Search Results for: Caribbean

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD’S longest-running trade dispute is over: a deal on European Union (EU) banana imports has been initialled today in Geneva. The EU, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Colombia, Nicaragua, Mexico and United States have struck a long-awaited agreement.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Development Round in the doldrums this year, the European Union (EU) has been focusing on bilateral trade deals and European confectionery producers will benefit.

The most important of recently struck agreements has been an EU-South Korea trade deal, which will create a virtual free trade zone between the signatories.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

The Venezuelan cigarette market experienced an overall decline in 2008 and the first half of 2009. In 2008, 11.95 billion sticks were sold, an 8.6% drop from the 13.07 billion sticks sold in 2007, according to the United Nations Statistics Division.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN INITIATIVE boosting the ability of Latin American and Caribbean countries to prevent precursor chemicals from being diverted from legitimate uses to illegal narcotic production has been launched. The UN Office in Drugs and Crime and European Commission’s three-year PRELAC project will cover: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) sugar importers can benefit from new liberalised trade rules that came into force today (OCTOBER 1). The European Commission is urging the industry to exploit the new quotas. Notably, exporters from the poorest producer countries – labelled "least developed" by the United Nations – can now send unlimited amounts of sugar to the EU, duty free.…

BY KASHMIR HILL

TEXAS financier R Allen Stanford built an US$8.5-billion Caribbean banking empire catering to 30,000 customers in 131 countries, but this year Stanford was indicted for swindling those investors in a massive, ongoing fraud. The US government is calling it a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of US$7 billion, making it the second largest of the era after Bernie Madoff’s.…

By Leah Germain

The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) is investing US$8 million into Colombia’s private higher education sector to promote affordable technical and professional education for the country’s low and middle-income students. The funds will help finance the private Colombian university, Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios (Uniminuto).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A HAITIAN consortium E-Power SA will receive US$30 million in investment through the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation to build a 30-megawatt heavy fuel oil power plant, reducing the Caribbean state’s acute power shortages. US$14 million of this will be syndicated through Dutch development bank FMO.…

BY JAMES FULLER

SMALL island states are always vulnerable in energy sustainability terms, but the growth in renewable energy technologies is giving them a better shot at security of supply. The Caribbean is a case in point, where green energy technologies are being explored across the region.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IN a battle between two drinks companies with the same name, a Guadeloupe rum-maker has won the right to trademark its moniker – Montebello – fighting off a challenge from a namesake Spanish wine company. The European Court of Justice Court of First Instance has ruled Montebello, of Petit-Bourg, on the French Caribbean island, has European Union trademark rights, dismissing arguments that consumers could be confused with wines sold by challenger Bodegas Montebello, of Montilla, Spain.…