Search Results for: United Nations

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A ROAD map on regulatory cooperation agreed by the European Union (EU) and the United States at this weekend’s summit in Dublin includes a deal to work together on developing trans-Atlantic communications technology standards, which would mesh with both parties’ regulations.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE WORLD is a small place when it comes to business these days. Increasingly, multi-nationals, as well as medium-sized companies are setting up shop in all four corners of the world. Outsourcing work and creating offices in developing countries is de rigueur to cut costs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN is one of the safest countries in the world as regards fatal road accidents involving children along with Sweden, Japan and Italy, a report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has claimed. It says that more children are killed on the road than in any other type of accident, with South Korea, New Zealand, Portugal and the United States having the highest child road-fatality rates.…

Keith Nuthall
A COOPERATION agreement has been struck between the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The two organisations will work together to boost accounting standards in developing countries and so-called transitional countries, such as in eastern Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE NUMBER of people worldwide at risk from devastating floods will double from one billion today to two billion by 2050 without greater efforts to prevention and predict such disasters, United Nations University (UNU) specialists have claimed. In a first detailed policy statement from a new UNU environment and human security institute in Bonn, Germany, they point out floods currently annually inflict “up to 25,000 annual deaths, extensive homelessness, disaster-induced disease, crop and livestock damage and other serious harm” on over 520 million people.…

Keith Nuthall
AS the European Union (EU) prepares to abolish its remaining restrictive import quotas for textile and clothing products, the latest European Commission statistics confirm that China is best placed to exploit this liberalisation. For 2003, China exported more textile products to the expanded EU, with 10.7% of imports.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States has rebuffed criticism at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) from textile and clothing exporting countries that they deliberately delayed abolishing quotas under the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC). In a note to the WTO, mirroring a similar defence by Canada, the super-power rejected claims made by the International Textiles and Clothing Bureau (ITCB), representing exporting countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MOROCCO has approved new labour regulations, and the United States is claiming its recent trade agreement with the north African country encouraged its government to pass the reforms. They raise the minimum employment age from 12 to 15, reduced the standard work week from 48 to 44 hours, (with overtime rates payable for additional hours), and insist upon regular reviews of the Morocco minimum wage, which rose by 10% on July 1.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
SAFETY experts say that careful UK airbag manufacturing standards have so far prevented British rescue workers and drivers from being harmed by a rash of accidents now occurring in the United States. Firefighters have told the American press that air bags inflating accidentally because of car fires have broken firefighters’ fingers, knocked out teeth and, in one case, caused internal bleeding.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE CANADIAN government has hit back at criticism at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) from textile and clothing exporting countries that it (and other importing nations) have dragged their feet over abolishingtion of quotas under the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing.…