Search Results for: Australia

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE AUSTRALIAN government has issued the most comprehensive formal proposal favouring the liberalisation of the shipping industry yet made in the ongoing World Trade Organisation round on services.

Its paper said: “Significant barriers to trade and investment in maritime transport services still exist in many member economies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CAIRNS Group of the WTO, representing food exporting countries such as Australia and Argentina, has been pressing during the preparations for its planned launch of a general round at its November summit in Qatar, for an intensification of the discussions in the ongoing agricultural round.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMNAYAKE
THE SRI Lanka government is considering proposals to set up a series of power plants fuelled by natural gas, with companies from Australia, the Middle East and Malaysia are among those making proposals to Columbo. Ministers have highlighted plans for an Australian company to install three 350MW natural gas power plants over nine years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Trade Organisation is moving towards the launch of a general round at its November summit in Qatar, but these negotiations will only be approved if a wrangle affecting the trade in meat and other food products can be resolved.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
ROTHMANS Inc.,(Canada), has bought 100 per cent of Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company’s shares for US$275 million.

The purchase price comprises of US$105 million in cash, 4,241,312 common shares of Rothmans, having an ascribed value of US$65 million, and US$105 million in bonds to be issued at closing by Santa Fe and to be repaid over four years from Santa Fe’s operating cash flows.…

Keith Nuthall
DIPLOMATS will try this month to resolve a dispute over the authority of a planned global register of geographical indications for wine and spirits, such as Champagne or Scotch. Meeting at the Council for Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights at the World Trade Organisation on September 19-21, they will debate whether entries on register should merely be informative or whether they should entail legal protection.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DEVELOPING countries have banded together at the World Trade Organisation to call for its Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPs) to be interpreted as allowing their governments to take any steps “to protect public health,” including the authorisation of generic production of medicines under patent.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
RUSSIA has ratified the Council of Europe’s Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime, a move that could herald a tightening in Russian government policy towards the fighting of money laundering.

Signatories have to ensure that their national legislation provides for the confiscation of the proceeds of crime.…

Alan Osborne
THE EUROPEAN Agency for Safety and Health at Work has published a series of good practice case studies from around the continent, in a bid to advise companies how to improve their record in protecting employees from harm.

Called Quality of Work: New Approaches and Strategies in Occupational Safety and Health, the report is available for free and focuses on initiatives in Britain, Spain, Ireland, France, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Finland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Parliament today, (Wednesday), approved the creation of a new European Aviation Safety Agency, (EASA), but extended the proposed legislation to include the setting up of a new independent authority similar to the US National Transportation Safety Board to investigate aircraft accidents and make recommendations.…