Search Results for: China

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission’s (EC) proposals for the EU tobacco regime, published in detail last month (September), essentially recognise that subsidised tobacco growing in Europe on any significant scale is now coming to an end. If these plans are put in place it seems likely that in little more than three years’ time the only tobacco grown in the EU will be to serve small niche markets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A UNITED Nations (UN) Convention against Transnational Organised Crime has come into force, imposing a duty on ratifying countries to outlaw membership of an organised criminal group, which it defines legally. So far, said the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 48 countries have ratified it, including Monaco, Nigeria, Serbia & Montenegro, Peru, Spain, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Philippines, Tajikistan, Albania, France, Argentina, Mexico, Turkey, China, Norway and Afghanistan.…

Keith Nuthall
INDIAN shoe exporters are struggling to fight off competition from China, with statistics from the Council for Leather Exports (CLE) saying that in 2002-03 (April-February) India’s leather exports earned US$1.67 billion, a 6.56 per cent decline compared with the corresponding period of 2001-2.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE and KEITH NUTHALL
A SHORTLIST of seven designs for a planned 16.7 billion yuan (US$2 billion) third and international terminal at Beijing’s Capital Airport has been unveiled. Beijing Capital Airport Authority announced that the competing designers include the UK dominated NACO Foster ARUP consortium; the British Airports United Consultants Consortium; France’s Aeroports de Paris/Ingénierie consortium; China’s Beijing Municipal Architecture Design and Research Institute plus the USA’s Landrum & Brown & Yang Molen; Murphy/Jahn Inc; and Parsons & Fentress.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE MALAYSIAN Textile Manufacturers Association has warned that the country’s branded clothing industry could become extinct within 10 years because of the oncoming removal of the export quota system under the WTO’s Agreement on Textiles and Clothing. It particularly fears that this liberalisation will allow China, with its low labour costs, to dominate global export markets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SHIPBREAKING, a ready source of scrap steel, is one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. What is more, agreed a recent meeting of experts from the International Metalworkers Federation, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and others, it need not be so deadly.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States government has thrown doubt on whether the China has scrapped ‘temporary’ safeguard duties that were imposed by Beijing last May on nine steel products imported from the US, tariffs that were supposed to lapse by November 2002.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN AGREEMENT has been struck between the European Commission and China over Chinese participation in the European Union’s GALILEO global positioning satellite communications project. Assuming it is ratified, the deal will create co-operation on satellite navigation and related telecoms service development.…

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
A DISPUTE proceedings panel has now been established at the World Trade Organisation to rule on the legality of the European Union’s sugar export subsidies. Australia, Brazil and Thailand allege the handouts break world trade laws. Barbados, Canada, China, Colombia, Jamaica, Mauritius, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago and the US reserved their right to participate.…