Search Results for: China

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission announced this afternoon (Oct 2) decided to launch a review of the European Union’s (EU) anti-dumping duties on leather shoes from China and Vietnam, extending their operation while this study is undertaken.

This will upset many exporters and importers, as well as 15 of the 27 EU member states who opposed the review.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, JAMES BURNS, RAGHAVENDRA VERMA and PHILIPPA JONES

"IT is better to be beautiful than to be good," wrote Oscar Wilde in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’. Many cosmetics and personal care companies worldwide may still believe this statement to be true, but being, or at least claiming to be, "good" has become an essential part of the sector’s public image.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A LEAKED World Bank report has claimed that the biofuels boom is responsible for 75% of the increase in global food prices since 2006, much larger than previously assumed. The European Commission has, for instance, always maintained biofuels are having a slight impact on food prices, pushing them up by as little as 3%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CHINESE government launched unprecedented traffic restrictions in Beijing to tame the city’s notorious air pollution ahead of August’s Olympic Games. It has banned half of the city’s 3.3 million cars from its streets for two months from July 20.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

The European Commission has submitted for approval by the EU Council of Ministers an agreement between the EU and China on drug precursors and substances frequently used in the illicit manufacture of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances. Brussels said that the EU was the world’s largest source of synthetic drugs such as amphetamine and MDMA ("ecstasy") and China was the major world supplier of precursors for them.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

SUSTAINABILITY has moved firmly to the top of the corporate agenda in the oils and fats sector following Unilever’s announcement in May that it intended to have all of its palm oil certified sustainable by 2015. By any measure this would be a bold pledge but coming from the world’s largest consumer of palm oil (Unilever takes 4% of total global production to make its food and cosmetic products) it serves additionally to raise the bar for others.…

BY JAMES BURNS

REYNOLDS American Inc has announced the appointment of Luc Jobin and Holly K. Koeppel to its board of directors. Both will serve on the board’s audit and finance committee.

The parent company of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Conwood Company, LLC, Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, and R.J.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

FRITS Vranken, senior vice president for business development at Japan Tobacco International (JTI), has recently seen his role expanded since his 2006 appointment at JTI’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Mr Vranken’s role changed at the start of 2008 to include corporate strategy, tobacco taxation and internal communications.…

BY CLEMENCE MANYUKWE

ZIMBABWE tobacco farmer Kobus Joubert looks to the heavens gloomily as he prepares to sleep by the roadside next to his Chegutu farm. Those who know him say they have only seen that look when there is an impending drought.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IMPORT duties imposed by the Chinese government on auto-parts, when China-based assembly plants fail to use a minimum proportion of China-manufactured parts, have been declared illegal at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

A disputes panel ruled today that these tariffs broke China’s free trade commitments under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and so should be scrapped.…