Search Results for: South Africa

BY RICHARD HURST, in Johannesburg
MARIO Levi SPA and Ambra Leather, two Italian automotive leather companies, have opened a Rand 39 million, (US$4 million), leather plant in Uitenhage, South Africa. The re-tanning and finishing joint venture produces leather primarily for export to Italian auto-maker Alfa Romeo, although negotiations are under way to strike supply deals with local manufacturers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INCREASING political pressure is being applied on eastern European governments to raise fuel prices, so as to improve their environmental performance and promote investment in energy efficient industries.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe recently addressed the issue, with its Committee on Sustainable Energy and the Committee on Environmental Policy agreeing to produce guidelines on price reform.…

BY RICHARD HURST
SOUTH African synthetic fuels company SASOL has reported that it will use natural gas from Mozambique to supply small power stations. The Rand 12 billion pipeline project will bring gas from the Temane and Pende fields to Secunda as early as 2004.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has called for swift political agreement on a range of draft proposals promoting the safety of both road tunnels and hauliers themselves, as a response to the latest trans-Alpine disaster at St Gothard, Switzerland.

EU transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio has called for “concerted action” between the EU and the Swiss government, implementing initiatives “with vigour and as rapidly as possible.”…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
HANDLING the needs and issues surrounding the 550 million passengers and billions of tonnes of cargo moving through the airports and terminals of the 38 European Civil Aviation Conference countries is a task of immense scope.

No wonder then that ECAC’s Working Group on Facilitation, (FAL), is comprised of a multi-disciplined team of delegates and observers from areas including customs, immigration, security, public health, drug control as well as of course, air transport users and civil aviation representatives.…

BY RICHARD HURST, in Johannesburg
THE UNITED States’ House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly to double the quota of clothing and textile products that a group of African countries can export to the US duty free, increasing them from 1.5 per cent of overall US imports to three per cent.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States has lost a disputes panel case at the World Trade Organisation over definitive safeguard duties that it had imposed on imports of circular welded carbon quality line pipe from South Korea.

Although the panel rejected a number of South Korean complaints, it upheld enough of them to conclude that the US should “bring its safeguard measure into conformity with its WTO obligations.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union business investment funds have been launched in the UK for four poorer regions eligible for so-called Objective 1 regional development money from Brussels. The European Commission is setting aside Euro 145 million for the funds, which cover Merseyside, South Yorkshire, West Wales and the Valleys, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE AUSTRALIAN government has issued the most comprehensive formal proposal favouring the liberalisation of the shipping industry yet made in the ongoing World Trade Organisation round on services.

Its paper said: “Significant barriers to trade and investment in maritime transport services still exist in many member economies.…

KEITH NUTHALL
IT is common knowledge that the European Union is becoming increasingly involved in public water policy, legislating to control the environmental quality of water supplies and watercourses. Brussels ambitions to improve water services do not, however, end at the external borders of the EU.…