Search Results for: World Trade Organisation

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Trade Organisation’s general council has been asked to approve global trading laws stating that unbleached or pre-bleached fabrics must be subject to permanent dying or printing, with at least two preparatory or finishing operations, to be considered a new product under global rules of origin legislation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PRODUCERS of wine in Belarus can heave a sigh of relief; if they import wine must from France to ferment, they can still brand it as French wine, under a global rule of origin proposed by a special World Trade Organisation committee.…

Keith Nuthall
THE TEXTILE sector was a copybook blot in an otherwise positive report on open markets and liberalisation in the European Union, released recently by the World Trade Organisation. It concluded: “Pursuing trade liberalisation through multilateral, regional and bilateral initiatives, the European Union has maintained its markets largely open, except for textiles and agriculture.”…

From Alan Osborn
The European Commission has proposed changes in fishing rules to

reflect recent international agreements, new scientific advice and a ruling

by the European Court of Justice. Brussels said the adjustments were to

strengthen the sustainability of the fisheries concerned and provide EU

fishermen with the opportunities available after the latest scientific

advice.…

BY MARK ROWE
INTERNATIONAL organisations are supposed to help business fight off sophisticated crime networks, but now the fraudsters are turning the tables and using the good name of these institutions as part of their scams. Mark Rowe reports.

IT STARTED with a fax from a Chinese businessman to the Vienna headquarters of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP).…

BY DEIRDRE MASON
EASTERN European countries that built nuclear power plants while under the communist system never thought they would face deadlines for closing them down as a prerequisite for joining the European Union. Neither had they built in the next stage – decommissioning – into the prices charged for electricity in the way that the western European nuclear plant operators had done from the start.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL initiative to cleanse the polluted Barents Sea of nuclear waste has been launched, with Euro 110 million being pledged by Russia, the European Commission, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. The Barents clean-up will be the first priority project of this Support Fund of the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership; the sea, to the north of Russia and Norway, is commonly known as the largest repository of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste in the world.…

BY PHILIP FINE

ALTHOUGH the US textile lobby is breathing a sigh of relief over the recently delayed European Union tariffs textiles and clothing, it is warning that job losses would follow any final decision to go ahead with retaliation to the US steel safeguard duties.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ITALIAN government has been censured for failing to abide by European Union freedom of trade laws by imposing tough labelling laws for perfumes or cosmetic fragrances, which insist that packaging declares whether they are natural or artificial.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
AN INTERNATIONAL team of scientists based at Galway, in Ireland, has made a surprising discovery that could have significant consequences for future climate change.

The EU-sponsored Parforce research project, led by the National University of Ireland, has found that iodine vapours released by marine algae can help thicken haze and cloud layers, blocking sunlight and thereby partially offsetting global warming from greenhouse gases.…