Search Results for: United Nations

BY KEITH NUTHALL
UNITED Nations member countries have agreed to strengthen the Aarhus convention on releasing environmental information, increasing the duty of oil refineries to declare information about 86 pollutants, (including greenhouse gases, acid rain pollutants, heavy metals and carcinogens), in a public pollutant release and transfer registers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is putting itself in a position to reap the economic rewards of developing renewable energy technologies ahead of the United States, an American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting has been told. “Europe has made a major commitment to renewable energy and is leading the United States in deploying it,” said Allan Hoffman, a renewables specialist and senior advisor to Winrock International’s Clean Energy Group.…

BY MARK ROWE and ALAN OSBORN, in London, PHILIP FINE and MONICA DOBIE, in Montreal, and RICHARD HURST, in Johannesburg

RATCHETING up security has been a prime concern of the nuclear industry since the September 11 attacks, with all countries possessing commercial reactors addressing the issue to some extent.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FARMING may be becoming increasingly high-tech, but somehow, it still seems rather odd to couple digging potatoes with launching shiny satellites into orbit around the Earth. But, in fact – as many British farmers well know – space technology has offered useful services to agriculture and will increasingly do so in the future.…

BY PHILIP FINE

AMERICA is experiencing a rash of mould-related lawsuits. Recent cases have included a US$14 million judgment in Florida against a contractor for alleged toxic mould-related construction defects at a courthouse and a US$65 million lawsuit against a New York community college by one of its former employees for injuries and damages allegedly caused by mould exposure.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States has delayed the establishment of a disputes panel at the World Trade Organisation over Brazil’s complaint about American government subsidies to producers, users and exporters of upland cotton. Washington formally opposed Brazil’s bid to create a panel at a meeting of the WTO disputes settlement body, forcing the Brazilians to make a second application, if they want the case to go ahead.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE UNITED States has offered several trading partners a complete elimination within five years of the tariffs it currently places on textile and apparel imports. US Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick announced the decision as part of its first offer for the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, a trading bloc of the western hemispheric countries (Cuba excluded).…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE UNITED States automobile industry’s main lobby group has acknowledged that Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV’s) and pick-up trucks (small vans) pose serious dangers to smaller vehicles in collisions, and has promised its members will now develop voluntary standards to boost safety.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE UNITED States is offering to eliminate tariffs on imported mining equipment and unspecified "energy products" as part of their initial offer to create the proposed 34-country Free Trade Area of the Americas. Those sectors join a number of other goods, including steel, and environmental and wood products, for which Washington wants to offer duty free access to its markets under a reciprocal agreement, as well as improving market access for a range of services, including "energy services."…

BY PHILIP FINE

The United States has offered several trading partners an immediate

elimination of the tariffs it currently places on steel, provided the other

country does the same. U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick

announced the reciprocal agreement in several key sectors as part of its

first offer for the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, a trading

bloc of 34 countries.…