Search Results for: World Trade Organisation

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
THE EUROPEAN Commission has called for EU legislation that would insist that passenger ferry companies take out compulsory insurance, which would cover them for no-fault strict liability claims of up to Euro 250,000 per passenger.

In a Communication, (discussion paper), “on the enhanced safety of passenger ships,” Brussels also suggests that if a carrier is at fault, unlimited liability should apply.…

BY PHILIP FINE

AN ENVIRONMENTAL group is taking the world’s largest poultry company to court for allegedly failing to take care of noxious releases on one of their contracted farms. The Sierra Club alleges that the US’s Kentucky-based Tyson Foods failed to report releases of ammonia on four large ‘chicken houses.’…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission is “continuously monitoring” developments involving the accountancy firm Andersen following the collapse of the proposed merger between the firm’s non-American operations and those of KPMG, officials have told Accountancy Age.

Brussels is concerned about the implications if Andersen’s practices are picked up piecemeal by local or international firms; if parts of Andersen were sold off to other major accountancy

firms on a local basis this “could justify an inquiry” but each case would be judged on its own merits, the official said.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission is demanding that the French public coal corporation Charbonnages de France repay Euro 20 million, (Pounds 12 million), of aid granted between 1994 and 1997 to its government’s central treasury even though Brussels had originally authorised the payments.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
*Finland is the world’s most “honest” country according to Transparency International;

*New British laws will ban payments made to people just for performing their official duties;

*In countries where bribery of foreign officials is a crime, penalties range from a one-year jail sentence (Norway) to life imprisonment (South Africa);

*Half the countries replying to the UN said their legal systems did not make it impossible to obtain tax benefits for foreign payments that would constitute bribery;

*Under American law companies can make payments for “routine government action” such as obtaining licences and permits abroad.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is poised to release tenders for work in Kazakhstan, funded by a US$45 million loan, which will help pay for the modernisation of its electricity utility’s transmission management systems and communications networks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AUSTRALIAN scientists have produced what they call the world’s first virtual tour of a stretch of ocean floor, an invention that could provide undersea mining prospectors with valuable geological and topographical information.

The 3D map covers 2 million sq km of the 11 million sq km of ocean over which Australia has sovereign rights, off the island continent’s south east shores.…

Keith Nuthall
NOONE should ever accuse the European Commission of fighting shy of regulation, and given that proposals on promoting shipping safety are generally framed with good intentions, it would be fair to say that Brussels at least tries to improve standards.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank is lending US$93.9 million to fund a China Sustainable Forestry Development Project, which aims to protect some of China’s most important remaining old-growth natural forests and associated biodiversity. The money will help protect vital watersheds and reduce the risk of downstream flooding, while ensuring wood supplies can meet the country’s growing demand for timber.…