Search Results for: World Trade Organisation

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADA’S biggest publishers have been approached by representatives of the eBay Canada auction web site, asking them to use their Internet platform to sell their books directly to consumers.

Its move comes as e-commerce giant Amazon.com is finalising plans to launch a service this summer that is specifically tailored for Canadian readers, instead of them using a standard north American site.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE MALAYSIAN government has been forced to conduct an embarrassing U-turn in its policy towards major international airlines in attempt to prevent its landmark new airport from becoming a white elephant.

Kuala Lumpur International Airport, 40 miles outside the city, was opened in 1998 an attempt to transform the city into a regional hub to rival Singapore’s Changi, which is regularly voted the world’s best airport.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN an increasingly borderless world, the power of international intellectual property conventions is growing ever stronger and the garden trade is being affected by this trend as much as mining and IT.

Take new plant varieties. In the EU, since 1995 Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) has been established.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Health Organisation will hold an “expert consultation” after the Swedish National Food Administration claimed accumulations of the toxin acrylamide have been found in fried and baked food, to “determine the full extent of the public health risk.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Health Organisation has announced a project to prevent blindness in children that will be initially funded by a US$3.75 million Lions Clubs International Foundation donation. The strategy would include funding immunisation against measles and rubella, improving supplies of vitamin A, supplying prophylaxes against eye diseases in babies, (including gonococcal infection), and deterring the use of harmful eye medicines.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has slammed the door shut on entreaties from the American government to abandon its plans to exempt EU-based suppliers of digital products from charging VAT when they sell to customers in non-EU countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union has launched a plan to break the World Trade Organisation deadlock over changes to its TRIPS regime (trade related aspects of intellectual property rights), which would allow developing countries to licence imported generic drugs in emergencies, while protecting the global pharmaceutical sector.…

KEITH NUTHALL
TALKS held between the USA and India over a complaint regarding American rules of origin legislation have failed, with New Delhi formally requesting that a World Trade Organisation disputes panel is established to settle the row; the Indian government claims that they unfairly favour the US and European Union textile industries.New…

Keith Nuthall
A BOOKLET has been published by the International Chamber of Commerce that advises accountants and their clients on how to protect themselves from being swindled by fraudsters. ‘Trade Finance Fraud,’ produced by the ICC’s Commercial Crime Services department includes case studies demonstrating the techniques fraudsters use to cheat victims of millions of Pounds, Euros and dollars through “phony documentation, non-existent consignments, containers packed with worthless rubbish and a multitude of other devices.”…

KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy has sought to counteract criticism that the EU is failing to sufficiently help small cotton producers in Africa. In a public statement, he has highlighted the ongoing liberalisation of import quotas, notably the duty free access for cotton from the ACP (Africa, Carabbean and Pacific) countries that have close links with Brussels.…