Search Results for: Caribbean

INTRODUCTION

The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked a reassessment of the model of relying on one or two outsourcing locations. It has demonstrated that when there is a major disruption caused by an emergency as serious as a pandemic, shipping and industrial processing can be disrupted.…

A wait and see approach is being adopted by officials in Haiti’s apparel and textile industry following the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, which came as the country struggled to cope with the continuing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.…

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) will consider allowing the amortisation of goodwill, maintain some harmony with USA GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles). A joint US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)/IASB education meeting discussed FASB plans to allow goodwill amortisation. “Most of those respondents commenting said that convergence on this topic with US GAAP was desirable,” said a meeting note.…

After completing the technical testing required, central America’s largest apparel factory is about to open in Honduras, producing sportswear for major brands such as Nike or Under Armour, an executive informed just-style.
La Arena, the Tegra Global-owned industrial park in San Pedro Sula, in the country’s north, will receive around 100 employees during the last week of August – its inauguration was delayed from January because of the Covid-19 pandemic.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission in June (2021) signalled it was running out of patience with Malta and Cyprus over their ‘golden passport’ schemes which allow people investing in these small island nations to effectively buy citizenship. The European Union (EU) executive has long warned that such policies contain significant ML risks, releasing a detailed report in 2019 that highlighted concerns that governments failed to properly screen the source of funds used to gain golden passports.…

The narcotics trade was a prime motivator to enact global anti-money laundering regulations to curb dirty money flows. Over 30 years later, drug trafficking is still considered the largest transnational crime by international law enforcement agencies. It is worth an estimated USD344 billion-a-year, according to Interpol, followed by counterfeiting crimes (USD288 billion) and human trafficking (USD157 billion).…

The world’s anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) system has come a long way since the G7 group of nations decided to launch the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in July 1989. But Australian researchers have claimed AML/CFT compliance costs USD300 billion and only nets USD3 billion of an estimated USD3 trillion in criminal funds generated annually (a 0.1% success rate).…

THE WIDE diversity of AML laws worldwide can complicate the enforcement of AML/CFT extradition proceedings.

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations 37 and 39 say that governments should be prepared to extradite money launderers (and terrorist financiers) to another country if they both criminalise the underlying predicate offence.…

Anti-money laundering specialists may be focusing on how crypto-currencies and online transactions pose an increasing ML/TF risk, especially with Covid-19 encouraging ecommerce, but the reality is that cash remains the money launderers’ best instrument for moving dirty money.

That is the conclusion of Gabriel Hidalgo, a managing director at risk specialists K2 Integrity, in New York: “Cash is king for ML; it continues to be king; and on the majority of levels, illicit actors will continue to use cash,” he said.…

THE REPUTATION of the Caribbean’s major cigar production centres – Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua – has dominated global markets for years. But the entire region’s balmy and moist climate and rich soils are ideal for growing cigar wrapper and filler leaf.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) international food and drink trade has withstood the challenges of Covid-19, with figures for the first eight months of 2020 valuing EU exports (excluding the UK) at EUR119 billion, up 1.2% compared to January-August 2019. Imports also rose slightly to EUR81.6 billion (up 0.8%).…

THE INTERNATIONAL Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is promoting digital technologies within air traffic management systems to shore up the efficiency of a global civil aviation sector severely disrupted by Covid-19. But there is doubt about whether these investments will be made by a pandemic-hit industry.…

TEXT fraud is maybe more dangerous that email fraud, given the tendency for mobile phone users to respond to texts swiftly and without careful thought, cyber-security experts warn.

The Covid-19 pandemic has also created opportunities for fraudsters using texts and messaging services such as WhatsApp to launch fishing and other attacks on the unwary.…

From bringing traditionally outsourced services in house to right-sizing staff, Caribbean financial professionals advising the region’s critically important tourism sector are making tough decisions to keep businesses afloat and redundancies to a minimum during Covid-19.

ACCA members speaking to A&B, however testified to solidarity among workers, clients and suppliers – and the resilience of a region used to disaster, albeit usually through extreme weather.…

THE UK’s overseas territories are struggling with something of an existential crisis, as they face an effective 2023 deadline for introducing publicly accessible beneficial ownership registers that could undermine their ability to offer confidential financial services to companies and wealthy individuals.…

Entrepreneurship abounds across the diverse island nations of the Caribbean where small, independently-owned beauty product businesses thrive and have been successfully vying for space alongside major international brands in pharmacies, boutiques and family-owned stores alike.

What many manufacturers lack in start-up capital, they make up for in innovation and close proximity to a wealth of organic, raw materials that are finding new favour with modern, discerning consumers at home, with an eye to developing export sales.…

GIVEN the hundreds of billions of dollars spent by banks on fighting money laundering, fears that trade-based money laundering (TBML) remains widespread, as stressed by FATF, the APG (http://www.fatf-gafi.org/publications/methodsandtrends/documents/trade-basedmoneylaunderingtypologies.html), and most recently, the European Commission (https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/supranational_risk_assessment_of_the_money_laundering_and_terrorist_financing_risks_affecting_the_union_-_annex.pdf), are of serous concern. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) said that in 2018, global merchandise exports were worth USD19.48 trillion, so there is plenty of place for laundered money to hide.…

ANTI-money laundering maybe a career that financial and legal professionals increasingly follow, but the training and qualification structure for AML/CFT is still emerging and solidifying, and there are doubts whether it will ever coalesce into a formal global structure, akin to FATF recommendations.…

THE ROLE of whistleblowers in the Americas has been given special attention in since last August, when an intelligence officer lodged a complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General about a phone call by President Donald Trump to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky pressuring him to open an investigation into alleged corruption by former vice-president Joe Biden.…

Tegra, the Atlanta, USA-based leading apparel manufacturing and supply chain provider, is expanding its workforce in Latin America, with new job posts in El Salvador’s compound as well as its soon to be opened facility in Honduras. Tegra’s plant in El Salvador, Decotex, was expanded to nearly 250,000 square feet in August (2019).…

A series of reports published in recent weeks have highlighted the need for increased collaboration across the shipping industry to develop and share best practice to significantly reduce the sector’s carbon footprint. Between 2000 and 2017, the CO2 emissions associated with the shipping sector grew at an average annual rate of 1.87% between 2000 and 2017, according to a report published in September by the Bonn-based International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), ‘Navigating the way to a renewable future: solutions to decarbonise shipping’, resulting in emissions of  677 megatonnes (Mt) of CO2 in 2017.…

UNDER the current Chinese presidency, global anti-money laundering body FATF has had strong support for its desire to boost the implementation of the AML/CFT policies and laws included in its recommendations. Money Laundering Bulletin interviewed FATF’s executive secretary David Lewis to explore how his organisation and been pushing improvements to supervision of AML/CFT to ensure its expert advice delivers on stemming dirty and terror money flows.…

More than one in five or around 56 million people who accessed public services in Latin America and the Caribbean last year paid a bribe, according to the latest 18-country survey from Transparency International. The police notched up the highest bribery rate (24%), followed by other public services such as utilities (19%). …

The runway spans just 400 metres overlooking steep cliffs serving an island which is a dormant volcano with few stretches of flat land. The operator, Saba’s island government, has said that with Saba (population around 2,000) having no asphalt plant, longer-lasting concrete was a better financial choice.…

THE CLOSURE in November of the only oil refinery in Trinidad & Tobago, after 101 years of producing fuel in this Caribbean twin-island state, has cost thousands of jobs, impacting a large part of the nation’s economy. It means that this republic, which still possesses substantial oil and gas reserves, must now import gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel. …

Trinidad & Tobago has a problem regarding tax transparency, one that its financial sector and government want to go away. The Caribbean twin-island state remains the only country that is a member of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes Global Forum that is listed as totally non-compliant with its rules – see https://www.oecd.org/tax/transparency/exchange-of-information-on-request/ratings/.…

THE WORLD’S shortest commercially-operated runway has been rebuilt, with a new concrete surface replacing the previous degraded asphalt at Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport, on Saba, a Dutch Caribbean island. The runway spans just 400 metres overlooking steep cliffs serving an island which is a dormant volcano with few stretches of flat land.…

AFRICA is without doubt the continent to watch for airport and air traffic control investment in the future. It is the world’s second most populous continent (home to more than 1.2 billion people), and according to Airports Council International (World) – ACI World – Africa was the fastest growing region for air passenger traffic in 2017 and 2018, which rose 6.3% in 2017 year-on-year and 10.8% in 2018 to June year-to-date, year-on-year.…

Turkey’s anti-terrorism laws have been used extensively by its government following the 2016 attempted coup, but fighting money laundering, corruption and financial crime has not been given the same priority.

With the rule of law undermined by the sacking or suspension of an estimated 150,000 members of the judiciary, civil service and military deemed part of the plot to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, eyes are on the mutual evaluation report being undertaken by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of Turkey this year.…

Bermuda and Liechtenstein may be half a world apart, but these two financial centres are similarly attractive destinations for parking money, the former with a dominant insurance sector, the latter specialising in tending the assets of the German super-rich. While both jurisdictions have strong privacy laws, they have managed to avoid being labelled by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as having weak AML/CFT laws.…

THE ACCA-qualified group finance director for the largest conglomerate in Trinidad & Tobago and a key player in the Caribbean region – the ANSA McAL group – has aligned his personal professional ambitions with his company’s goal of sturdy sustained growth.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is expanding its network of cyber-crime expertise, with a view to beefing up intelligence, protections and responses to online criminal attacks, including frauds such as identity theft, as well as hacking.

EU member states and the European Parliament are to start talks establishing from January 2021 a European Cybersecurity Industrial, Technology and Research Centre, pooling European investment in cybersecurity research, technology and industrial development.…

ANNOUNCEMENTS made at the Routes Americas conference for 2019 have demonstrated how the region’s civil aviation sector is expanding and providing more business to airports.

New Canadian low-cost carrier Jetlines, for example, unveiled plans to put conference host Quebec City on its route network when it begins operating later this year.…

TRADING partners with the European Union (EU) are concerned about the EU cutting the size of low duty import quotas once Britain quits the bloc, which it is scheduled to do on March 28.

The EU has released detailed plans to reduce the amount of some goods it allows into the EU, to take account of Britain exiting the single European market.…

CONCERNS about the environmental and health damage caused by sunscreen chemicals has started to translate into regulatory action around the world, with the US state of Hawaii being the most high-profile reformer.

Hawaii has imposed a state-wide ban on the sale and distribution within Hawaii of products containing oxybenzone and octinoxate, which are widely regarded as having a harmful impact on coral.…

From climate change to digitalisation, there is no shortage of economic challenges facing the small island states of the Caribbean, but the region’s accounting sector has the capacity to manage upcoming change.

For many such financial professionals, being a part of ACCA – which this year will mark its 20^th in the region – is integral to progress.…

From climate change to digitalisation, there is no shortage of economic challenges facing the small island states of the Caribbean, but the region’s accounting sector has the capacity to manage upcoming change.

For many such financial professionals, being a part of ACCA – which this year will mark its 20^th in the region – is integral to progress.…

THE DUTCH Caribbean continues to have a weak reputation for fighting money laundering, and to a lesser extent terror financing, with the US 2017 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) highlighting weaknesses in its three autonomous jurisdictions. See https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/268024.pdf

Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten are ‘countries’ within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with their own prime ministers, while less populous islands Bonaire, St Eustatius (Statia) and Saba are municipalities, with fewer powers vested in their island councils, and the Dutch government being responsible for enforcing international anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) norms.…

CHINESE exports of knitted fabrics have been hit by major USA duties in the latest round of tit-for-tat tariffs imposed in the countries’ ongoing trade war. China exported USD470 million’s worth of knitted and crocheted fabrics to the USA in 2017, according to international trade data.…

THE MIDDLE East regional director of the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) has called for a rethink of how the roll-out of the 2017 ICAO Global Aviation Security Plan (GASeP), as member states struggle to meet initial 2020 deadlines for security improvements.…

BY this time next year, there could be as many as 30 garment manufacturing factories that are owned and operated by Asia-based companies in Haiti, according to Georges Sassine, president of the Association des Industries d’Haïti (ADIH).

The Caribbean country has seen an influx of Asian-owned businesses since early 2017 and Sassine said there are presently almost 20 such garment factories in Haiti.…

THE IMPENDING December 1 expiration of the Dominican Republic Earned Import Allowance Program (DR 2-for-1 or EIAP) has been met with equanimity by the Caribbean country and its manufacturers who hope the trading relationships created by the system can expand.

With the CAFTA-DR (Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement) continuing, the Dominican deputy minister of foreign trade Yahaira Sosa said in a recent speech: “Although not everything has gone as planned, regarding… exports and attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI), there are points that deserve to be highlighted.”…

GARMENT manufacturing industry insiders in Haiti are optimistic that their sector can continue expanding in size, as long as the Caribbean country’s government delivers economic and social stability. This is not a given in Haiti, which has suffered from serious political instability since the dictatorial regime of former President Jean-Claude Duvalier (called ‘Baby Doc) was overthrown in 1986.…

THE HONDURAS clothing sector industry association has welcomed the expansion of the Central American Customs Union into a three-country bloc, with El Salvador joining Guatemala and Honduras to forge a light border trading zone of more than 32 million people. El Salvador will officially accede to the union (see below for more information) in November, allowing 95% of products manufactured in its members to freely circulate in the region duty free through common customs, security, and other rules, strengthening local supply chains.…

CONTRACTORS at Sint Maarten’s hurricane-battered airport are battling against the clock to complete major repairs by the start of the new tourist season in November.

Princess Juliana International Airport was one of several across the Caribbean pummeled by catastrophic Hurricane Irma in September 2017.…

An amendment to a UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill requires the British government to impose such registers on its OTs by this deadline, if the local administrations have not created their own. The UK currently has the world’s only public beneficial ownership register – but it only covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – see http://ownershiptransparency.com/…

KNITWEAR is a key part of the growth in clothing manufacturing that is becoming an important part of the economies of several Caribbean countries, providing thousands of jobs and producing apparel worn not only in the region but in the USA, Canada, Europe and elsewhere.…

THE UK parliament has controversially voted to force its overseas territories (OT) to create publicly accessible beneficial ownership registers by December 31, 2020. Critics say the move threatens the financial sectors and will not aid law enforcement. Is that true? Keith Nuthall reports

Listening to the leaders of Britain’s overseas territories, the beneficial ownership amendment to a UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill is a risk to their survival.…

A VOTE by the UK parliament to insist that Britain’s overseas territories introduce publicly available beneficial ownership registers by December 31, 2020, has sparked anger and dismay within these autonomous, mainly small island, jurisdictions.

An amendment to a UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill requires the British government to impose such registers on its OTs by this deadline, if the local administrations have not created their own.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved a fifth anti-money laundering directive (5AMLD). Its reforms include broadening public access to beneficial ownership information so that the public can learn the name, month and year of birth, country of residence and nationality of beneficial owners, plus the nature and extent of their beneficial interest.…

AS in the Caribbean, small island jurisdictions in the south Pacific vary regarding their anti-money laundering (AML) exposure through the extent to which they host offshore financial sectors. As a result, when comparing the counties of Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands, it is clear which of the three global AML regulators have had to worry about – Vanuatu.…

NEW Caledonia, a Pacific overseas territory governed by France, will need to transpose the new so-called European Union (EU) fifth anti-money laundering directive (AMLD5) reforms agreed in May. This is because the territory will have to follow AML/CFT implementing rules within French law, a spokesperson from the French ministry of economy and finance told the Money Laundering Bulletin.…

PRINCESS Juliana International Airport, the Sint Maarten-based north-east Caribbean hub, which suffered heavy damage from last September’s Hurricane Irma, has opened an air-conditioned temporary departures pavilion. A temporary arrivals pavilion maybe open by April, as repairs to the airport’s permanent terminal interior, seriously flooded by Irma, continue.…

RUNNING a complex international air travel business that recovering from 2017’s devastating hurricane season, Caribbean airline boss Julie Reifer-Jones is having to draw on her near three decades’ experience in senior financial management.

Immaculately presented, in killer heels, Reifer-Jones FCCA is not just the first female CEO of Antigua-based airline LIAT, she is the only female CEO of any airline in the Caribbean.…

THE DE-RISKING by banks of their correspondent banking relationships is a long-standing problem and is today becoming a truly global phenomenon. From the Caribbean to the Pacific Islands, to Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe, banks have lost correspondent relationships with international financial institutions.…

CANADIAN air traffic control specialist Aeronav has supplied a temporary mobile ATC tower at Anguilla’s Clayton J Lloyd International Airport, after the existing facility was damaged by September’s category five storm Hurricane Irma. The Aeronav ANT-57 Mobile Tower System will stay in use until a new permanent tower, now under construction, is completed.…

OECD SAYS 49 JURISDICTIONS WILL AUTOMATICALLY EXCHANGE TAX INFORMATION THIS YEAR

THE IDENTITY of 49 jurisdictions that will automatically exchange tax information in 2017 under a global standard has been revealed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD).…

AIRPORTS Council International (ACI) is to launch in the New Year a pilot programme designed to boost environmental good practice in airport management. The organisation’s director general Angela Gittens told a seminar on green airports, at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), in Montréal, Canada, that the roll out would begin at Mariscal Sucre International Airport, Quito, Ecuador.…

DATA has been released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) that shows how African governments collect less tax as a proportion of their countries’ wealth than in Latin America and the Caribbean. Africa’s average 2015 tax-to-GDP ratio was 19.1%; compared to 22.8% in Latin America/Caribbean and 34.3% for the 35 richer countries within the OECD.…

TRINIDADIAN accountant Anthony Pierre is clear that his major brief as the new president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean (ICAC) is to help build a cadre of “future-ready” professionals willing to cooperate across national borders within the region and be guided by international best practice.…

THE CARIBBEAN may be a small and fragmented regional market but it is a hotbed of innovation in the personal care product industry, and a potential source of inspiration in formulation and ingredients for major brands.

Its island nations, politically independent and dependent territories, have long relied especially on the nearby USA for imports.…

COLOMBIA’S oil and gas sector is stabilising after a crisis provoked by the plunge in global oil prices, but efforts to recover growth are being hampered by guerrilla attacks, corruption scandals and a popular backlash against the industry.

The crash in oil prices that began in 2014 has left the oil industry in Colombia in a precarious position, with only an estimated five years of commercially reliable reserves remaining, according to government calculations.…

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has launched a comprehensive study into the healthiness of consuming sugar, that could guidance telling consumers when to stop eating sugary foods, such as confectionery. An ad-hoc working group with expertise in dietary exposure, epidemiology, human nutrition, diet-related chronic diseases and dentistry will examine the issue, along with Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, which requested the work.…

EU PROPOSES BOOSTING ANTICARTEL POWERS OF NATIONAL EUROPEAN COMPETITION AUTHORITIES

A DIRECTIVE has been proposed by the European Commission that would ensure that national competition authorities across the European Union (EU) have a minimum level of powers enabling them to enforce EU antitrust laws.…

The gradual opening up of trade relations between Cuba and the United States has sparked a raft of bold predictions about how Cuban cigars are poised to sweep into the US premium cigar market. However, Cuban producers will have to navigate several serious obstacles if they are to lay claim to a significant market share, not the least the potential rolling back of détente by the Trump administration in Washington DC – at present a question being asked by many cigar traders.…

The Syria conflict is into its sixth year, as are the multilateral sanctions imposed on the government in Damascus. How effective have the sanctions been, given the Syrian regime’s survival? And where may have funds from members of the regime, and those linked to it, gone?…

THE FIRST phase of a EUR5.6 million upgrade to French Saint Martin’s L’Esperance Airport has been completed, with a renovated terminal building being opened. It has enlarged arrivals and departures halls, free wi-fi, more check-in desks, and a bigger luggage carousel.…

As Auditor General for Jamaica’s public sector institutions, the country’s Pamela Monroe Ellis commands respect, sometimes bordering on anxiety and apprehension, when word gets out that a state agency is to be the subject of an audit. Yet, her easy laughter and cheerful personality quickly dispel any pre-conceived image of a dour, dogged bean counter searching for unapproved expenditure or inadequate accounting practices.…

MOBILE money transactions surged in 2015 across the world – increasing by 31% to reach 411 million mobile money accounts, and this is a critical platform for expanding financial inclusion globally, according to GSMA, a UK-based global mobile industry association, in its February 2016 annual report on the ‘State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money’. …

ITALIAN law enforcement agencies are cracking down on the use of the country’s gambling sector by transnational organised criminal groups (OCGs) to launder dirty money. The country’s most powerful mafias – Cosa Nostra (Sicily); ‘Ndrangheta (Calabria); Camorra (Campania); and Sacra Corona Unita’ (Apulia) all abuse gambling to hide criminal proceeds, according to reports from national police investigations.…

MEXICO and central America are often regarding as manufacturing centres for the USA, the world’s largest personal care product country. And while it remains true that brands take advantage of lower costs in these countries to make competitive exports, Mexico (population 122 million) and the seven countries of central America (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama – population 45 million) are significant markets in their own right.…

THE EUROPEAN Association of Sugar Pro­ducers (CEFS) and the European Federation of Trade Unions in the Food, Agriculture and Tourism sectors (EFFAT) have called for the European Union (EU) to push for a global agreement ending all subsidies and other trade-distorting policies affecting the sugar sector.…

Claims of massive corruption in the sun-soaked Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI) are finally being aired in court. More than six years after investigators declared endemic malfeasance had brought the UK overseas territory to the brink of bankruptcy, its flamboyant former Premier Michael Misick is on trial accused of enriching himself by USD28 million.…

Thanks to the introduction of a tax incentive scheme launched by the government of Trinidad & Tobago, auto converters and dealers in the country are increasingly talking up Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as a clean auto fuel for vehicles on the twin island Caribbean state.…

World football’s governing body FIFA – Fédération Internationale de Football Association – has claimed it is the victim following the arrests of 14 officials in Zurich on May 27, before its latest annual congress. The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG), which made the arrests for its US counterpart, also announced it had opened its own separate case.…

Colombia’s bio-based oils and fats sector is seeing industry profits siphoned off by criminal networks thanks to a contraband smuggling boom linked to illegal armed groups, organised crime and money laundering.
Contraband smuggling in Colombia has evolved into a sophisticated criminal business worth USD6 billion a year, according to the estimates of the Colombian National Tax and Customs Directorate (DIAN – Dirección de Impuestos y Aduanas Nacionales), and has become one of the principal threats facing national industries.…

The recent moves towards loosening trade and diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba has provided a source of cautious optimism within the American auto industry.
President Barack Obama has been loosening the 54-year trade restrictions after announcing a policy u-turn on December 17 last year, but only Congress, controlled by Republicans, can actually lift the economic embargo entirely.…

Antigua-based accountant Laura Lyn, who trained as a CPA in Florida and has 20 years’ experience in finance, said accounting and auditing standards had seen much improvement in the region in recent years. Better skilled accountants, she said, were having a positive impact on the financial management standards of Caribbean public bodies and government departments generally.…

Central America’s increasing exposure to money laundering is at least being recognised by the governments on the region, who are working both individually and collectively to combat the problem.

The region has strengthened cooperation, for instance. A key initiative is the Central American Integration System (SICA), a regional political organisation which coordinates government actions for Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Belize and the Dominican Republic regarding certain policy development and programmes, notably improving law enforcement.…

THE CATTLEMEN’S Beef Promotion and Research Board in the USA will spend USD10.5 million of its USD39 million investments planned for the fiscal year of October 1, 2014-2015 to promote beef sales in its domestic market.

The goal of this consumer information campaign is to “improve domestic preference for beef by educating consumers about things like beef safety, nutrition and health, convenience, taste and value,” the board’s communications manager Diane Henderson told globalmeatnews.com.…

International airports worldwide are working hard to install biometric border controls that they hope will speed passenger movement, while maintaining, or even enhancing security.

A key example of such new installations has been at Ireland’s biggest hub Dublin Airport, where since April 2013, travellers arriving at the 74-year old airport – which handles more than 20 million passengers per year – have had the option of passing through biometric identification gates in the airport’s immigration hall.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced it will pay an additional EUR3 million to the Airport Communication Project (AIRCOP), financing its work to 2016. AIRCOP is run by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Customs Organisation (WCO) and Interpol, and aims to strengthen anti-narcotic detection, interdiction and intelligence capacities in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. …

Caribbean jurisdictions may be increasingly signing up to the requirements of America’s Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) but there is no great enthusiasm about it. Indeed, some bankers fear it could lead to a sharp fall in the region’s charms for investors.…

IN the 1970s and 1980s, the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean did not have a comprehensively robust reputation for sound financial management. Many Caribbean island states had newly emerged from colonialism, finding their way as independent countries. And many Latin American countries were riven by social discord, even civil war, with many under military rule.…

WHEN the Trinidad & Tobago government in 2003 decided to close down much of the Caribbean country’s 300-year old sugar cane industry, it was described by detractors as one of the most politically ambitious moves in the history of the twin-island republic.…

A NEW agreement between the United States and the Netherlands that came into force in February will facilitate cooperation in civil aviation safety between US- and Dutch-controlled air space in the Caribbean. With this umbrella agreement in place, the USA’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Netherlands aviation authorities, Dutch and American air navigation service providers are now looking at how they can coordinate air traffic controls within American and Dutch jurisdictions.…

THE INSTABILITY prompted by the crisis in Ukraine is increasing the risk of crime-tainted Russian assets being moved into new safe havens to avoid the effects of possible sanctions. With EU member state Cyprus long favoured by Russian investors, and likely to be covered by any sanctions, could the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) offer an attractive alternative?…

AUSTRIA

The location of ECC Austria in central Vienna means many consumers drop by to receive advice or lodge complaints in person with the ECC’s five staff members. A top priority in 2013 was increasing public awareness about e-commerce fraud; a brochure aimed at combatting the problem was published and more than 600,000 were distributed throughout Austria.…

THE CARIBBEAN is maybe the most culturally diverse region in the world and this has been reflected in its colourful, tasty and varied cuisine. So it is no surprise that the region’s confectionery sector is innovative, drawing on unusual combinations of ingredients that create tasty products that could serve as inspiration for companies around the world.…

The Philippine garment industry says it will relaunch its lobbying efforts to push a law through the US Congress giving it privileged access to American markets, after the shelving of the long anticipated proposed America’s Save Our Industries Act (SAVE Act).…

A MAJOR inquiry into a financial collapse that rocked the English Caribbean – of Trinidad & Tobago-based CL Financial Limited and various associated companies, and the Hindu Credit Union Co-operative Society Limited – has reported. A special correspondent looks at the fall-out from Port of Spain.…

A MAJOR inquiry into a financial collapse that rocked the English Caribbean – of Trinidad & Tobago-based CL Financial Limited and various associated companies, and the Hindu Credit Union Co-operative Society Limited – has reported. A special correspondent looks at the fall-out from Port of Spain.…

AN INTERNATIONAL higher education conference has underlined the major progress made in building links between the universities of neighbouring countries in Latin America. But it also highlighted the significant remaining challenges facing Latin American higher education if it wants to be truly integrated with tertiary institutions worldwide.…

PFIZER has announced that it will close one of three pharmaceutical plants in the US Caribbean territory of Puerto Rico, while Merck has said it will close two factories on the island. Pfizer’s planned shuttering of its Barceloneta plant by 2017 could affect 500 workers, although the company has not said how many jobs will be lost.…

EVERYTHING about Aneal Maharaj smacks of the immaculate. From his finely-tailored business suit to his Toastmaster style enunciation, to the belief that “sweating the small stuff” is an indispensable attribute of any successful business executive, there is an obvious attention to precision which betrays a professional outlook staked on getting the equations right.…

AN INTERNATIONAL higher education conference has underlined the major progress made in building links between the universities of neighbouring countries in Latin America. But it also highlighted the significant remaining challenges facing Latin American higher education if it wants to be truly integrated with tertiary institutions worldwide.…

The Caribbean island state of Antigua & Barbuda has needed to demonstrate its thriving online gaming sector is protected against money laundering, to gather diplomatic support for its campaign against US bans on Americans gambling on its websites.

Faced with evidence that criminals can exploit the sector to transfer dirty cash between players’ accounts, before investing it in assets such as shares or real estate, Antigua in 1994 became one of the first countries to provide licences for online gambling operators.…

A widely-quoted truism that gained currency during the global financial crisis was American financier Warren Buffett’s dictum: “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked”.

And this might perhaps be most true of a financial collapse that rocked the English Caribbean, that of Trinidad & Tobago-based CL Financial Limited and various associated companies, and also of the Hindu Credit Union Co-operative Society Limited.…

THE NEW terminal at the principal international airport in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, Ministro Pistarini International, was inaugurated in March, increasing its total capacity to 13 million passengers – last year (2012) it struggled to accommodate 8.8 million passengers.…

THE NEW terminal at the principal international airport in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, Ministro Pistarini International, was inaugurated in March, increasing its total capacity to 13 million passengers – last year (2012) it struggled to accommodate 8.8 million passengers.…

THERE was much fanfare in Managua in June when Nicaraguan officials granted a concession to build a USD40 billion canal, which would challenge the great Panama Canal. The unlikely builder: a Chinese businessman, Wang Jing, chairman of China-based Xinwei Telecom Enterprise Group and president of the newly established Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co.…

Venezuela’s tobacco growers and manufacturers are looking to newly elected president Nicolás Maduro to offer them an olive branch after his predecessor Hugo Chávez levied costly taxes and imposed punishing legislation on the industry.

“We’re hoping for change,” said Enrique Moreno, President of the Venezuelan Tobacco Growers Association (AVENCULTA).”We…

The privatisation and expansion of the Brazilian airport sector has proved to be a significant opportunity for the American civil aviation sector, which has been vying for opportunities in Brazil’s air navigation, airport and airport-related services. These opportunities are set to increase with the United States Trade and Development Agency’s (USTDA) having brokered a US-Brazil Aviation Partnership, signed last April and now being rolled out in earnest.…

Diageo is accelerating its expansion into the Russian rum market with a launch in May of a Russia version of its low-cost Shark Tooth brand. The spirit is being manufactured for Diageo by Russia’s Ladoga Group with a 40% alcohol content.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) heads of states and governments have urged their ministers to agree important pieces of draft EU legislation that could potentially curb tax evasion in the bloc.

Meeting during a European Council meeting in Brussels last week (May 22), leaders were under pressure to act from media reports revealing how much untaxed incomes politicians, companies and rich business owners have stashed in tax havens.…

CUBA turned tobacco enthusiasts’ and international observers’ heads earlier this month when it filed its first ever complaint with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against Australia’s tough tobacco plain-paper packaging restrictions.

The communist Caribbean island joined the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Ukraine in challenging Australia’s 2012 law which requires all tobacco products be placed in generic packages featuring graphic health warnings, but not brand logos.…

DESPITE the presence of anti-fraud legislation, fraud and corruption are an everyday part of life throughout South America, where fraudsters are unlikely to be convicted, let alone penalised.

“Penalties don’t really have an effect on fraudsters,” said Fernando Gamiz, an analyst at the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), with over 20 years of experience working on South American fraud.…

The Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), a technical agency of the Organisation of American States (OAS), is playing an increasingly influential role in the Americas in terms of fighting drug-trade linked money laundering. Specifically, CICAD has a central role in the unfolding of the Hemispheric Plan of Action on Drugs 2011-2015 which was adopted by the OAS in 2011, and includes key anti-money launderingAML components.…

IT is a long way from China, east Asia and south Asia to the key developed world markets or Europe and America. And with fashion being so dynamic, demand for a line could have dampened in the months between placing an order and receiving delivery.…

THE COLOMBIA government has launched a crackdown on illegal mining in its country, with agencies temporarily suspending the export licence of American coal giant Drummond and then permanently revoking the permits of 32 mine operators.

While the National Mining Agency (ANM) refused to tell the Mining Journal the names of the companies concerned while legal procedures were outstanding, it has said that 70% of the mines are for coal, and others were for gold and construction materials.…

THE SECRETARY General of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) has detailed how the world is woefully unprepared to fight the scourge of counterfeit medicines that can harm or even kill patients. Kunio Mikuriya was speaking at the opening session of a Conference on the Illicit Trafficking of Fraudulent Medicines, held at the Vienna International Centre, Austria, on February 14.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

European Commission officials have told just-food the European Union’s (EU) annual Euro EUR3.1 billion food production subsidy budget is facing deep cuts. Heads of government will meet November 22-23 in Brussels to agree a 2014-20 spending deal. And officials warn new proposals from European Council president Herman van Rompuy demand additional de facto cuts of 10.8% in all Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) spending – above an already planned 12% reduction.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

TIME was when hearing the British Virgin Islands (BVI) or Cayman Islands described as role models of watchfulness and legal retribution against money laundering and terrorist financing would have raised at least a snigger.

Yet these and other UK Overseas Territories (OTs) in the Caribbean have made "significant progress" in AML/CFT provisions, according to Calvin Wilson, executive director of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

European Commission officials have warned that the European Union’s (EU) annual Euro EUR140 million meat and livestock market intervention budget is facing deep cuts. Heads of government will meet November 22-23 in Brussels to agree an overall 2014-20 EU spending deal.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

THE INTERNATIONAL Air Transport Authority’s (IATA) Americas airports chief has called on Mexico’s new incoming government to make progress on the long delayed proposals to build a new international airport for Mexico City, the capital.

Indeed, Mexico City International Airport (AICM) is no longer able to accommodate the growing demands of Mexican tourism and trade, and the capital city is in desperate need of a second airport.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE WORLD has been fighting money laundering in more or less the same way for a quarter of a century now and many of those in the thick of the battle are starting to wonder, frankly, whether the game is worth the candle any more.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPE’S confectionery industry is fighting rearguard moves at the European Parliament to delay the abolition of European Union (EU) quotas on EU sugar production. A report from French conservative MEP Michel Dantin on the new EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has proposed that the quotas stay until 2020 – they are currently to be phased out by 2015.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

CARIBBEAN jurisdictions are stereotypically seen as information black-holes whose minimal filing requirements for companies and trusts facilitate fraud.

Think Stanford International Bank and Westbond International Bank, two Antigua based vehicles for high-profile Ponzi schemes. Also, the Madoff scandal in the USA led to the liquidators of Fairfield Sentry – a British Virgin Islands (BVI) domiciled hedge fund that was among Madoff’s main victims – unsuccessfully trying to claim back money from investors who had legally withdrawn money from Sentry.…

BY ROBERT STOKES, IN MÁLAGA

JUST like El Dorado, the never-was city of gold, Latin America’s 390 million Spanish speakers, are a siren call to Spanish publishers, whose domestic market numbers just 46 million souls. There is even a side bet on 190 million Portuguese speaking Brazilians

Some publishers, lured by these big numbers, have tried and failed in the past, foundering on the reefs of censorship, economic and currency volatility, and the local business culture, though taking forever to get paid – if at all – should not have come as a shock to Spanish firms.…

BY GEMMA HANDY, IN PROVIDENCIALES, TURKS & CAICOS, AND POORNA RODRIGO

SWAPPING the grey British skies for the sun-soaked shores of the Caribbean might sound like an easy decision to make.

For 56-year-old nurse Anne Males, there was some initial trepidation at how she would cope living on a tiny island with a population of just 25,000, more than an hour’s flight from the nearest major American city.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES

The Caribbean rum industry will receive a multimillion Euro boost after the European Commission signed three financial agreements with the Caribbean Forum of African Caribbean and Pacific States, identifying the sector as a priority for assistance. Senior sources from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) told just-drinks the regional run industry will be supported with EUR7.7 million out of a EUR46.5 million agreement finalised on Wednesday (April 18) that will help, for instance, remove technical barriers to trading Caribbean rum.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CARIBBEAN is a delightful place to live, if you like people. And business reflects this island region’s human scale: commercial relationships work better with real personal relationships, cemented with time and emotional investment.

Buying a newspaper usually requires a quick chat with a shopkeeper.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

THE GOLDEN rule of investments has and continues to be – if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. The most recent example of this advice being disregarded causing a high profile court case involves R Allen Stanford, Texan-banker and former multi-millionaire.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

SWINDLER, liar, bully and briber, R. Allen Stanford was once one of the world’s wealthiest men. With a net worth of USD 2 billion, the Texas-born financier lived a life of lavish luxury, with yachts, airplanes and an international bank to call his own.…

BY STEPHEN EISENHAMMER, IN RIO DE JANEIRO

BUSINESS coaching in Brazil has been growing significantly in the past few years, with a significant escalation in the number of coaches, coaching companies and training providers. Business coaching has spread rapidly from its beginnings in the Brazilian subsidiaries of big international firms, to big national companies such as industrial conglomerate Votorantim, and even now to many mid-size businesses and the public sector.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

WITH what was once an estimated net worth of over USD2 billion, R. Allen Stanford was once revered as one of the wealthiest men in America. Yet a Texas court has now heard in detail that his wealth, which he displayed in both opulent and lavish ways, was derived from ill-gotten gains.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

COLUMBIA’S largest airport has long needed a new long-term development strategy, and it would appear one is coming, with the US government helping with funding. The El Dorado International Airport, servicing Colombia’s capital Bogotá, has in recent years been oversaturated by the growing number of both passengers and cargo, and no longer has the capacity to effectively meet demands.…

BY GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE, IN PORT-AU-PRINCE

HAITI: American universities help Haiti higher education recover from earthquake

Garry Pierre Pierre

Two years after suffering from an earthquake on January 12, 2010, that wreaked intense damage on universities, Haiti’s higher education sector has benefited from international efforts that have revamped not only buildings but helped reconstruct curricula.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, IN BRUSSELS

SOLVING corruption and mismanagement problems in the African extractive industries would be boosted by the mandatory disclosure by companies of tax and revenue payments, a Brussels European Union (EU)-Africa conference on mineral wealth heard yesterday.

The continent’s paradox is that many of its nations are rich in mineral resources yet they remain some of the world’s poorest economies.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, IN BRUSSELS

SOLVING corruption and mismanagement problems in the African extractive industries would be boosted by the mandatory disclosure by companies of tax and revenue payments, a Brussels European Union (EU)-Africa conference on mineral wealth heard yesterday.

The continent’s paradox is that many of its nations are rich in mineral resources yet they remain some of the world’s poorest economies.…

BY GEMMA HANDY

Endemic corruption in a British overseas territory, compounded by claims of bribery and fraud, saw its constitution suspended and it returned to direct UK rule.

The Turks & Caicos Islands are now being prepared for a return for responsible government, but are sufficient checks and balances in place to prevent a backslide to commercial crime?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Bank has called on Latin American and Caribbean countries to reform their aviation systems and technology to boost predicted slow growth of air freight. A report predicts cargo traffic between the Latin America/Caribbean and the United States – the most important destination market – will grow 5.8% annually between 2010 and 2027.…

BY GEMMA HANDY, ERNIE SEON and KEITH NUTHALL

IT is well recognised by the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) that poor countries can struggle to effectively police anti-money laundering legislation, no matter how effective. But when poverty is combined with a state that is small in size, this challenge can be tough indeed.…

BY GEMMA HANDY

WORLDWIDE assets of the former leader of a British overseas territory have been frozen amid corruption investigations into malfeasance at the highest level in the Turks & Caicos Islands.

Its autonomous constitution was suspended and the country returned to direct British rule in August 2009 after a UK-appointed Commission of Inquiry declared corruption "endemic".…

BY MARK GODFREY

COTTON prices have eased in 2011, lifting the price pressure on major brands, according to VF Asia Pacific president Aidan O’Meara. The Hong Kong-based executive, who oversees 30 brands in the region, says it was the first time in 19 years at VF that he had seen inflation of production costs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE DUTCH Caribbean island of Curaçao will install access to Interpol’s global databases at Curaçao International Airport, after talks between its government and Interpol’s secretary general. Just north of Venezuela, Curaçao has been a transit point for international crime, especially the drugs trade, and Interpol said airport officials using its databases could henceforth instantly identify a fraudulent passport recorded on its stolen and lost travel documents database.…

BY GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE and KEITH NUTHALL

IT is more than 18 months since the earthquake that ravaged Haiti seriously damaged Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, notably its air traffic control tower, rendering it unusable. The airport suffered structural damage to its terminal building walls and there were some major electrical faults.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INTERNATIONAL football federation FIFA is struggling to protect its reputation against corruption claims sparking the provisional suspension by its ethics committee of vice-president Jack A Warner, from Trinidad, and Qatari executive committee member Mohamed bin Hammam. Both were accused of trying to bribe Caribbean Football Union (CFU) members for votes in an upcoming FIFA presidential vote.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HIGH sugar prices and tight supplies are a constant worry for confectionery manufacturers this year, and the European Union (EU) has been trying to keep these problems under control. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated that global prices rose 81.4% from last July (2010) to this January (2011) and the EU has taken action.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has drawn a curtain over the longest running trade dispute in the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) history – approving December 2009 deals on reducing EU banana import tariffs. These had been struck with the USA, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Venezuela solving complaints the EU unfairly favoured Caribbean island banana exports with quota and tariffs.…

BY GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE

HAITI: New university to be built away from earthquake devastation

Garry Pierre-Pierre

A completion date of January 2012 for a new university in Haiti has been announced by the president of the Dominican Republic Leonel Fernández. This new ‘University of Haiti’ will be built in the northern city of Cap Hatïen, costing US dollars USD30 million, fully funded by the neighbouring Dominican Republic’s government and business community.…

By Keith Nuthall

With the British general election looming this week and the prospect of a change in government, one issue seems to electrify UK electors and politicians above all others, and that is immigration. In a sense, this is not surprising.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

DEFINING a niche drink is an arbitrary matter and what may pass as niche today may well be considered mainstream tomorrow. Flavoured vodka, for instance, had a relatively specialised following in Europe until a few years ago – now it is classified as an official spirit drink under European Union (EU) regulations.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD, KARRYN MILLER, GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE, KEITH NUTHALL

FOR niche spirits, obscure can be good – and so products made in countries not renowned for their spirits production can gather export market cache. Latin America and the Caribbean are regions where effort by buyers can pay dividends.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A WORLD Bank report has told Latin American countries with major hydrocarbon resources, such as Mexico and Venezuela, to diversify their economies by reinvesting windfall export earnings from emerging markets. ‘Natural Resources in Latin America and the Caribbean: Beyond Booms and Busts?’…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Organisation for Standardization (ISO) is developing standards for natural gas fuelling stations to help promote vehicles using this alternative fuel. A new committee ISO/PC 252 will coordinate the work, developing two standards: on fuelling stations for compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GUYANA and Suriname are neighbours with a lot in common – culturally Caribbean, but on South America, they are important shipment routes for illegal drug traffickers and so exposed to money laundering offences. They are, however, not offshore financial centres and so complex financial instruments are not available for hiding the dirty cash generated by organised crime in these countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

VIETNAM’S Techcombank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank, have created a joint US dollar USD50 million fund financing energy efficiency projects in the south-east Asian country. The IFC will also finance with USD20 million an energy efficiency finance programme in the Dominican Republic operated by the Caribbean country’s Banco BHD.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE OIL palm is a prolific shrub that can be converted into palm oil, one of the most versatile fats known to man – rich in solid saturated fatty acids and able to withstand refining at high temperatures.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) panel has refused to set an advisory limit for the intake of sugar by European Union (EU) consumers. EFSA’s panel on dietetic products, nutrition and allergies has concluded in a comprehensive assessment of dietary requirements for EU consumers “there was insufficient evidence to set an upper limit for sugars”.…

By Keith Nuthall, International News Services 

With the British general election looming this week and the prospect of a change in government, one issue seems to electrify UK electors and politicians above all others, and that is immigration. In a sense, this is not surprising. What could be more an issue of public policy that affects people’s daily lives that the management of who lives in a city, community, neighbourhood or even street?

We all interested in the culture, language, shopping needs, personalities and religion of our neighbours. How they live affects everyone. And when there is change in a community, that can be difficult to deal with – because new friends and acquaintances impact on daily lives.…

BY ALISON MOODIE

THE SOUTHERN African knitwear industry has taken a serious knock over the past decade. Tough Chinese competition, a global recession and as regards the regional powerhouse South Africa – an overvalued currency – these are just some of its problems.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

According to the US department of agriculture (USDA), about 70% of the 2.5 billion litres of fruit and vegetable juices sold in Mexico in 2009 were produced domestically. Mexico exported USdollar USD266.99 million worth of juices in 2009, compared to USD308.23 million in 2008 and USD247.29 million in 2007, according the UN Comtrade database.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER

IF there is one region where high standards in fighting money laundering and terrorist finance are expected, it is surely the five Nordic states: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. Notwithstanding the criticism leveled at Iceland’s financial regulators during the credit crunch, all five countries have admirable traditions of public openness, government efficiency and international cooperation, especially amongst themselves.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has signalled it is unlikely to intervene to prevent the proposed takeover of Ukraine’s gas pipeline network by Russia’s Gazprom. Displaying his relatively relaxed attitude to closer energy links with Moscow, new German EU energy Commissioner Günter Oettinger told a press conference: "The decision has to come between Kiev and Moscow and not in Brussels."…

BY GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE

WHEN an earthquake of a magnitude of seven on the Richter scale struck Haiti in January, it destroyed most of this 9 million population Caribbean country’s infrastructure, including ports and airports. Many businesses have suffered, including the tobacco sector, with many retail outlets ruined, especially in the capital Port-au-Prince whose central business district was shattered by the quake.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

INTRODUCTION

There are signs around the world that the textile market is beginning to recover from the global economic crisis, and developing markets will be leading that recovery. Asia is, of course, at the forefront, but many countries in Latin America have also weathered the crisis and have come out in a surprisingly decent position, with their dynamic textile and apparel industries well positioned for future expansion.…

BY MARK ROWE

BOTH the oils and fats industry and environmentalists have long been aware of concerns over the oil palm, the prolific shrub that can be converted into palm oil, one of the most versatile fats known to man.

For almost as long, there have been campaigns to improve its cultivation in south-east Asia, which accounts for around 75% of global supply; but concern is now focussing on South America, where cultivation is growing rapidly, placing pressure on the Amazon rainforest and other wildlife-rich habitats in a belt stretching across central Brazil and Ecuador to Colombia’s Caribbean coast.…

BY GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE

WHEN last month’s earthquake flattened the tax office in Haiti, killing the director, many thought that it would take years to restore the country’s tax and accounting system. The headquarters of the Direction Générale de Impôts (DGI) was destroyed and its director general Jean Frantz Richard died.…

BY GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE

A CONTINUING flow of seriously injured people continue to provide deep challenges to nurses at the Port-au-Prince’s barely functioning hospitals, nearly two weeks after a massive earthquake overwhelmed medical staff.

We try to do the best we can," said Enid Paret, a nurse at the University Hospital, the Haitian capital’s largest, which was damaged by the quake but still operates.…

BY MITCH

As the international community converges on Haiti, many are fearful that the small Caribbean country will become another victim of promised international aid that falters amongst bickering and petty squabbles between donor countries and agencies.

But, in truth, this disaster could serve as a model for international aid done right, with large scale cooperation and organisation that not only relieves the immediate suffering of the Haitian people, but reestablishes the shattered remains of their infrastructure and society.…

BY GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE

HAITI’S troubled fishing industry has been dealt a severe blow by the earthquake that devastated its capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas. The destruction of the city’s port facilities, warehouses, and distribution systems means that fish, once plentiful in markets, have for the time become a rare commodity, said Michel Chancy, the undersecretary for food at Haiti’s ministry of agriculture, which is responsible for fishing and aquaculture.…

BY GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE

Astride Auguste was late for an exam at Port-au-Prince’s Quiskeya University on that fateful Tuesday January 12, when the earthquake, or ‘the event’, as Haitians have come to call it happened.

Auguste, an undergraduate student in international affairs and management was nearby the campus when she felt the earth shook beneath her.…

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 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 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 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 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 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 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.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IT has long been outmoded and inaccurate to split the world into two camps: industrialised developed economies, and largely agricultural developing countries. The growth of the 1990s and the current decade means there is a wide range of social and economic sophistication and wealth amongst the poorer of these two old-fashioned categories.…

BY JAMES FULLER

WHILE the global recession is hitting profits in the oil and gas sector worldwide, the Caribbean’s key producer Trinidad & Tobago remains bullish about the industry bringing it long term financial and economic stability. Indeed, the twin-island country’s minister of energy and energy industries Conrad Enill said this month that both a fifth liquefied natural gas (LNG) train and a new oil refinery are projects which are still firmly on the table for the Caribbean energy powerhouse.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

IN this year’s Money Laundering Bulletin series of articles on the development of an international profession of anti-money laundering (AML) specialists, we have often examined specialists working at the sharp end. But that is not the whole story of course.…

BY MARK GODFREY

THE EMPTINESS of the Giordano store in the departures terminal at massive Baiyun International Airport outside the southern Chinese megapolis of Guangzhou suggests hard times for Hong Kong’s most vaunted and ambitious apparel retailer. This is the capital of wealthy Guangzhou province after all, the manufacturing base for most of Hong Kong’s garment firms.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE THUMBSCREWS are being turned on the world’s tax havens, preventing their banks hiding assets from tax investigators worldwide. A comprehensive communiqué from April 1 and 2s’ G20 meeting in London committed member governments "to take agreed action against those jurisdictions which do not meet international standards in relation to tax transparency."…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

WHILE net revenues for tobacco product sales in some key countries in South America have experienced growth in the last few years, in general the regional tobacco product market is stagnant. Producers blame increased excise rates, public health awareness, and new and more rigidly enforced regulations for the gloom.…

BY JAMES FULLER

THE TWIN island republic of Trinidad & Tobago is many people’s idea of a tropical idyll but Sunita Kissoon, senior nurse/midwife at the Gulf View Medical Centre in San Fernando, says medical care in her country is fundamentally lacking when compared to the UK.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD, in Caracas; MARVIN HOKSTAM, in Paramaribo, JAMES FULLER, in Port of Spain

IT may seem like a good thing for fuel retailers to be based in country that is sitting on a bounty of fuel reserves. But that is not necessarily the case, as many Latin American and Caribbean retailers can testify.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have approved import quota and tariff levels for cane sugar shipped from India until 2009. The deal has been written into the EU’s sugar agreement with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states.

http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/08/st14/st14962.en08.pdf

ENDS…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) has again censured the European Union (EU) for breaching global trading rules on its long running banana dispute with the USA and Latin America. An appellate panel of the WTO disputes settlement body found the EU’s discriminatory regime favouring imports of Caribbean and African bananas over central and south American fruit illegally harms American fruit companies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CONTROLLED opening of Arctic fisheries made more accessible because of the steady retreat of polar ice through climate change has been called for in a European Commission policy paper.

It wants "a regulatory framework for [those] Arctic high seas not yet covered by an international conservation and management regime before new fishing opportunities arise," saying no fisheries should be opened for any country until such controls are established.…

BY PHILIPPA JONES, DOMINIQUE PATTON and LUCY JONES

The growth in outsourcing within the clothing and textile sector worldwide has highlighted a key issue, and that is the relative merits of running an integrated company that handles basic production and design, or relying on a string of specialist suppliers to deliver the goods, from fibre supplies, to textile manufacture, design, clothing assembly and retail.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) has again censured the European Union (EU) for breaching global trading rules on its long running banana dispute with the USA and Latin America. An appellate panel of the WTO disputes settlement body found the EU’s discriminatory regime favouring imports of Caribbean and African bananas over central and south American fruit illegally harms American fruit companies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) has again censured the European Union (EU) for failing to comply with global trading rules on its long running banana dispute with the USA and Latin America. An appellate panel of the WTO disputes settlement body found the EU’s discriminatory regime favouring the import of Caribbean and African bananas over central and south American fruit does illegally harm American fruit companies: "it nullified or impaired benefits accruing to the United States" under the WTO’s general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank making a very tangible contribution to the growth in world trade at a time of global recession by lending US$300 million to help expand the Panama Canal. This 20-year financing will support a US$5.25 billion project to double the canal’s capacity to more than 600 million Panama Canal tons, allowing it to handle large post-Panamax container ships that have become the new industry standard.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have approved import quota and tariff levels for cane sugar shipped from India until 2009. The deal has been written into the EU’s sugar agreement with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states.

http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/08/st14/st14962.en08.pdf

ENDS…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BANANA and banana product importers cannot sue the European Union (EU) for its alleged failure to abide by its World Trade Organisation commitments through giving special EU market access to Caribbean and African producers, the European Court of Justice has ruled.…

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS

SOUTH African restrictions on the import of Chinese textiles and clothing have not come to the rescue of the country’s ailing textile sector as effectively as had been hoped, Brian Brink, executive director of South African industry group Textile Federation (Texfed), has told just-style.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

THE SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 attacks on the US resulted in a raft of regulations to curb terrorist financing, but seven years on Al Qaeda is still at large, has adapted to the new regulatory environment to raise funds, and morphed into an international terrorist Hydra.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has challenged rulings by a World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) disputes settlement panel that it is breaking WTO rules simply by having a preferential tariff regime favouring Caribbean and African banana exporters over those from Latin America.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has challenged rulings by a World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) disputes settlement panel that it is breaking WTO rules simply by having a preferential tariff regime favouring Caribbean and African banana exporters over those from Latin America.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MAN-MADE ecological disaster that almost destroyed a fishing industry is now being reversed. The northern Aral Sea – once a shallow saline remnant – is now growing again, boosting fish production. Excess irrigation shrank central Asia’s Aral Sea by 70% from 1960 to 2004, and its level dropped about 20 metres, splitting it in two in 1990: a small Northern Aral Sea entirely within Kazakhstan and a large Southern Aral Sea, shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.…

BY JAMES FULLER

MANY nations have has to review their anti-terrorist financing systems and laws since the September 11 attacks in America, with its implications stretching around the world, even to regions usually untouched by political terror, such as the Caribbean.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Development Round negotiations appear to have broken down after nine days of tough, but ultimately fruitless negotiations, WTO officials told just-food.com. Diplomats were at 6.30pm GMT filing into a meeting of the WTO trade negotiations committee, expected to decide what happens next.…

BY MARVIN HOKSTAM

WHEN aviation executives gathered in Sint Maarten for the eighth Airports Conference of the Americas (July 20-22, 2008), not even the cosy Caribbean atmosphere could change their gloomy disposition on their industry. With rising fuel costs, out-of-control energy bills, airline capacity shortages and the effects of terrorism’s relentless onslaught in travel, aviation has no shortage of challenges; the officials acknowledged that there is no quick fix to their problems, so their discussions centred on alternatives.…

BY SUZANNE KOELEGA and JUHEL BROWNE

"CASINOS are an important part of the development of the Caribbean tourist sector, yet they hold a particular attraction to money launderers. Casinos provide the venues for large flows of cash, which launderers can utilise to disguise the true origins of their criminal proceeds."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN END to the world’s longest international trade dispute – over banana and banana products – was close to being solved at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), but then the deal just slipped away. At the July ministerial meeting in Geneva that tried and failed to secure agreement over the Doha Development Round of trade liberalisation negotiations, a deal was struck between European Union (EU) and Latin American banana producers to cut the EU’s import duty to Euro 114 (US$179) a tonne by 2016 for so-called dollar bananas from Latin America, after an initial cut to Euro 148 in 2009 from Euro 176 now.…

BY KARRYN CARTELLE

AUSTRALIA is currently ranked as the eighth largest market in the world – third largest within the Asia-Pacific region after Japan and Hong Kong – in terms of its total stock market capitalisation of AUD$1.63 trillion (USD$1.53 trillion) in 2007 (World Federation of Exchanges figures).…

BY KENCHO WANGDI, in Thimphu, Bhutan; JUHEL BROWNE, in Port of Spain, Trinidad; BILL CORCORAN, in Johannesburg; and KEITH NUTHALL

THE RISING price in oil has hit the prosperity of many companies, communities and countries, but it is the world’s poorest people, living in what the United Nations calls least developed countries that are suffering the most.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and USA have bought themselves more time to resolve the long-running banana trade dispute that has been subject to World Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes procedures since 1996.

They have agreed with WTO officials to postpone the adoption of a ruling branding the EU a scofflaw over its favouring the import of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) bananas over those exported from central and south America, usually by US firms.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) compliance panel has formally rejected the European Union’s (EU) discriminatory trade regime favouring imports of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) bananas over those from Latin America. It said the EU 2005 "duty-free tariff quota for bananas originating in ACP countries… failed to implement the…rulings" of the WTO.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IT is official: the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will have no truck with the European Union’s (EU) discriminatory trade regime favouring imports of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) bananas over those from Latin America. In its 2005 "duty-free tariff quota for bananas originating in ACP countries, the European Union has failed to implement the…rulings" of the WTO, ruled a special compliance panel requested by the USA.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, in London, and SUZANNE KOELEGA, in Sint Maarten, Dutch West Indies

AS with much of life today, the future of gambling is closely tied to the Internet, and this development of an international industry based on instant cross-border cash flows has raised understandable concerns about money laundering.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SAFETY certification of airports in the eastern Caribbean requires significant reform, an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) report has stressed. Drawing on Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) assessments, it raised concerns about airports in Trinidad & Tobago; Jamaica; Antigua & Barbuda; Grenada; St Kitts & Nevis; St.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) is set to rule that the European Union (EU) is still illegally protecting banana exports from the Caribbean and Africa, but there is no prospect of this long running dispute being solved swiftly.…

BY LUCY JONES, in Dallas; ALAN OSBORN, in London; KARRYN CARTELLE, in Tokyo; BILL CORCORAN, in Johannesburg; PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut; RACHEL JONES, in Caracas; MARK ROWE; and KEITH NUTHALL

WITH the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Development Round being slow to proceed since its 2001 launch – and only this year approaching something resembling and end game – free traders wanting to encourage global commerce have looked to bilateral and regional trade deals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has been approving a series of operational programmes for many European Union (EU) member states’ fishing (and aquaculture) sectors, outlining how it will target money from the European Fisheries Fund (EFF).

One of the largest recipients of this Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) subsidy scheme is France, which is to receive Euro 216 million from 2007-13, less than it received under the 2000-2006 Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG), which supplied Euro 278 million.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUM producers from French overseas departments (counties) have been given a 50% tax break on excise duty charged on sales within mainland France, stretching until December 2012. Most affected manufacturers are based on the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe and the Indian Ocean island of Réunion.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE USA and the European Union (EU) have opened to the public a disputes panel at the World Trade Organisation considering their 12-year diplomatic battle over the banana trade. Washington – backed by Latin American producers – still claims the EU unfairly favours Caribbean and African banana producers.…

BY SUZANNE KOELEGA, in Sint Maarten, Netherlands Antilles, JAMES FULLER, in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, and KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR shake up is looming in the political organisation of the Caribbean, with the impending dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles federation, and the creation of separate political units for its composite islands Curaçao, Bonaire, Sint Maarten, Saba and Sint Eustatius (Statia).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Commission official has told just-food.com that while the European Union (EU) may have lost the latest World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute over market access for banana exports, this ruling should soon become irrelevant.

The senor official at the Commission’s trade directorate general claimed the WTO panel said the ruling will be superseded by liberalisation reforms being implemented for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) banana exporters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UNITED States and the European Union (EU) have agreed to open to the public the November 6 and 7 meetings of a disputes panel at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) considering their 12-year diplomatic battle over the banana trade.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUM producers from French overseas departments (counties) have been given a 50% tax break on excise duty charged on sales within mainland France, stretching until December 2012. The European Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved the derogation from standard EU excise rules, after French government claims that these rum manufacturers are vulnerable commercially.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUM producers from French overseas departments (counties) have been given a 50% tax break on excise duty charged on sales within mainland France, which will stretch until December 2012. The European Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved this as a derogation from standard EU excise rules, after French government claims that these rum manufacturers are vulnerable commercially.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE DISPUTE at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over the allegedly illegal protection of African and Caribbean bananas within the European Union (EU) has flared up again. Following a request by the United States a special ‘compliance panel’ has been established today at the WTO to examine whether the EU has fulfilled an earlier ruling ordering European banana market liberalisation.…

BY SUZANNE KOELEGA, in Sint Maarten
AS leaders of various Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries and US President George Bush debated regional security in Washington DC in June, Caribbean nations continue to struggle with serious commercial crime that threatens their regional stability.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, in Sint Maarten
A NEW Caribbean airport terminal has been opened to secure Sint Maarten’s Princess Juliana International Airport’s (PJIA) role as a regional hub. Formally launched by the Netherlands’ Queen Beatrix November 10, the airport serves the world’s smallest territory split between two sovereign states (Dutch Sint Maarten and French Saint Martin).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A JOINT European Union-African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Group of States study into women working in developing country aquaculture has concluded such businesses are probably more economically and environmentally sustainable with female management involvement than men-only enterprises. The report has just been released by the European Commission and includes case studies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union anti-fraud agency OLAF has uncovered a rules-of-origin fraud where 4,000 tonnes raw cane sugar was illicitly imported into Britain and Malta under duty-free African-Caribbean-Pacific quotas. The sugar was Brazilian, evading Euro 2 million duties.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NICARAGUA has joined the latest round of formal disputes talks demanded by Ecuador at the World Trade Organisation, over the European Union’s banana import system, which Managua says favours Caribbean island producers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) anti-fraud agency OLAF has helped uncover three rules-of-origin frauds costing EU coffers millions of Euros. In one case, an OLAF-German police inquiry has uncovered the loss of Euro 50 million in duties by the illicit rerouting of Chinese energy-saving lamps via Vietnam, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka and Tunisia to evade 66.1% anti-dumping duties on China-made lamps; Euro 7 million of avoided taxation has been recovered.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) anti-fraud unit OLAF has uncovered a rules-of-origin fraud, where 4,000 tonnes of raw cane sugar was illicitly imported into Britain and Malta duty free, using special rights available to African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) countries. The sugar was actually Brazilian and refined in Bulgaria, so Euro 2 million duties was evaded.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has voted that subsidies paid to banana producers in EU non-European territories – such as French Caribbean islands Guadeloupe and Martinique – remain linked to production.

ENDS…

BY WESLEY GIBBINGS, in Port of Spain, Trinidad

THE WHITTLING away of preferential export markets for traditional Caribbean agricultural production has sparked economic pain in the region, but it has also generated innovation in the form of new confectionary and sweet baked products, available for export.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THINK of Latin American mines, and political and industrial
relations instability springs to mind. Pictures of poncho’d Bolivian Amerindians demonstrating against poor conditions,
hurling rocks at robocops armed to the teeth….

The truth is that the mining industry often gets a bad rap in Latin America and, to be honest, it has often been run poorly, especially in environmental terms.…

BY JAMES FULLER, in Port of Spain

CRICKETERS and illegally-licensed drivers are two of the more unusual factors currently affecting the Caribbean paint market.

The impending Cricket World Cup, to be held in the West Indies during March and April 2007, has spawned a flurry of construction activity with resultant benefits for the paint industry.…

BY WESLEY GIBBINGS, in Port of Spain

TIME-WAS that food production in the Caribbean was dominated by commodities, with sugar and bananas being king and queen of island economies. Protected from the rigours of world markets by age-old ties to current or former colonial markets, these cash crop supplies remained largely unchanged for centuries.…

BY LIZ HALL

SIX years ago, government representatives from nine South American countries gathered in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, to sign a document of great importance to those concerned with fighting money-laundering (ML) and terrorism financing (TF).

On December 8, 2000, representatives of the governments of the following countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, signed the Founding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) formally establishing GAFISUD, a regional body modelled on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CARICOM Caribbean economic community has announced Haiti can access the Trinidad & Tobago Petroleum Fund, established in 2004 by the oil-exporting twin island nation to help neighbouring countries deal with high international oil prices.

ENDS…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE REIMPOSITION of quota limits last year on some Chinese textile products has driven official overseas sales down, according to European Commission figures. During the first quarter of 2006, China saw an overall decrease in exports to the EU of minus 12% in volume, although unit prices increased by 9%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LATEST annual report from European Union (EU) anti-fraud agency OLAF has told how an unnamed Caribbean customs authority cancelled proof of origin certificates covering more than 21 million pieces of knitted textiles (mainly jerseys, pullovers and cardigans).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LATEST annual report from European Union (EU) anti-fraud agency OLAF has told how an unnamed Caribbean customs authority cancelled proof of origin certificates covering more than 21 million pieces of knitted textiles (mainly jerseys, pullovers and cardigans).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THERE is a large and growing list of regional money laundering organisations, with formal or informal links with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), so a question mark could hang over why the Commonwealth is getting involved in fighting dirty money.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has initialled new fishing access deals with two African island nations: São Tomé e Principe, off west Africa, and Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean. The Madagascan deal will last six years from January 2007, and exclusively covers tuna.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally proposed the minimum price for sugar exports from African, Caribbean, Pacific (ACP) countries to the EU, delivered July 2005 to June 2006 be Euro 52.37/100 kilograms for raw sugar and Euro 64.65 for white sugar.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is negotiating guaranteed 2006/7 cane sugar prices for deliveries from India plus the African, Caribbean, Pacific (ACP) block of countries: probably Euro 631.90/tonne for white sugar and Euro 496.80/tonne for raw sugar.

ENDS…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is negotiating guaranteed 2006/7 cane sugar prices for deliveries from India plus the African, Caribbean, Pacific (ACP) block of countries. In probably the last such talks before the EU sugar regime is reformed, a decision is expected May 1, and will probably be Euro 631.90/tonne for white sugar and Euro 496.80/tonne for raw sugar.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MULTILATERAL Investment Guarantee Agency, or MIGA, is the international organisation companies turn to when they want to invest in a jurisdiction where their assets might not be that safe. Oil and gas companies have long used MIGA to cover risks that are too tasty for the private insurance industry, and at December 2005, MIGA had supported 13 oil and gas projects, with guarantees totalling US$707 million, with a standard leverage of five-to-one, so investments covered are actually five times larger.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is to open a European Union duty-free tariff banana import quota of 615,000 tonnes for ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) countries for March-December 2006: five tranches of 93,630 tonnes "first come, first served", the remaining 146,850 tonnes reserved for established suppliers.…

BY WESLEY GIBBINGS, in Port of Spain, Trinidad

WITH its multiple small jurisdictions, offshore tax havens and proximity to both drug producing countries in Latin America and the United States, the Caribbean has always been a focus of global anti-money laundering efforts.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

IN line with the growing recognition in the 1980s of anti-money laundering campaigns as a weapon against terrorism and increased knowledge global drug supply routes, (implicating a number of Latin American countries), governments of the western hemisphere concluded that greater formal co-operation was necessary in fighting dirty money.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

IN line with the growing recognition in the 1980s of anti-money laundering campaigns as a weapon against terrorism and increased knowledge global drug supply routes, (implicating a number of Latin American countries), governments of the western hemisphere concluded that greater formal co-operation was necessary in fighting dirty money.…

BY WESLEY GIBBINGS, in Port of Spain

THE NEW national university for the Caribbean archipelago of Trinidad & Tobago has distributed 500 degrees and diplomas and five honorary doctorates even before construction of a main campus building has been completed. The apparent anomaly is partially explained by the fact that the new University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) has assimilated the teaching staff, building and student population of the now-defunct, Trinidad-government Institute of Technology (TTIT) back in 2003.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BANKS in Surinam and Guyana have been asked to operate a rice production improvement fund worth Euro 10 million, aimed at helping these South American countries prosper in world food markets. The Caribbean Forum of the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) States, or CARIFORUM, is spending Euro 6.5 million in Guyana and Euro 3.5 million in Surinam, to invest in rice processors, millers and growers, increasing the sector’s "efficiency and competitiveness".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DECEMBER 2005’s semi-successful World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit in Hong Kong means that the sacrifice forced upon the European Union’s (EU) well protected sugar sector the month before will – largely – be worth the pain. Unlike the previous big WTO meeting, in Cancun, Mexico, trade ministers did not leave in rancour having achieved little.…

EU SUGAR REFORM MARKET REPORT – CAP

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DECEMBER 2005’s semi-successful World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit in Hong Kong means that the sacrifice forced upon the European Union’s (EU) well protected sugar sector the month before will – largely – be worth the pain.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SUMMIT meeting of 100 Caribbean religious leaders has agreed that their organisations and laity will cooperate with and actively support governmental, non-governmental and other agencies fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS, while helping care for people infected with the disease.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EU has again lowered its protection of the Caribbean banana industry. The EU ministers have now approved an import tariff of Euro 176/tonne from January 1 for all WTO member countries, barring African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) group former EU colonies, which receive a duty-free annual import quota of 775,000 tonnes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LATEST World Health Organisation (WHO) figures on HIV/AIDS indicate some heavily afflicted countries are seeing infection rates fall. Kenya and Zimbabwe are among those with declining infections: amongst all adults in Kenya, from 10% in the late 1990s to 7% in 2003; and among pregnant women in Zimbabwe falling, from 26% in 2003 to 21% in 2004.…

BY MONICA DOBIE and KEITH NUTHALL, in Sint Maarten and Anguilla

DOLPHINARIUMS are an increasingly sought after once in a lifetime experience but these marine amusement parks remain controversial. Is it about big business exploiting these highly intelligent creatures for fat profits or do they provide people with an intimate experience that allows them to better understand them?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DECEMBER 2005’s semi-successful World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit in Hong Kong means that the sacrifice forced upon the European Union’s (EU) well protected sugar sector the month before will – largely – be worth the pain. Unlike the previous big WTO meeting, in Cancun, Mexico, trade ministers did not leave in rancour having achieved little.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EU must reconsider its planned Euro 187/tonne tariff for Latin America bananas, while Caribbean and African producers get an annual duty-free quota of 775,000 tonnes, said the WTO.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has been told by the WTO to reconsider its planned tariff of Euro 187 for bananas imported from Latin America, whilst Caribbean and African producers had an annual duty-free quota of 775,000 tonnes.…

BY WESLEY GIBBINGS
THE RELATIONSHIP between Caribbean people and tobacco could have at one time been described as virtually umbilical, with important outward feeders to Europe and other parts of the world. Tobago, the smaller unit of the twin-island state of Trinidad & Tobago, bears the name of the instrument used by native Amerindians 500 years ago to smoke Burly blends.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ROLE of the Caribbean as a staging point for ill-gotten gains goes back to the trans-Atlantic misadventures of the first European ships over 400 years ago. It would appear some habits die hard. Wesley Gibbings reports from Port of Spain, Trinidad.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SUGAR exporting countries from the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries have agreed at a meeting in Kenya to continue “a relentless fight” against planned European Union sugar reforms.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A WORLD Trade Organisation disputes panel has branded unfair and illegal a European Union planned new banana import regime with a single tariff of Euro 230 per tonne for Latin American imports, exempting African, Caribbean and Pacific suppliers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has revised proposed banana tariffs for Latin American suppliers to Euro 187 a tonne, whilst maintaining a zero-duty quota for African, Caribbean and Pacific bananas of 775,000 per year. The Commission has also asked the World Trade Organisation to rule on whether its new plan complies with global commerce regulations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has revised proposed banana tariffs for Latin American suppliers to Euro 187 a tonne, whilst maintaining a zero-duty quota for African, Caribbean and Pacific bananas of 775,000 per year.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
MORE than 20 years after an agreement was first proposed, a deal has been struck between the European Union (EU) and the United States over wine and both sides have acclaimed it. But has the EU given too much away?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, in Philipsburg, Sint Maarten
A CARIBBEAN brewery claiming to manufacture the world’s only beer made from desalinated seawater will close, following a decision by its owners Antillean Brewery, which is 56% controlled by Heineken. Brewing a range of Amstel beers on the Netherlands Antilles island of Curaçao, the closure is likely to cost 55 employees their jobs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE LONG-RUNNING dispute at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) between Honduras and the Dominican Republic over the Caribbean island state’s cigarette import red tape and taxes appears to have been solved, with both sides agreeing to suspend ongoing arbitration.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
FIGHTING money laundering is about getting your hands dirty. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) may pronounce global standards that it would like jurisdictions to follow, but all governments need help, and often regional bodies are better placed to do the detailed work than more remote global organisations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Trade Organisation dispute between Honduras and the Dominican Republic over the Caribbean island state’s cigarette import red tape and taxes has been formally solved. Both sides agreed its system should be liberalised by May 2007, dispensing with an arbitrator.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CARIBBEAN’S leading oil and gas producer Trinidad & Tobago says that an oil fund facility established for neighbouring small states is growing at US$4.1 million monthly. The money is transferred from the country’s oil revenues and is earmarked to help its Caribbean customers fight poverty while petroleum prices remain high.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AT least 12.3 million people are trapped in forced labour around the world, says the International Labour Organisation (ILO), with the overwhelming majority being in Asia. A new report said 9.5 million forced labourers were in Asia; 1.3 million in Latin America and the Caribbean; 660,000 in sub-Saharan Africa; 260,000 in the Middle East and North Africa; 360,000 in industrialised countries; and 210,000 in ‘transition’ countries, for instance in eastern Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GLOBAL sugar industry will scrutinise the text of an appeal verdict issued yesterday (28-4) by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), confirming an earlier decision that European Union’s (EU) existing sugar subsidies break WTO rules. The European Commission has already accepted the decision, which is important, because it will on June 22 publish detailed reforms and EU agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has responded: “I will take account of this verdict when I finalise the reform proposals”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ECUADOR, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras and Guatemala have launched disputes proceedings at the WTO opposing the planned level of EU duties on their banana exports from 2006, when the current quota system is scrapped. Caribbean producers will pay lower tariffs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank’s latest global development indicators show sub-Saharan Africa as the world’s laggard regarding the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. For instance, east Asia/Pacific; eastern Europe/central Asia; Latin America/Caribbean; and the Middle East/north Africa regions have moved solidly towards reducing child mortality by two-thirds in 2015.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DIVISIONS over the EU sugar regime reforms have been clarified at a European Union (EU) Council of Ministers (agriculture) meeting. British, Danish, German, Swedish, Latvian and Maltese delegations wanted “rapid reform, to make the sector more competitive”, though concerns of ex-European colonies in the African Pacific Caribbean (ACP) bloc “should be taken into account”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice is expected to reject a claim by nine Italian and one British banana importers that the European Commission should have allowed them to use licences to import African, Caribbean, Pacific bananas to sell bananas from other countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ECUADOR, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras and Guatemala have launched disputes proceedings at the World Trade Organisation opposing planned European Union duties on their banana exports from 2006, when current quotas are scrapped. Caribbean producers will pay lower tariffs.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON and KEITH NUTHALL
THE SPORTS and entertainment industries thirst for sponsorship, and with the ever-growing boom in televising sporting events worldwide via satellite, the chance to expose a drinks company logo to world audiences in their billions should make sponsorship a sellers’ market.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has dealt a blow to the hopes of international lawyers wanting to launch legal actions by exploiting World Trade Organisation (WTO) rulings. It has ruled that WTO decisions and agreements are essentially diplomatic, with have no direct effect on European Union (EU) law.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
PRESIDENT George W Bush’s re-election last November has pretty well ruled out any change in the US ban on Cuban cigars for the next four years – if anything, things are likely to get tougher. One of the last things the previous Bush administration did last October was to actually tighten the import ban by barring Americans travelling to Cuba from bringing back up to US$100 dollars worth of Cuban cigars.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GERMAN and Italian subsidiaries of US fruit giant Dole, (Dole Fresh Fruit Europe and Comafrica SpA) have lost European Court of Justice bids to secure damage against the European Commission over its assistance to Caribbean banana producers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SUGAR action plan has been published by the European Commission to help African, Caribbean and Pacific producers improve their efficiency, after the liberalisation of the European Union sugar regime makes Europe’s market more competitive. Brussels will also help these sugar producers adopt different crops.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AFRICAN, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) sugar producing developing countries have attacked European Commission common market reform plans that would erode their existing preferential sugar trade regime with the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHIQUITA Brands, the American fruit company behind the US-led assault on Europe’s protection of fragile Caribbean banana producers, has lost a bid for damages against the European Commission for standing in its way. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) threw out Chiquita’s case.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE HONDURAS government is seeking to improve its victory over the Dominican Republic in its disputes case at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), where a panel ruled last December that the Caribbean island state had unfairly restricted the import of Honduran cigarettes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is planning from 2006 to introduce Euro 230/tonne duties on Latin American bananas imported into the EU, while African, Caribbean and Pacific suppliers would pay lower duties. Dollar bananas currently attract Euro 75/tonne.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SUMMIT meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has decided to formally inaugurate the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) on April 16 at Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. This is despite the Privy Council ruling that Jamaica had broken its own constitution in passing a law replacing its Law Lords as a final court of appeal with the CCJ.…

BY MONICA DOBIE and KEITH NUTHALL, in Sint Maarten and Anguilla

DOLPHINARIUMS are an increasingly sought after once in a lifetime experience but these marine amusement parks remain controversial. Is it about big business exploiting these highly intelligent creatures for fat profits or do they provide people with an intimate experience that allows them to better understand them?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SUMMIT meeting of 100 Caribbean religious leaders has agreed that their organisations and laity will cooperate with and actively support governmental, non-governmental and other agencies fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS, while helping care for people infected with the disease.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LATEST World Health Organisation (WHO) figures on HIV/AIDS indicate some heavily afflicted countries are seeing infection rates fall. Kenya and Zimbabwe are among those with declining infections: amongst all adults in Kenya, from 10% in the late 1990s to 7% in 2003; and among pregnant women in Zimbabwe falling, from 26% in 2003 to 21% in 2004.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NON-DIOXIN LIKE PCB CONTAMINATION WARNING – EFSA

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has called on the food industry to further minimise non-dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (NDL-PCBs) in food, because of health concerns about excess contamination. * http://www.efsa.eu.int/science/contam/contam_opinions/1229/contam_op_ej284_ndl-pcb_en1.pdf

ECJ SMOKED FLAVOURINGS CRISPS – BRITAIN APPEAL

A EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has rejected a British government attempt to strike down a EU regulation controlling smoke flavourings in foods.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DECEMBER 2005’s semi-successful World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit in Hong Kong means that the sacrifice forced upon the European Union’s (EU) well protected sugar sector the month before will – largely – be worth the pain. Unlike the previous big WTO meeting, in Cancun, Mexico, trade ministers did not leave in rancour having achieved little.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW Terrence B. Lettsome International Airport for the British Virgin Islands (BVI) should be completed this June. It has involved an apron expansion, landscaping and the construction of a sewerage treatment plant, a control tower and a new runway.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITH United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan facing unprecedented pressure for his resignation over the involvement of his son in the brewing Iraq oil for food scandal, the spotlight has again fallen on the finances of his global body.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS a truly global criminal problem, it is only right that fighting money laundering is a key priority of the United Nations (UN). Its general assembly and key committees have made declarations and approved conventions on the subject, and its specialist agencies have also devoted time, money, specialist staff and energy to fighting the problem.…

Keith Nuthall
AIR tickets for young, old and poor passengers, plus family groups, flying between France’s Caribbean islands Guadeloupe and Saint Martin and the French mainland will be subsidised Euro 100-300 per person by the national government.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has authorised the French government to subsidise airline Air Caraïbes’ equipping of two Airbus A 330-200’s to fly between its Caribbean departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique and mainland France. Air Caraïbes would enter the trans-Atlantic market as a result.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
IT’S not quite “back to the drawing board chaps” for sugar reform in the European Union (EU) now that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has formally ruled against the present system but some new thinking is surely needed – and quickly.…

Keith Nuthall
THE ITALIAN government is likely to come under pressure from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to increase the liberalisation of its groundhandling services market. In a formal opinion to the court, which are usually followed by judges, ECJ advocate general Philippe LÃ(c)ger has ruled that by protecting the social rights of existing groundhandling services and their staff, Italy is breaking directive 96/67/EC, the European Union’s first attempt to open up this airport sector.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations agency coordinating the world’s airlines has claimed the industry is finally shaking off its post-September 11 gloom and will post robust growth figures this year and onto 2006. Predictions released by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) say that global airline passenger traffic should grow by 6.2% this year and continue to expand by 5.4% in 2005 and 5.2% in 2006.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BLOW to smaller developing countries far from key American and European markets from the abolition of protective quotas in January could be cushioned by the continuing use of preferential tariffs, a new World Trade Organisation (WTO) report has predicted.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EU has lost a WTO disputes proceedings over its planned new banana import regime. A panel branded unfair Brussels plans for a single tariff of Euro 230 per tonne for Latin American imports, whilst exempting African, Caribbean and Pacific suppliers group (ACP).…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has prioritised measures within an EU action plan improving developing countries’ commodities trade, especially cotton. The first steps taken by the European Commission and member states should include developing trade flows through regional deals such as EU-ACP (African, Caribbean, Pacific) agreements, and promoting commodity-based public-private partnerships.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union has agreed guaranteed prices for sugar traded with India and its ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) partners until June 2005. They are for raw sugar: Euro 52.37/100 kilograms; and white sugar: Euro 64.65/100 kilograms.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has admitted Mozambique to the EU’s sugar market access agreement with producing countries in the African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) block.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and 16 Caribbean countries have launched negotiations to strike a 2008 trade deal, that should boost rum exports into Europe. The spirit is already the eastern Caribbean’s largest export to the EU, (11 per cent of sales – worth around Euro 320 million in 2003), with import quota restrictions removed from 2000.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EASTERN Caribbean governments and the European Commission have launched talks to strike a bi-regional trade deal that would especially ease the import of Caribbean sugar and bananas into the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and 16 Caribbean countries have launched negotiations to strike a trade deal by 2008, that should boost Jamaican bauxite exports into Europe. The mineral is already the eastern Caribbean’s largest non-food export to the EU, (eight per cent of all the region’s foreign sales being aluminium-related products – worth around Euro 223 million in 2003).…

BY MARK WILSON
AWASH with recently-passed legislation and newly-established Financial Investigation Units, the small nations of the Caribbean have transformed their money laundering controls since the mid-1990s. In 2000, five Caribbean island jurisdictions made up one-third of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list of fifteen non-cooperative countries and territories, each of them with ‘serious systemic problems,’ in the words of a FATF review published on June 22 of that year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WATER utilities involved in development work overseas can now tap a Euro 1 billion budget approved last week (22-3) by the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers, earmarked for water and sanitation projects in African, Caribbean and Pacific island developing countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WATER utilities involved in development work overseas can now tap a Euro 1 billion budget approved last week (22-3) by the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers, earmarked for water and sanitation projects in African, Caribbean and Pacific island developing countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MOZAMBIQUE will be admitted to the European Union’s special sugar market access agreement with producing countries in the African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) block of (mostly) former colonies, following a European Commission inquiry into its sugar export industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MOZAMBIQUE will be admitted to the European Union’s special sugar market access agreement with producing countries in the African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) block of (mostly) former colonies, following a European Commission inquiry into its sugar export industry.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE GOVERNMENTS of 34 countries from the Americas will be struggling today (Wed19/11) to come to a draft trade agreement, much of which centres on agricultural subsidies. The Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting being held in Miami has seen two competing camps vying for control.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EASHW) and the Organisation of American States have struck a deal, leading them to cooperate in the publicising of health and safety best practice that can be applied on both sides of the Atlantic.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
TOURISM once was regarded as a key to the developing world’s ills, allowing poor countries to make money out of their natural landscape and cultural attractions, but as with most success stories, there is a downside. In some countries, tourism has boomed so suddenly and aggressively, the development it has sparked has threatened to go out of control, spoiling the delights that lured tourists in the first place and creating a host of new environmental problems for governments to deal with.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL in Paris, ALAN OSBORN in London, MARK ROWE in Singapore, ED PETERS and DON GASPER in Hong Kong, RICHARD HURST in Johannesburg, MONICA DOBIE and PHILIP FINE in Montreal, MATTHEW BRACE in Brisbane and ALEX SMAILES in Port of Spain.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
POLITICAL pressure is being applied by the European Parliament for negotiators at the ongoing World Trade Organisation’s Doha development round to impede developing countries from privatising their water systems. In a resolution on water services in poor countries, MEP’s called for a “serious assessment” of the privatisation of water services in developing countries and for its results “to be taken into account” in negotiations for updating the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN 1995, when I visited the Laos capital Vientiane, it was a sleepy place; a quiet low rise French colonial town on the banks of the Mekong, a listless, aimless, but charming mix of Soviet-style socialist monuments, Buddhist temples and Provencal town houses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is opposing the launch of a WTO case by Brazil, Australia and Thailand against EU sugar subsidies, claiming that the a successful challenge would undermine the trade preferences given to Europe’s sugar imports from poorer African, Pacific and Caribbean.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is opposing the launch of a WTO case by Brazil, Australia and Thailand against EU sugar subsidies, claiming a successful challenge would undermine trade preferences given to Europe’s sugar imports from poorer African, Pacific and Caribbean.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is opposing the launch of a WTO case by Brazil, Australia and Thailand against EU sugar subsidies, claiming a successful challenge would undermine trade preferences given to Europe’s sugar imports from poorer African, Pacific and Caribbean.…

BY ALEX SMALES
IN the Caribbean’s key capital of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, the branch of six-outlet chain RIK bookstores told the Bookseller it had sold more than “1,000 copies on the opening day,” with customers queuing for sales.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
THE CLUTCH of much-maligned offshore financial centres (OFCs) on remote Pacific islands have been swamped by so many accusations of impropriety, they are now struggling to stay afloat.

Labelled as palm-fringed, sun-drenched laundries for the world’s dirty money, these tiny island states and dependent territories are trying to fend off attempts by international organisations to excommunicate them from the global financial church.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CARIBBEAN sugar processing companies in the Caribbean have lost a bid for damages at the European Court of Justice, over claims they were wrongfully penalised by safeguard duties imposed on their exports into the European Union. Rica Foods, Free Trade Foods and Suproco, of the (non-EU) Netherlands Antilles and Aruba were ordered to pay costs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS with many projects inspired by the start of the next 997 years and the last three, the framing of the United Nations’ (UN) Millennium Development Goals was an ambitious enterprise.

Imposing statistically measurable targets for international organisations and national governments in making improvements in global poverty, education, gender equality, health, the environment and education, they have proved tough to attain.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SPANISH government has agreed to cooperate with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to fight breaches of copyright, especially in digital publishing. A joint memorandum of understanding committed both sides to cooperate over training, publicity campaigns and information exchanges.…

BY ALEX SMAILES, in Port of Spain, Trinidad
BRITISH cruise ships are planning to return to Trinidad after pulling out due to a report of planned terrorist attacks against UK nationals from Islamic groups on the island. The two companies – P&O cruises and Princess Cruises – made the decision after information from the British Foreign and Commonwealth office (FCO).…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE AMERICAN Textile Manufacturers Institute (ATMI) is voicing its opposition to the Bush administration’s recent tariff-slashing proposal for the ongoing World Trade Organisation Doha Development Round, saying the trade plan will further open the market to China and wipe out US$13 billion worth of US business.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
LONGSTANDING Canadian meat traders have vowed not to ship to Cuba in future because the Caribbean island dumped them for American competitors.

The switch followed an agreement in November 2001 by Fidel Castro to buy agricultural goods from US companies, following a hurricane that ravaged his country.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CONCEPT of nation building is not new. Powerful governments have for centuries sought to create pliant political administrations which would do their bidding, without being directly under their control. It is, after all, in noone’s interest for a territory to descent into chaos.…

BY PHILIP FINE

AMERICAN dyers and finishers are celebrating after the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act was amended by US House of Representatives to clarify the definition of US fabric bought by Caribbean clothing manufacturers wishing to take advantage of the law’s preferential trade terms.…

BY PHILIP FINE

AMERICAN clothing manufacturers are lamenting amendments passed to the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act by US House of Representatives to clarify the definition of US fabric bought by Caribbean clothing manufacturers wishing to take advantage of the law’s preferential trade terms.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has authorised the European Commission to negotiate guaranteed prices for sugar suppliers from India and the so called ACP (African Caribbean Pacific) group of countries, which has special trade relations with the EU.…

Keith Nuthall
A SPECIAL conference on settling a number of maritime border disputes in the Caribbean has been launched, which could help develop international law regarding the effect of uninhabited island on establishing exclusive economic zones.

One wrangle is between Venezuela and the Caribbean island state of St Kitts and Nevis, which has been protesting about maritime boundary treaties concluded by the south American state regarding the so-called Isla Aves; they grant the islands full territorial sea status, including an exclusive economic zone, or continental shelf.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FOR an institution known for its tortoise-like deliberations, the World Trade Organisation has set itself such tight deadlines to make serious progress in its ongoing agricultural round that it will have to work, in its terms, at break-neck speed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has approved an application from France to extend for another seven years its right to reduce by up to half the rate of excise duty applied in mainland France to traditional rum from the French Caribbean and Indian Ocean departments of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion and Guyane.…

BY MARK ROWE
BMW has appointed a woman to head its Asian head office in Singapore, a move unprecedented in the history of the country. Birgit Maier is set to take up the position of managing director of BMW Asia in April, replacing the present chief, Felix Herrnberger.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EU has agreed with a number of sugar-producing ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) countries and separately with India on the supply of cane sugar to European refiners over the next five years. A duty-free quota of 10,000 tonnes has been set for India but may be increased if other supplies fall short.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
BRITAIN and the Netherlands have been authorised by the EU council of finance ministers to begin negotiations with associated territories – in the UK’s case the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and Caribbean dependent territories – for the elimination of secret savings accounts.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to approve the transfer of Euro 60 million from the general EU 2001 budget, (most of which is currently earmarked for fishery support), to help finance the UN’s Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in developing countries.…

KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to approve the transfer of Euro 60 million from the general EU 2001 budget, (most of which is currently earmarked for fishery support), to help finance the UN’s Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in developing countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to approve the payment of Euro 60 million from the general EU 2001 budget to help finance the UN’s Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The money will be the first of two tranches, with the European Commission developing plans to give another Euro 60 million from the European Development Fund to be reserved for African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to approve the transfer of Euro 60 million from the general EU 2001 budget, (most of which is currently earmarked for fishery support), to help finance the UN’s Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in developing countries.…

KEITH NUTHALL
IN what could almost be said to be a Brussels tradition, the beginning of the long summer break at the European Commission – when officials disappear to the south of France to lap up the Mediterranean sun – is usually heralded by the announcement of a series of legal cases against Member States.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE TIMING of concessions that can be achieved at the World Trade Organisation’s agricultural round, sweeping away the high tariffs, import quotas, production subsidies and export credits that make the working lives of every agricultural exporter more of a struggle, are likely to be set in the next three months.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WASTEWATER

The European Commission has decided to take France and Belgium to the court for flouting the EU Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive. France, alleges the Commission, has failed to identify enough sensitive areas bodies of water that are eutrophic, or are otherwise seriously polluted by wastewater.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States has formally lifted its retaliatory 100 per cent duties on EU exports of bath preparations, other than bath salts, following the solution of the years-long row with the European Union over its import procedures for Caribbean bananas.…

Keith Nuthall
THE UNITED States has lifted its retaliatory 100 per cent duties on EU exports of cotton bed linen, following the solution of the years-long row with the European Union over its import procedures for Caribbean bananas. The duties had been authorised by the WTO, which had concluded that the EU had broken global trading laws by offering preferential access to its markets to Caribbean bananas.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE CONFECTIONARY industry has not escaped the onset of globalisation. Indeed, the trade in confectionary and sweet bakery food products has become increasingly international in the past 20 years and there is no sign of this trend reversing.…