Search Results for: United Nations

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SURGE in research and development sparked by the 1995-8 slump in the semi-conductor industry will create an unprecedented boom in sales of chip-based products, the latest World Commodity Survey from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, (UNCTAD, has claimed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITISH restaurateurs and hoteliers could be forced to pay regular fees to record companies for piping music from radio broadcasts into their premises, if the European Commission wins a legal case against the British government.

It has asked the European Court of Justice to order the UK to scrap the existing system, where no royalty fees are payable for playing this background music free-of-charge to customers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE COLLAPSE in world cocoa prices, at a time when its national market has been liberalised, has left policy makers with the difficult task of reinventing financial protection for its producers, a UN World Commodity Survey 2000-2001 has concluded.…

KEITH NUTHALL
GLOBAL consumption of textiles is “continuing on its upwards trend,” the latest World Commodity Survey from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has said. Consumption volume is predicted to rise from 48 million tonnes to between 56 and 58 million tonnes by 2005, said the report.…

Keith Nuthall
THE LATEST World Commodity Survey from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has given a half-hearted welcome to the liberalisation of the power sector that is proceeding throughout the developed world, especially in Europe. Its electricity chapter concluded that it was “stimulating competition, increasing transparency and leading to industrial reorganisation,” but questioned whether this would lead to lower prices and increased demand.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN OPTIMISTIC long-term view of oil company prospects is found in the latest World Commodity Survey, from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, (UNCTAD).

It has suggested that oil production will surge in the next two decades and also that petroleum companies will take advantage of new technology to establish a commanding presence in renewable energy sectors.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BROAD political agreement on the operation of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change has been achieved in Bonn, Germany by 186 participating nations, but without the participation of the US.

Original targets were scaled down to ensure the participation of Japan, Canada and Australia in the deal, who secured concessions on so-called carbon sinks; they can now gain credits to emit more gases through re-vegetation and effective management of forests and farmland.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE KYOTO protocol on climate change was adopted by 186 nations in Bonn, but without the participation of the US, which is responsible for 25 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

President Bush is now likely to come under intense international pressure to produce an American plan to tackle climate change.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations’ increasingly misnamed oil-for-food scheme has been extended until November 30, with the Iraqi government and the UN Security Council agreeing to break the deadlock that led to the agreement being suspended since June.

Diplomats agreed that any changes to the programme should be put off in the meantime, although the American and British governments have released statements saying that they intended to continue discussions focused on reforming the system.…

Keith Nuthall
THE UNITED States has lifted its retaliatory 100 per cent duties on EU exports of cotton bed linen, following the solution of the years-long row with the European Union over its import procedures for Caribbean bananas. The duties had been authorised by the WTO, which had concluded that the EU had broken global trading laws by offering preferential access to its markets to Caribbean bananas.…