Search Results for: Czech Republic

BY PAUL COCHRANE, KARRYN MILLER and KEITH NUTHALL

IRAN may be a democratic theocracy, but it certainly does not take the moral high ground when it comes to tobacco smuggling. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has in the past identified Iran as being one of only two countries in the world where more than half the cigarette market share comprises contraband.…

BY ANDREW SALMON

TO assess the state of financial sanctions and how they are affecting Pyongyang, capital of North Korea, the first man to ask is an unassuming-looking Englishman named Nigel Cowie. "We have not been affected [by the latest sanctions] in terms of the need for increased compliance," said Cowie, CEO of Pyongyang-based Daedong Credit Bank.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

THIS April, the long-awaited carbon reduction commitment (CRC) scheme will commence in the UK, bringing in the first phase of a carbon emissions trading programme unlike any other in Europe.

The programme covers virtually everything the European Union’s (EU) emissions trading scheme (ETS) does not: any corporation, company or business – including transport and agriculture – which consumes more than 6,000 megawatt hours (MWh) per year.…

BY MARK ROWE and KEITH NUTHALL

THE RUSSIAN government is welcoming anticipated talks with the European Union (EU) to negotiate a nuclear partnership agreement that would facilitate nuclear trade and exchange of knowledge on safety issues. The EU’s executive arm, the European Commission was given a mandate to begin talks just before Christmas, and the new college of commissioners taking office for five years this month (February) will be responsible for moving the process forward.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS a new European Union (EU) energy Commissioner takes office for the next five years, EU member states are stalling over a plan to inject Euro 50 billion into European energy research budgets over the next decade. The Strategic Energy Technology (SET) plan released by the previous European Commission last October would involve a massive expansion of such spending from 2013 to 2019, but national governments have signalled nervousness.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE NEXT few years are likely to see several countries accede to the European Union (EU), with significant implications for the personal care sector. Local producers of toiletries, detergents and cosmetics, as well as multinationals in a number of countries, are closely following the negotiations conducted by their governments.…

BY EMMA JACKSON, KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN, PAUL COCHRANE and BILL CORCORAN

WEST Africa is becoming a key region in the booming trade of illicit cigarettes, counterfeit copies of premium brands and smuggled properly branded and manufactured sticks. So much money is being made by criminals using this often-chaotic region as a hub to receive illicit sticks and then distribute them throughout Africa that this trade is becoming a matter of serious concern to the United Nations and even NATO.…

BY MARK ROWE

MOLDOVA would appear to fit the description of a far away country about which the world knows nothing. But its location, adjacent to Romania, (one of the two most recent European Union (EU) member states, Ukraine, the Black Sea and the disputed, politically uncertain region of Transnistria (which remains formally part of Moldovan territory, while its government has little authority there), is extremely familiar, and favoured, by counterfeit cigarette producers and traffickers.…

BY MARK GODFREY

A SLUMP in exports dented China’s economic growth in 2008, but a strong recovery which lifted GDP growth to 10% in the second half of 2009 appears to have ensured strong retail sales across all fronts. That is why growth of cosmetics sales in China remained strong at 10% in 2009, according to the China Association of Fragrance Flavour and Cosmetic Industries (CAFFCI).…

BY DAVID HAWORTH and ALAN OSBORN

LINES are being drawn for another titanic battle in Brussels between the tobacco industry and anti-smoking activists. And the weapon of choice is lobbying.

The first phase, forcing cigarette companies to sell their product in plain, unbranded packets without logos, has already started following the 31-page document of non-binding recommendations (not a directive) published last year by the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers and which was briskly approved by the European Parliament.…