Search Results for: United Nations

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) has launched a European Union (EU)-funded Euro 725,000 research aimed at improving health standards within the food industries of Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. The studies aim to suggest ways of promoting a “new decision-making culture on food quality and safety among managers and policy makers”, for national sectors able to easily export foodstuffs to consumers in Britain and other EU countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is catching up with the United States in innovation, a European Commission-financed statistical report has claimed, although the US still has many significant advantages. This year’s European Innovation Scoreboard (2006) concludes: “The innovation gap between the EU [minus new members Bulgaria and Romania] and Japan, and in particular with the US is decreasing.”…

BY ANDREW SALMON, in Seoul
LAST October, South Korea was admitted as an observer to the world’s premier group of money laundering fighters – the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and given the nation’s recent moves to strengthen its anti-money laundering regime its path to full membership in approximately two years appears smooth.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
UNITED States confectionary manufacturers have secured a new duty-free market, with a new USA-Panama trade agreement ordering that all existing Panamanian tariffs on chocolate be scrapped immediately.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE DISTILLED Spirits Council of the United States has pressed the US Trade Representative office for further action over counterfeit spirits from Bulgaria, even though progress has been made against the problem. In a detailed report, it welcomed increased seizures – 1,296 cases of fake US whiskeys in 2006, compared with 284 AEPV cases in 2005, for instance.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE PARAMOUNT importance of nuclear safeguards is highlighted not just by the media spotlight when any incident occurs, but in the recognition that regular independent inspection is crucial for reinforcing the safeguard procedures of nuclear powers.

In Europe, at the level of the European Union (EU), this work is led by the EU’s Nuclear Safeguards Inspectorate.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has approved a third revision of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Pharma-GATT Agreement, removing import duties on 1,290 more pharmaceuticals and medicine ingredients traded between major manufacturing countries.

This agreement was originally framed in 1994, and has been updated twice to account for technical progress and expand its scope.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, in London
A WORLDWIDE standard for automotive safety glazing may only be a few months away, now that suppliers have agreed on the content and wording.

The new draft standard was finalized at a January conference in Brussels under the umbrella of CLEPA (the European Association of Automotive Suppliers), with representatives from the US, Japan, Canada, Belgium, France and Germany taking part.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHINA, India and Japan have joined the 10 Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN) countries, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea in signing the Cebu Declaration on East Asian Energy Security, on promoting energy sustainability. Although the pact includes no binding targets on emissions reduction, it strongly urges biofuel and other alternative energy sources development.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is pushing signatories to its new Protocol on Water and Health to its Convention on Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes to agree detailed targets on improving European water quality.…