Search Results for: America

THE USE of nonwovens manufacturing technology to make woundcare products has always been a key part of the nonwovens sector, but increasingly one of its fastest-growing global niches is medical single-use disposables. This is partly due to legislative changes in the US; partly to hopes for fast track, permanent elimination of the European Union’s (EU) 4.3% import tariff on America nonwovens; and partly to catch-up usage in Asia, and to a lesser extent Europe, where the supplanting of long-established re-use practices appears to have barely begun.…

Colombia has perhaps the strongest reputation in Latin America for playing host to powerful illicit drug cartels and their related money laundering. As a result, it is perhaps reassuring that over the past three years, the Colombian government, through the country’s Attorney General’s Office, seized between USD1 billion and USD1.2 billion, according Luis Edmundo Suárez, Colombia’s Unidad de Información y Análisis Financiero – financial information and analysis unit (UIAF).…

The impact of any American and European Union (EU) sanctions on the non-ferrous metal trade with Russia could be significant, although US and EU industry associations contacted by Metal Bulletin are thus far refusing to comment on the potential consequences.

The EU and the US last week (Wednesday March 26) agreed in Brussels to work on the imposition of sanctions against Russia and with Russian nationalist activists occupying civic buildings in eastern Ukraine, the diplomatic stakes are again rising.…

THE NICARAGUAN government has raised fears that the planned reopening of the US market to Brazilian beef could risk spreading foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) to north and central America. Its representatives spoke out at a meeting this week (Thursday March 26) of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) sanitary and phytosanitary committee, in Geneva.…

CANADIAN meat exporters have welcomed a Canada-South Korea free trade agreement announced yesterday (March 11), saying it will boost trade and help them compete for sales in South Korea’s often wealthy markets.

“The absence of an FTA [free trade agreement] with Korea was causing substantial and growing prejudice to the Canadian pork industry due to the tariff rates since all of our key competitors in South Korea have FTAs in place,” said Jean-Guy Vincent, chair of the Canadian Pork Council.…

Changes in the way in which healthcare is delivered across Asia mean there are challenges but also opportunities for a new generation of nurses, with experts calling for organisations such as the Royal College of Nursing to better assist and support the sector in developing nations.…

NORDIC nonwoven companies Suominen, Ahlstrom and Fibertex are fast emerging from the post-2008 economic downturn fitter and leaner. This follows five years of cost-cutting and market re-alignment projects that included unit divestments, strategic acquisitions, and increased use of automation to reduce costs and strengthen profitability.…

NEGOTIATIONS for a renewed International Agreement on Olive Oil are intensifying in Madrid. The agreement runs out at the end of this year and its member jurisdictions, of which the European Union (EU) is the biggest, are working to forge a new agreement by December.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) will have to make concessions on meat in its negotiations with the US for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a senior European Commission official warned last night (Tuesday). John Clarke, director for international affairs at the European Commission’s directorate general (DG) for agriculture said: “We will have to reduce our tariffs in areas like meat.”…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Brazil are to boost their cooperation over health controls in their trade in meat and livestock, said a joint communiqué released after a summit meeting in Brussels. Both sides said they would boost “longstanding bilateral relations” and “raise the level of communication, cooperation and engagement to solve sanitary and phytosanitary issues in line with the principles, regulations, rights and obligations” set out by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).…