Search Results for: United Nations

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SPECIALIST ferrous metal United States government committee has criticised the recent free trade agreement struck between the US and Australia that will remove tariffs on iron, steel and related products traded between the two countries. The federal inter-sector advisory committee on ferrous ores and metals has concluded the although the deal itself does promote US interests, there are a number of elements that fail to cover concerns “which certainly affect our sector’s economic interests and the equity and reciprocity for the US overall that we seek in US trade agreements.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is prolonging its dispute with the United States at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over Washington’s assessment of benefits enjoyed by privatised steel companies from past public subsidies. Following a protracted WTO dispute, the US was last January (2003) ordered to reform its “change in ownership” methodology, through has justified countervailing duties protecting American steel producers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SPECIALIST United States government committee has criticised the USA-Australia free trade agreement. The agricultural technical advisory committee for trade in animal and animal products said the deal failed to remove “unscientific” sanitary regulations restricting US pork and poultry exports, and noted opposition from American cattle producers to widening import quotas for Australian beef.…

BY MARK ROWE
Mention Albania and money and one is drawn back to the extraordinary pyramid schemes that gripped the country in the mid-1990s as it emerged into a post-Stalinist dawn. Albanians poured in funds with an enthusiasm as remarkable as it was misguided.…

BY EDWARD PETERS
DEPENDING on who you ask, Taiwan is either a renegade province or to all intents and purposes an independent nation, albeit one that currently lacks full international recognition. To suggest that it could be a fully functioning country in its own right to anyone in Beijing – the capital of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – is tantamount to treason.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
A CONSORTIUM of seven major power companies is to apply for a license to build a new commercial power plant in the United States. EDF International North America, a subsidiary of Électricité de France, and the Westinghouse Electric Company, a BNFL subsidiary, are participating.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States and Australia have struck a free trade deal that will ease access into the US market for Australian wool exporters. A note from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said: “For our wool industry, an industry priority of zero tariff for greasy wool, a premier Australian export industry, will be achieved within four years, and for other wool items within 10 years.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Chamber of Commerce is fighting a legal decision it fears could make United States courts de facto global anti-trust regulators, even in cases with a negligible impact on the USA. It has filed an amicus curiae brief to the US Supreme Court, asking it to overturn a DC Court of Appeals ruling allowing non-US plaintiffs to bring foreign anti-trust claims to American courts.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ABUSE of drugs and alcohol in the workplace may be a growing concern in European Union (EU) countries but there seems little evidence that the relevant authorities are unduly alarmed by it. An informal survey by Occupational Health of organisations and government departments suggests that little attempt has been made so far to assess the scale of the problem, still less to devise legislation aimed at workers, as distinct from society in general.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE US government has been urged to further tighten safeguards on meat and animal feed by an independent international panel, made up of five scientists from Europe, New Zealand and the United States. It has recommended that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) test all high-risk cattle, such as those that die on farms or are too ill to walk, and also do random sampling of healthy cattle more than 30 months old.…