Search Results for: South Africa

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed extending a 49% anti-dumping duty levied on Chinese exports to the European Union (EU) of silicon to consignments from South Korea, to block an alleged origin fraud. Following an investigation into a leap in South Korean silicon export volumes and claims "of [duty] circumvention", through transhipment via South Korea, the Commission has concluded "there was insufficient cause" to explain the trade pattern change "other than the imposition of [China-paid] anti-dumping measures."…

BY WESLEY GIBBINGS, in Port of Spain, Trinidad

THE WHITTLING away of preferential export markets for traditional Caribbean agricultural production has sparked economic pain in the region, but it has also generated innovation in the form of new confectionary and sweet baked products, available for export.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Customs Organisation (WCO) is helping to protect Africa against developers of counterfeit of goods, who it accuses of stifling local legitimate economic development. Often, it said in a report, "counterfeiting is poisoning the entire local economy."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WORLD Trade Organisation global trade figures for 2005 show that international exports for liquid fuels rose 41% to US$1.4 trillion in 2005, 13.8% of worldwide merchandise exports, higher than for almost two decades. Oil-rich Middle East, Africa, the ex-USSR Commonwealth of Independent States and south and central America recorded export growth of 35-25%.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

TECHNOLOGY developed by Nazi Germany and Apartheid era South Africa to turn coal into oil could guarantee solid fuels markets well into the future, an American geological expert has claimed.

University of Washington Professor Emeritus Eric Cheney said making oil from coal by reacting it with water known as Fischer-Tropsch process could become commercially successful given sustained high oil prices.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is casting around for a coherent policy on securing its external energy supplies, and while it is unsure of securing a solid deal with Russia, it is making ever more strident overtures to north Africa, the Caucasus and central Asia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LEGAL experts are undermining the provisional compromise agreement over the European Union (EU) definition of vodka stitched together by the current EU Finnish presidency. The Finns have claimed "a broad majority" for a deal where vodkas made from non-traditional products, such as grapes, are sold as ‘vodka made/distilled from (add ingredient used)’.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH global trade ever increasing, and the power of brands to generate massive profits made starkly clear with every company report, the counterfeiting of goods is one of international organised crime’s major boom areas.

It is a serious problem for legitimate business, especially those based in developed countries with tough piracy controls, who are seeking to export to poorer countries where intellectual property crimes are a low priority.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

MOROCCO’S US$1.37 billion tobacco market is undergoing a transformation following Altadis’ full buyout of the country’s tobacco monopoly earlier this year, with the distribution process to be overhauled and leaf production increased and diversified away from dark tobacco.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) has announced plans to wean Armenia off nuclear energy and onto renewables, rather than funding replacements for its ageing Soviet-era reactors. One unit at the former Soviet republic’s Metsamor plant currently supplies 40% of the country’s energy; a twin unit has been mothballed since a 1988 earthquake shook the power station, 75 km south of the epicentre.…