Search Results for: International business

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has declared that the European Union Council of Ministers made mistakes when it ratified the global Convention on Nuclear Safety. Legislation adopting the treaty should have declared all the roles of the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) in these areas to an international depository, said the court, which ruled that the Council had wrongfully withheld some information about Euratom’s safety work.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has admitted that it has never been able to confidently verify whether North Korea (DPRK) has complied with the Non Proliferation Treaty Safeguards Agreement that seeks to prevent the country using its nuclear power plants to make weapons.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WATER privatisation has certainly had its critics, but it has a new supporter in the shape of the European Commission. It has publicly backed the growing privatisation of Europe’s water utilities, with its internal market commissioner praising British government moves to inject competition into its national sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE MOVE of the secretariat of the International Cocoa Organisation to Abidjan, Ivory Coast, from London, has been postponed because of the political and military turmoil in the country. The decision to go ahead with the move had only been taken this May.…

BY MARK ROWE
BANGKOK’S new international airport will have no train link to the capital when it opens in 2005. Instead, five new roads will be built linking Bangkok to Nong Ngu Hao airport. Thai government officials said a rail link would not be a worthwhile investment because the city’s mass transit system would not be completed to provide it with effective connections.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
OFFICIALS from the United States and European Union have been meeting to solve differences over the Americans’ Container Security Initiative. The EU and the US have agreed to quickly explore signing a cooperation deal on operating a mutually acceptable container security system, but problems remain, for instance on the proposed US 24 hours rule, requiring carriers to provide American customs with cargo manifest information a day before it is loaded on board a USA-bound vessel.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
SOUTH African airports have been using a novel way of improving air traffic control safety: employing sheepdogs to scare birds from their runways and reduce the incidence of bird strikes on aircraft. Trials have been successful at Durban and Johannesburg’s international airports and civil aviation authorities elsewhere have expressed interest in the scheme.…

BY PHILIP FINE

LOCAL book merchants contribute more to a community’s economy than do retail chains, according to a study of one US neighbourhood. It reported that local retailers return more than three times as much economic value back to the community than do chains such as Borders and Barnes & Noble.…

BY PHILIP FINE

FOUR members of America’s Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees, including its president, Bruce Raynor, are being sued by a bullet-resistant vest manufacturer for allegedly defaming the quality of their protective textiles. Florida-based Point Blank says the four knowingly lied to media, police and retailers about subcontracting operations, claiming they negatively affecting vest quality.…

BY PHILIP FINE AND KEITH NUTHALL

THE US government has unveiled plans to push for freer trade in footwear at the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Development Round of trade negotiations. The Bush administration has announced that it would like to see an end to non-rubber footwear tariff and non-tariff barriers worldwide within 10 years.…