Search Results for: United Nations

Keith Nuthall
AN APPEAL has been made at the United Nations, by the Global Environment Facility organisation, to private utilities and government organisations, asking them to invest in sustainable energy development in the world’s poorer countries

Mohamed El-Ashry, the GEF’s Chief Executive Officer was speaking at a ministerial meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation has formally decided to set up a new Sub-Committee on Aquaculture, serve as an intergovernmental forum for information exchange, discussion and consensus-building on emerging issues in fish farming. The FAO said that the sub-committee would provide guidance for governments and international bodies on technical and policy matters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EAST Asian shipping companies are expected to receive a boost from the ratification by China of the Bangkok Agreement, making one of Asia’s oldest trade accords the world’s largest in terms of market potential.

With China joining the arrangement – which is based on shared trade preferences – it becomes the largest regional trade arrangement, opening up a market with a combined population of more than 2.5 billion, said the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, (ESCAP).…

BY MONICA DOBIE
EUROPE, in wine terms, has pedigree. It is, after all, the home of the longest established commercial wine-making tradition. But these days, its primacy is being challenged by colonial upstarts, in the shape of New World vineyards, and guess what; the new kids on the block seem to be ganging up on the oldsters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States and the European Union are poised for another battle of wits at the World Trade Organisation, over the rights of governments to protect their own audio-visual sectors, especially through the use of subsidies.

WTO members are about to examine in detail proposals made by the USA on the liberalisation of the international audio-visual sector, which it wants to promote through the ongoing WTO round on service industries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States government has formally appealed against the ruling of the World Trade Organisation’s disputes settlement body, which criticised the way it had erected anti-dumping duties against imports of Japanese hot-rolled steel products.

In a note to the WTO’s appellate body, American diplomats have contested “certain legal interpretations developed by the (disputes) Panel,” claiming that its conclusions “are in error and are based upon erroneous findings on issues of law.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE MEMBER States of the European Union reduced their emissions of the six key greenhouse gases by four per cent between 1990 and 1999, three per cent of which was achieved in 1998-9, according to a report from the European Environment Agency.…

Keith Nuthall
THE UNITED States has announced that it will further liberalise its import restrictions on clothing and textiles, adding additional concessions to the third tranche of its scheduled implementation of the WTO Agreement on Textile and Clothing. Countries that have recently made their first announcement regarding the ATC’s third stage include Paraguay and Liechtenstein.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States Trade Representatives Office has launched an environmental review of America’s existing trade agreements. It will alert Washington to potential environmental drawbacks of the deals, and will especially focus on the ongoing World Trade Organisation round on agricultural products and services.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A DRAFT timetable for the setting up of anti-dumping and countervailing duties by the United States, on softwood lumber from Canada, has been released by the US International Trade Administration. It says that the American Department of Commerce will probably start inquiries on April 23, making a preliminary judgement on anti-dumping by September 10 and countervailing duties by June 27, a final judgement on November 26 and September 10, respectively, with duties being imposed on January 10 next year and this November 1.…