Search Results for: World Trade Organisation

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Environment Agency has claimed that energy use is still rising in the European Union, mainly because of increasing transport consumption and has alleged that the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions could return to their 1990 levels by the year 2010 unless Brussels and Member States take firm action; this would include promoting renewable energy, said the EEA.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank is lending China US$104 million to treat tuberculosis sufferers, strengthening its National TB Control Programme. The money will be complemented by a UK Pounds 28.3 million grant from the UK’s Department for International Development, which will help Beijing manage this expansion, notably by allowing the bank loan to be on-lent to China’s provinces at a concessional rate.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND MONICA DOBIE
CONSIDERING the high value of many cargos shipped around the world, a rational observer might assume that pirates would ignore fishing boats in favour of vessels carrying spices, cigarettes, alcohol, metals or electrical goods. Not so.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHINA has sought to allay fears that it is dragging its feet over the implementation of liberalisation commitments it made when it was admitted into the World Trade Organisation. It has released explanatory notes to the European Union and Canada, who have raised concerns over the opening of textile import quotas.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
IN an interesting recent analysis of the problems facing livestock and other food producers in Europe, the European Union agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler suggested that one way forward could be through contract farming.

Instead of producing in the traditional way for the open market, he said, producers might consider linking with retail groups or the meat processing industry and delivering precisely what was needed in terms of both quality and quantity.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ARCANE procedures of the world’s food standards body the Codex Alimentarius could be made simpler and more transparent, because of the launch joint review of its work by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation and the World Health Organisation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHINA has sought to bury grumbling amongst its fellow World Trade Organisation member countries that it has been slow to implement quotas, by delivering its promise to publish import quotas in April that fulfill its commitments under the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced an in-depth investigation into the proposed acquisition of the textile division of the Swiss company Sulzer by Italy’s Promatech SpA, a subsidiary of Radici, the Italian leader in the weaving machines sector. The Commission said the competition authorities of a number of EU countries had requested the probe on the grounds that the deal would create or strengthen a dominant position in the sector, (potentially harming choice) and could affect cross-border trade.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission will propose the creation “as quickly as possible” of an EU administrative system for verifying the legality of imported wood products. This will be part of a promised EU action plan against illegal logging discussed at the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade workshop held in Brussels from April 22 to 24.…

BY MARK ROWE
TOYOTA Motor Corp plans to buy Chinese parts to make cars in its operations in China as a way to cut costs, instead of shipping them in from Japan. Toyota would procure discount door parts and materials including steel sheet from China’s leading steel-maker, Shanghai Baoshan Iron & Steel.…