Search Results for: Australia

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NOBODY likes to be on a blacklist, especially one written by the American government. But every year, the US state department issues a comprehensive rogues gallery of countries involved in the narcotics trade and related criminal problems. One surprising entrant: the United States.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
A REVOLUTIONARY semi-automated container terminal – the first of its kind in the world – is to be constructed at the Port of Brisbane. It will significantly increase the capacity of shipping operations in Australia’s third largest port.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SHOE industry members of a specialist United States committee have strongly backed the US-Australia free trade agreement. Representatives on the sector advisory committee on footwear, leather and leather products welcomed its restrictive rules of origin (protecting shoe-makers) and lengthy 10-year tariff phase-outs for 17 protective footwear items of particular concern.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
THE AUSTRALIAN government wants to increase biofuels production to 350 million litres per annum by the end of the decade, to encourage canegrowers to switch from sugar to ethanol production, despite a recent report saying the policy could cut between A$70.9 million (US$52.2 million) and A$74.3 million (US$54.7 million) from GDP in 2010 because of costly subsidies.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
AUSTRALIA’S largest brewers, Foster’s and Lion Nathan, have shifted their marketing focus by spending more money promoting brands for the under-30’s market, rather than their more established lines. According to the Melbourne Age newspaper, both companies invested heavily in campaigns advertising youth-oriented brands in 2003, to curtail a decline in beer consumption due to the popularity of alcopops.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SPECIALIST ferrous metal United States government committee has criticised the recent free trade agreement struck between the US and Australia that will remove tariffs on iron, steel and related products traded between the two countries. The federal inter-sector advisory committee on ferrous ores and metals has concluded the although the deal itself does promote US interests, there are a number of elements that fail to cover concerns “which certainly affect our sector’s economic interests and the equity and reciprocity for the US overall that we seek in US trade agreements.”…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE AUSTRALIAN Medical Association is supporting a state government-run campaign warning local citizens off the high-protein and low-carb Atkins Diet. It is backing a Victoria government taxpayer-funded campaign opposing Atkins and other “fad diets” by distributing posters and information booklets at gyms, doctors’ waiting rooms and universities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AMERICAN food processors are opposing the new Australia-USA free trade deal because it excludes sugar, preventing them securing it more cheaply from Australian cane growers. Commenting during ratification debates, the US government technical advisory committee for trade in processed foods said sugar’s exclusion “lacks economic justification and raises questions about the equity of the agreement.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FREE trade deal struck between the United States and Australia that will phase out all tariffs on non-ferrous metals traded between the two countries has been welcomed by a specialist US federal committee, consulted as part of the ratification process.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
AUSTRALIA’S two large brewers have shifted their advertising campaigns to attract more 18-30’s into drinking their beer over pre-mixed drinks. Carlton & United Breweries and Lion Nathan spent far more money last year promoting premium and youth oriented beer brands than on their traditional top-selling brands.…