Search Results for: Australia

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FINLAND is the world’s most technologically advanced country, according to a United Nations Development Programme, (UNDP), report, which puts the UK at number seven in its league table, also behind the USA, Sweden, Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BROAD political agreement on the operation of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change has been achieved in Bonn, Germany by 186 participating nations, but without the participation of the US.

Original targets were scaled down to ensure the participation of Japan, Canada and Australia in the deal, who secured concessions on so-called carbon sinks; they can now gain credits to emit more gases through re-vegetation and effective management of forests and farmland.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE KYOTO protocol on climate change was adopted by 186 nations in Bonn, but without the participation of the US, which is responsible for 25 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

President Bush is now likely to come under intense international pressure to produce an American plan to tackle climate change.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE USA has accepted its loss of an appeal at the World Trade Organisation against a disputes panel ruling that Washington had broken WTO rules when erecting safeguard duties against lamb imports from New Zealand and Australia. American diplomats said their government needed “a reasonable period of time” for implementation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SHIPPING industry is looking forward to the anticipated accession of China to the World Trade Organisation, which after 15 years of often tortuous negotiations, is likely to be rubber stamped this autumn and become reality next Spring.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EU Council of Ministers has agreed to impose definitive countervailing duties on imports of synthetic polyester fibres from Australia and Indonesia, which will prevent European producers facing unfair competition because of subsidies paid to their rivals in these Asia-Pacific countries.…

BY KATE REW
THE NEW edition of the global code, which sets the standard for imports and exports of healthy fish has just been released. The third version of the International Aquatic Animal Health Code published by Office International des Epizooties (corr), lists the diseases that would stop the import or export of fish, molluscs and crustaceans, under international trade laws.…

BY SIMON WILCOX, in Singapore
IN a dim and distant era before electronics and semiconductors, Singapore was a tiny backwater in the Malay kingdom of Johor-Riau, its inhabitants depending on jungle produce, fishing, small-scale trading and a little piracy for their livelihood.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL action plan to fight forest fires is being drawn up with the assistance of the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation. Experts from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Turkey and USA have been discussing proposals for a system involving mutual assistance and coordinated approaches to forest fire management.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
EUROPE, in wine terms, has pedigree. It is, after all, the home of the longest established commercial wine-making tradition. But these days, its primacy is being challenged by colonial upstarts, in the shape of New World vineyards, and guess what; the new kids on the block seem to be ganging up on the oldsters.…