Search Results for: United Nations

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CONTROVERSIAL decision to allow personal data on European Union (EU) air passengers to be transferred to the United States has been declared illegal by a European Court of Justice (ECJ) advocate general. In a formal opinion, which may well be confirmed by the court, Philippe Léger, has said the EU Council of Ministers’ decision "does not have an appropriate legal basis" within EU legislation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

UNITED Nations children’s agency UNICEF is claiming that encouraging mothers to exclusively breastfeed their babies for the first six months of their lives could prevent 1.3 million premature deaths. Celebrating the 15th anniversary of a UN declaration promoting breastfeeding, UNICEF and the World Health Organisation (WHO) claim six million infants’ lives are being saved annually because of successful global efforts to promote breastfeeding, which they say have risen 15% since this Innocenti Declaration.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ECUADOR has launched a dispute at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) alleging that United States anti-dumping duties imposed on its exports of ‘certain frozen warmwater shrimp’ were erected in breach of the WTO’s anti-dumping agreement. Calling for formal consultations (the first stage of disputes proceedings), Ecuador alleged US trade officials had erred in anti-dumping calculations through "zeroing negative anti-dumping margins".…

BY MARK ROWE
WEATHER forecasting at sea has evolved beyond the age-old fisherman’s approach of licking a finger and holding it up to the prevailing wind, and the oil and gas industries have been reaping the benefits. Improvements in numerical models, faster computers, and access to more and better data (from, for example, buoys and satellites) mean that forecasts are more accurate today than 10 years ago.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HIGHLY undiplomatic exchanges between the European Union (EU) and the United States over the vexed question of cotton subsidies have threatened to obstruct agreement at the already tough parallel talks on general agricultural liberalisation at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Hong Kong summit.…

BY MARK ROWE AND PAUL COCHRANE

INTRODUCTION

JUST as chocolate sells well in cold countries, so do soft drinks flourish in hot countries, which would suggest that North Africa and the Levant presents an inviting face to the international drinks market.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Trade Organisation’s (WTO) general council has permanently amended the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement to make permanent a 2003 waiver helping poor countries obtain generic medicines during health emergencies. The TRIPS amendment enables any WTO member country to export generic pharmaceuticals made under a compulsory licence to assist countries lacking their own manufacturing capacity and whose nurses and doctors would otherwise be unable to deal with a serious disease problem.…

KEITH NUTHALL
ECUADOR has launched a dispute at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) alleging that United States anti-dumping duties imposed on its exports of ‘certain frozen warmwater shrimp’ were erected in breach of the WTO’s anti-dumping agreement. Calling for formal consultations (the first stage of disputes proceedings), Ecuador alleged US trade officials had erred in anti-dumping calculations through “zeroing negative anti-dumping margins”.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

MORE than 7,000 construction workers are toiling around the clock on the first phase of the Middle East’s largest integrated medical complex in the oil rich Gulf state of Qatar, with top medical positions, including nursing managers, expected to go to British applicants.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TRADE ministers at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Hong Kong summit are struggling today to reach a compromise deal on the vexed question of cotton subsidies that will prevent west African exporters scuppering an overall agreement. The United States has been under pressure to abandon its production payments to American growers, which are highly politically sensitive in the US.…