Search Results for: Climate change

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) paint and coatings industry faces significant administrative burdens in the next few years, as the EU increasingly regulates the biocides companies use in some products, such as wood preservatives and antifouling paints. The key legislation here is the 1998 biocides directive (98/8/EC).…

BY GERARD O’DWYER

NORDIC governments are pushing ahead with energy-centered reforms to build a significantly larger regional market for the production and sale of biofuels. All these neighbouring countres are expected to follow Sweden’s lead and implement policies to eliminate fossil fuel dependence by 2030, Sigbjørn Johnsen (NOTE – SPELLING IS CORRECT), Norway’s finance minister, said in an address to the country’s Storting (parliament) on December 14.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN packaging and converting industry has been asked to participate in an online election to choose one of three final designs for a label logo for European Union (EU) organic foods. These designs will be online until January 31.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON and ERIC LYMAN

THE COPENHAGEN climate change conference ended on December 18 with an accord where key world economies promised to make binding agreements to cut carbon emissions. But detail on exactly how much will be settled at a later date, meaning its long term effects on the oil and gas industry are unclear.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PLANNED reforms to create a harmonised and modernised European Union (EU) customs code could force EU paint and coating importers to pay higher customs duties. The European Commission is proposing ban importers from declaring the price that a foreign exporter paid to a local supplier before they shipped the goods to Europe, which could be less than the price paid by the eventual European customer.…

By Paul Cochrane, in Beirut

In an age of mass migration on a global scale, is it possible for governments to impose on the public, particularly immigrants, what they can and cannot wear? Take the diktats on women's wear in France versus Iran. In the Islamic Republic, females above the age of nine are required to wear the hijab (veil) and cover up their bodies.

Conversely, in France the authorities have talked of banning the burka and succeeded several years ago in banning the hijab in public offices and schools. Turkey has also done the same in the name of secularism.

Many argue that the French and Turkish are right to do so, to stem the tide of Islamisation and, moreover, for women – in most cases girls – to have the individual choice as to whether they want to wear a hijab, not decided upon by parents or family.…

By Keith Nuthall, International News Services

So the Treaty of Lisbon has been ratified. With the Czech Constitutional Court backing its contents as legal and a new national opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights portion of the treaty given to his country, Czech president Václav Klaus has at last signed the treaty.

It should now come into force by the end of the year. So we will see a permanent president of the European Council of Ministers (albeit probably low profile Belgian prime minister Herman van Rompuy rather than pushy ex-UK PM Tony Blair); an EU foreign minister; and more power for the European Parliament.…

BY AHMAD PATHONI

INDONESIA’S cigarette production has continued to increase in the past four years after a period of decline between 2000 and 2003, according to the country’s industry ministry.

Production rose 3.89% in 2008 from the previous year to 240 billion sticks, the ministry said.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CONCERNS are being provoked amongst auto traders over the latest implementation of the harmonised and modernised European Union (EU) customs code. Detailed reforms will be introduced step-by-step by the European Commission until June 2013, and two recent linked proposals have sparked fears at the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI) that they could increase the customs valuation of some vehicles when imported into the EU from non-EU countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LATEST proposed reforms to create a harmonised and modernised European Union (EU) customs code could increase duties on finished and dyed textile and clothing products, and dyes and finishing chemicals. They could boost the customs valuation of these goods, inflating ad valorem tariffs.…