Search Results for: Belgium

BY KITTY SO, IN OTTAWA

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has agreed to drop demands to introduce criminal sanctions to pharmaceutical copying similar to those proposed in the stalled Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) within its ongoing free trade negotiations with Canada, Manufacturing Chemist has been told.…

BY MARK ROWE

NORTH Korea, the world’s most secretive state and the focus of many international diplomatic headaches, has an unexpectedly burgeoning sector: the country’s knitwear industry.

As one might expect for this tightly and centrally planned economy, the knitting industry is controlled by the central communist government: all knitting mills and factories are controlled by the Knitting Industry Management Bureau.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THERE is no more need to test healthy livestock in Britain, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands and Spain to be 95% sure they are not affected by Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), a scientific report from by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has recommended.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD’S developed countries are enthusiastically or moderately implementing the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development’s (OECD) anti-bribery convention, so that 52.3% of world exports are sold by countries opposing graft. So says the latest Transparency International report that says the leading established economic players are now leading by example: with the USA, Germany, Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Norway and Denmark all praised for actively implementing the convention.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CEO of Nestlé has praised the role of international standards in managing his multi-national company, giving it a health-based legal framework within which its specialists can creatively develop new confectionery and other food products.

Speaking within an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) briefing, Paul Bulcke said: “Tastes may differ, but health requirements and minimum standards are the same the world over.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

RUSSIA’S ban on certain live cattle and pig imports from the European Union (EU) is being used by the European Commission as a method to assess whether Russia will deliver on the commitments it made when joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has been flexing its regulatory muscles to push the roll-out of high-speed broadband networks – trying to fine-tune European Union (EU) competition rules to encourage this development. Brussels is using its current legal powers and consulting on creating new rules and policies, with action being driven by pro-free market Dutch digital agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS; MICHAEL KOSMIDES; AND KEITH NUTHALL

THE DEBATE about whether compulsion or voluntarism best aids energy efficiency is one of the oldest in the electricity sectors: do we save more energy by being ordered to switch off the lights; or by being advised our bills will fall if we do?…

BY ANDREW GREEN, IN KAMPALA

Uganda is undergoing a higher education boom. The result of introducing universal primary education in 1997 and universal secondary education a decade later is a surplus of students looking for a university placement. Uganda’s 30 public and private universities offer 50,000 spots for qualified secondary school graduates.…

BY KITTY SO

FORD, Fiat, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Toyota, Mazda, and Hyundai: the list of car manufacturers switching to bioplastics for internal components is full of heavyweights and growing.

Attracted initially by environmental benefits, car makers and their suppliers now ask what added functionality they can get from non-compostable, bio-based materials.…