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BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Food & Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has warned that the number of domesticated livestock breeds worldwide is declining sharply, with 1,350 of the roughly 6,300 FAO registered breeds threatened by extinction or already extinct. The problem has been discussed by a special FAO meeting of national coordinators on animal genetic resources, which is developing a global plan to halt their disappearance.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WHEN the European Union (EU) signed up to an Agreement on Textiles and Clothing at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) last Uruguay Round that foresaw the scrapping of import quotas at the start of 2005, it is hard to imagine it viewing the deal as a way to boost production in knitted products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GERMANY is at the centre of a lengthy critique of global restrictions on the telecommunications sector issued by the United States Trade Representative (USTR), which it warns may form the basis future World Trade Organisation disputes cases. Germany has been criticised regarding access to leased lines and high mobile termination rates, in particular, with the USTR attacking the German telecom regulator RegTP’s “lack of authority to impose certain measures (ie.,…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A KEY link in the European Union’s (EU) European Research Area (ERA) is being developed this month (April), with the launch of the SARNET network of excellence on nuclear accident research. It is one of the largest ERA initiatives, involving 18 research organisations, 11 private companies, ten universities, four utilities and six safety authorities.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s environment committee is seeking to prioritise a new European Union energy efficiency directive, by proposing amendments forcing the European Commission to introduce electricity consumption standards for particular products generating significant global warming problems. These rules would cover heating and water heating equipment, electric motor systems, lightings, domestic appliances, office equipment, consumer electronics plus heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN pharmaceutical companies Hoffmann-La Roche, BASF and Rhône-Poulenc are being supported by the International Chamber of Commerce in a US Supreme Court case that could make United States courts de facto global anti-trust regulators, even in cases with a negligible USA impact.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and 16 Caribbean countries have launched negotiations to strike a 2008 trade deal, that should boost rum exports into Europe. The spirit is already the eastern Caribbean’s largest export to the EU, (11 per cent of sales – worth around Euro 320 million in 2003), with import quota restrictions removed from 2000.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BIRD flu outbreak that has paralysed global poultry markets could spark a related deadly human influenza pandemic, for which preparations must be laid, a World Health Organisation (WHO) summit has concluded. “We have seen how many countries were preparing for terrorism and bioterrorism and we wish to point out that Mother Nature is the biggest bioterrorism of all,” said participant Dr Angus Nicoll, director of England & Wales’ Public Health Laboratory Service’s communicable disease surveillance centre.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHINA is the exporter to watch following the abolition of import quotas for textile accessories and footwear this December under the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) agreement on textiles and clothing (ATC). Indeed, a detailed report written for the European Commission on this major liberalisation predicts that not only are Chinese export volumes expected to rise, and developed country production levels to fall, but China is expected to exploit its bulk-manufacturing expertise to seize markets from developing country Asian competitors.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union-funded research consortium is developing an industrial system for producing biodegradable plastics from whey, separated from milk curd during cheese-making. Around 30 per cent of the 50 million tonnes of whey produced in Europe annually is currently discarded, and the Euro 1.6 million WHEYPOL project is creating process to synthesise polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) generated from whey into plastic.…