Search Results for: Australia

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CLAIMS are being made at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that the complexity of the European Union’s (EU) REACH chemical control system could break EU commitments under the WTO’s technical barriers to trade agreement. Argentina, Brazil, the USA, South Korea, Australia, Japan, Canada, Taiwan, Chile, China, Mexico and Thailand claim REACH could impose illegally difficult tasks on exporters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DIPLOMATIC grumbles have started to emerge about the European Union’s (EU) REACH chemical control system, with claims being made at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) its complexity could break EU commitments under the WTO’s technical barriers to trade agreement.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked European Union (EU) ministers to formally approve a wine trade agreement negotiated earlier this year with Australia.

ENDS…

BY DINAH GARDNER, in Macao

IT’S the world’s biggest casino. With 1,150 gaming tables and 3,400 slot machines, the US$2.4 billion Venetian Macau Resort opened its doors last month [August 28] in Macau, a special administrative region (SAR) of China near Hong Kong.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

OUTPATIENTS requiring electronic health monitoring can rest easy at least from a fashion stand point because Australian researchers have invented a system that allows for people to alternate smart garments – so that they won’t dare be seen in the same smart t-shirt that measures blood pressure two days in a row.…

BY MARK GODFREY, in Yunnan province, China

"MEDIOCRITY and non-merit are wrong!" The resolute call to excellence in Chinese characters greets visitors the lobby of the twenty floor hemispherical office tower to which visitors to Yuxi Hongta cigarette plant.

Run by the state-owned Hongta group, the Yuxi plant hires a staff of 2,500 to produce an annual 2.5 million cases of cigarettes, including iconic local brands like Yuxi, Hongmei and Hongtashan, as well as Imperial Tobacco’s West brand.…

BY NICHOLAS PICKARD, at Bondi Beach, Sydney

SUNNY beaches are central to Australia’s ‘lucky country’ quality of life. But even the most laid-back Australians have sometimes worried about great white sharks swimming towards their sandy strands. The chances of encountering a great white are extremely rare, so what do Australians say about their experiences of one of the world’s most feared species?…

BY MARK ROWE

WEATHER-resistant and anti-corrosion coatings and sealants are being developed with the aid of nanotechnology that will significantly enhance the lifetime operation of buildings and property across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. Most of the developments are expected to be particularly welcome in the Asia-Pacific region, where the hot and humid climate imposes a more onerous regime on paints and coatings.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

FEW issues have proved as globally divisive as the ability to modify crops genetically. For years, a line has been drawn between the cautious European Union (EU) and the go-for-it United States, which has seen them at loggerheads over trading genetically modified crops.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

RESEARCHERS from the University of South Australia have devised electronic clothes hangers that can download health data captured by smart garments with electronic sensors that monitor heart rates, blood pressure and other medical information. This is then downloaded by the hangers to a computer in a specially-designed wardrobe; meanwhile the electronic hangers recharge the smart garments – which could be a T shirt or a jacket -so they can be worn again.…