Search Results for: China

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS, in Johannesburg

CHINESE exporters have emerged as winners in an ugly spat between South Africa’s retail industry, the Pretoria government and local unions over quota limits on China-made clothes and textile imports.

Chinese exporters will now be able to sell a full range of clothes and textiles to South Africa until January 1, 2007, avoiding a quota system which was due to go into effect on September 28.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union and China have agreed to improve cooperation in imposing import-export controls to prevent breaches of both sides’ food safety controls, which both sides accept pose significant health hazards to consumers. EU and Chinese officials will exchange intelligence about illegal consignments gleaned from spot-checks and investigations.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

The European Commission has ordered the 25 EU member states to step up controls at borders following a disclosure that illegal genetically modified rice from China has found its way into the French, German and UK markets. Brussels said that traders who brought in the rice were "not doing enough" to check the food and were violating EU laws aimed at keeping out illegal GMOs.…

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS, in Johannesburg

THE SOUTH African government has delayed the imposition of import quotas on China-made clothes and textile imports, following pressure from the country’s big clothing retailers. Chinese exporters will now be unfettered until January 1, 2007, rather than September 28.…

by Alan Osborn

A string of trade deficits by European food and drink producers was reversed in 2005 thanks to a rise of 5.2% in exports – the best performance since 2000, says the EU Confederation of Food and Drink Industries (CIAA).…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Damascus and Amman

JORDAN and Syria both have large tobacco markets, with a third of Jordan’s population, and around 60% of Syria’s male population, being smokers. Both markets are growing, spurred on by large young populations and the cultural prevalence of smoking cigarettes and nargileh (water pipes), but not all is rosy in the sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FINNISH government has helped secure the withdrawal from sale of 14 lines of tops because of concerns that their drawstrings could strangle children wearing them. The offending products were from Denmark, China, India, Hong Kong and Estonia, and included the BOYSTAR fleece-jacket; the BOGI Aaron-jacket; JONATHAN ECO CLIMATE baby overalls; and other lines, reported the European Commission’s RAPEX consumer alert service.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UNITED States is coming under pressure at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over its refusal of a licence allowing the registration of the contested Havana Club rum trademark to be renewed. Washington has already lost a WTO disputes case over the issue, with a panel declaring illegal clauses in its Omnibus Appropriations Act that prevent the registration of trademarks expropriated in the Cuban revolution after 1959.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and China have agreed to improve cooperation in imposing import-export controls to prevent breaches of both sides’ food safety controls, which both sides accept pose significant health hazards to consumers. EU and Chinese officials will exchange intelligence about illegal food consignments gleaned from spot-checks and investigations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH the European Union’s (EU) key metal consumers – amongst them the construction industry – facing ever increasing Chinese competition for supplies, the European Commission has launched a comprehensive review of EU metal industry laws and policies.

Said a Commission report: "As regards consumption of metals, the EU was still in the lead for aluminium, copper, lead and nickel in 2004.…