Search Results for: Belgium

COUNTERFEIT products remain a major potential headache for wholesalers in the UK, indeed around the world, with clever fake product operations continuing to supply sophisticated copies that can fool even wary distributors.

And the risks of a fake slipping through the net and ending up on a retailer’s shelf can be very serious.…

THE EUROPEAN nonwovens industry has been pushing ahead, maintaining consistent growth above increases in GDP for the whole economy, increasing its international collaboration, and the successfully exploring new markets. And while it is rarely prudent to make anything more than short-term predictions about cost and tariff problems, such difficulties faced by the European nonwovens sector seem have been pushed into the background. …

THE UNITED States Trade Representative (USTR) has highlighted its continuing concern about intellectual property rights violations in the pharma sector, citing claims that 20% of medicines sold in India are fakes.

In its annual ‘Special 301 Report’, the USTR said it notes “its particular concern with the proliferation of counterfeit pharmaceuticals that are manufactured, sold, and distributed in trading partners such as Brazil, China, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Peru, and Russia.”…

THE INTERNATIONAL Energy Agency (IEA) has warned that Belgium’s planned phase-out of its nuclear power capacity threatens the security of its energy supplies. In a paper on the country’s energy outlook, the IEA concluded: “Phase-out by 2025 is close. Security of supply needs to be ensured, but new investment in generation capacity is lacking.”…

In 2015, North America’s manufacturing capacity for nonwovens (regarding the United States, Canada and Mexico) grew from 2014 by 2.4% to reach about 2.77 million tonnes, according to a spokesperson for the US-based Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry (INDA). The United States dominates supplies in the region, making up 91% of capacity.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced that it will propose a ‘services passport’ system by December 31, designed to simplify administrative procedures for service providers, such as accountants, auditors and bookkeepers, who want to expand to foreign member states. EU internal market, industry, entrepreneurship and SMEs Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska said: “The cross-border provision of services in the EU is underdeveloped, in particular in the area of business services – such as accounting…” The passport system would give accountants more information, boosting legal certainty and clarity about relevant professional rules in another member state.…

AS accountants, auditors and their business clients consider whether the UK should remain in or leave the European Union (EU) in the upcoming referendum on British EU membership, it has become abundantly clear that there are no simple options.

Remaining in the EU will mean the UK will continue to face demands for accepting European taxation policies that its government and businesses may find unpalatable, especially as it seeks to cement the City of London’s place as Europe’s, if not the world’s, premier financial centre.…

Fraud is a fact of today’s ever more complex and increasingly online life – with financial fraud especially on the increase, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) has made clear at its March 21-22 European Fraud Conference, in Brussels. Speakers highlighted that a typical organisation loses 5% of its annual revenues to fraud – a global loss of nearly USD3.7 trillion.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has once again gold plated the BEPS (base erosion and profit shifting) proposals developed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD), releasing country-by-country financial reporting proposals that go beyond the global think-tank’s ambitions.

Tabled for consideration by the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers and the European Parliament on April 12, in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal, the Commission’s proposals not only insist that all large multinationals publicly reveal aggregated earnings data for each EU country they operate in, and how much the earn outside the EU.…

The worldwide market for smart fabrics is projected to be USD2.2 billion in 2016 and is growing at an 18% clip annually, according to topline numbers presented by the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI), at the Smart Fabrics Summit held in Washington DC on April 11.…