Search Results for: Australia

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD’S trade ministers will this August and September be considering whether they want to make further compromises that could restart the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Development Round, which have been suspended amidst disagreement over its final goals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

URBANISATION in developing countries will inflate demand for meat and processed foods generally from this year to 2015, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has predicted. In a new ‘Agricultural Outlook’ written with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the OECD says "growing market opportunities in certain developing countries" (notably Brazil, China and India) will cause a "shift in production and export of farm commodities away from [developed] OECD countries and more towards other developing economies".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha round food trade talks collapsed today, with diplomats floundering about how to recover from damaging political deadlock. European Union (EU) trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has bluntly blamed the Americans for refusing to yield on reducing farm production subsidies.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney

THE PAINT industries of Australia and New Zealand and their customers have taken several steps towards a more environmental and socially responsible approach making and applying coatings over the past 12 months, in both commercial and domestic markets.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Labour Organisation (ILO) has warned of both an increase in violence at work worldwide and of an increasing variety of threats, which are increasingly psychological rather than purely physical. In its latest global study of workplace violence, ILO says: "Bullying, harassment, mobbing and allied behaviours can be just as damaging as outright physical violence.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

COSTLY, time consuming and often-ineffective new initiatives and strategies to make British hospitals cleaner may become less necessary in the near future. Why? Well, wouldn’t you know, hospitals are going to start cleaning themselves. Yes, forget the idea of motivated and eager cleaning staff wanting to counter recent reports of unsatisfactory conditions in British hospitals, and instead welcome a new application of nanotechnology.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed reforms to the scientific basis and transparency of decisions on approving or banning genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in foodstuffs. This follows concerns from member states that too many GM products are being approved for sale in the European Union (EU).…

BY SYMON ROSS, in Auckland

INTERNATIONAL law enforcement agencies acknowledge that the laundering of criminal proceeds generated by transnational crime remains a problem in the Pacific region despite increased legislation designed to curb the cleaning of dirty money.

With no Pacific countries now on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklist of uncooperative territories, international monitors could be forgiven for focusing their attentions elsewhere.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

AUSTRALIA, Thailand and Brazil have claimed at the World Trade Organisation that the European Union has missed a May 22 deadline to reduce sugar subsidies to WTO norms, despite the EU agreeing recent reforms to its sugar regime.…

BY SYMON ROSS, in Christchurch, New Zealand,

THE DAVEY family swapped arable faming on the Lincolnshire Wolds for mixed farming on New Zealand’s South Island five years ago and say they haven’t looked back since.

Bill and Lynda Davey had felt the future of family farming in England was in serious jeopardy and made a life changing decision to look overseas.…