercosur group of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, will open this emerging market to EU drinks exporters. The agreement, which now needs to be ratified by both sides, will phase out Mercosur duties on wine of 27%; whiskey and other spirits (taxed at 20% to 35%); and soft drinks (taxed at 20% to 35%).…

THE INTERNATIONAL Organization for Standardization (ISO) has launched a series of standards designed to help the cocoa industry ensure its products are both sustainably harvested and processed, but also traceable across their supply chains. Its ISO 34101 series is designed to promote good environmental and labour practices in a sector that involves sophisticated confectionery companies, global commodity traders and small farmers, often in poor countries, notably in west Africa.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has hailed a 272% increase in liquified natural gas (LNG) exports from the United States to the European Union (EU) since a landmark meeting last July (2018) between President Donald Trump and Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.

Releasing trade data at a High-Level Business-to-Business Energy Forum staged in Brussels, where LNG executives from Europe and America discussed increasing this trade, the Commission said EU imports of US LNG in March hit a record 1.4 billion cubic metres.…

MONEY service businesses (MSBs) are having a tougher time operating in compliance with international AMF/CFT rules, especially those in emerging market countries, where they have to deal with a double challenge of tighter controls and derisking by banking partners.

MSBs throughout the Middle East, for instance, have been hit by derisking from correspondent banks as well as designations by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).…

Trade negotiators from the United States and China will meet for the second week in a row this Wednesday or Thursday, in what the American clothing sector hopes could be the final round of talks to resolve the trade war.

US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told Fox Business last week they hope to get to “the point where we can either recommend to the president we have a deal, or make a recommendation that we don’t,” emphasising the United States wants to “rebalance” the trade relationship.…

AFRICA is without doubt the continent to watch for airport and air traffic control investment in the future. It is the world’s second most populous continent (home to more than 1.2 billion people), and according to Airports Council International (World) – ACI World – Africa was the fastest growing region for air passenger traffic in 2017 and 2018, which rose 6.3% in 2017 year-on-year and 10.8% in 2018 to June year-to-date, year-on-year.…

THE LONG lines of customer to the cash register in Inditex stores – the giant Spanish company behind High Street fashion brands Zara, Bershka and Pull&Bear (among others) – are also now buying personal care products as well as clothes. They funnel customers through shelves that are not only bursting with low-cost impulse buys, such as hair accessories, smart phone covers and key rings, but now also Inditex scents.…

THE LEGALISATION nationwide of recreational cannabis in Canada last October (2018) was a groundbreaking move – a first for a major western country – and from this coming October 17, at the latest, one that may have significant implications for the beauty business.…

VIETNAMESE cotton yarn-makers face a period of uncertainty due to raw material price volatility and the ongoing trade war between the US and China which threatens demand stability from Chinese textile and clothing manufacturers. China is the largest importer of Vietnamese yarn and accounts for more than 60% of Vietnam’s total yarn exports. …

THE CANADIAN auto-sector, encouraged by its federal government, has been pushing ahead with a wide range of initiatives to try and make Canada an international high-tech hub of connected and automated vehicle (CAV) research and development.

These focus on the country’s existing auto-making hub Ontario, with – unusually – the capital Ottawa playing a key auto-manufacturing role, encouraged by its existing local tech sector.…