Search Results for: World Trade Organisation

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A RESIDENCY qualification for directors of companies established in the Alpine Principality of Liechtenstein, set up to help its authorities fight abuse of its liberal business laws, including money laundering, has been declared illegal.

The European Free Trade Area Court has ruled that the regulation discriminates against citizens of other EFTA countries, (Switzerland, Iceland and Norway), breaching fair trade treaty commitments made by Liechtenstein on joining the association.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FOR an institution known for its tortoise-like deliberations, the World Trade Organisation has set itself such tight deadlines to make serious progress in its ongoing agricultural round that it will have to work, in its terms, at break-neck speed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE OFTEN tortoise-like World Trade Organisation has set itself such tight deadlines to make serious progress in its ongoing agricultural round that it will have to work, in its terms, at break-neck speed.

Announcing the end of the second stage of the talks, where diplomats attempted to put details on the general liberalisation proposals made in stage one, the round’s special session of the agriculture committee gave itself until March 31 to agree firm principles on which to base bilateral horse-trading that should start months afterwards.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has ignored strong pressure 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.

Sealing a formal political agreement on the proposal and sending it back to the European Parliament for further discussion, ministers stuck to their line that foreign importers of digital products, such as music or computer software downloaded from the Internet, should pay VAT, as the goods are consumed within the EU.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney
RESEARCHERS at the University of Tasmania, Australia, have developed the world’s first smart car that can override driver error and reduce road accidents.

“In terms of a comprehensive central processing unit working as an artificial brain to make driving safer, this is a world first,” said project leader Dr Vishy Karri.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney
RESEARCHERS in Tasmania, Australia, claim they have developed the world’s first smart car that can actually override driver error and thereby reduce road accidents.

Their full sized prototype model has 25 sensors that can monitor everything from brake pressure to suspension dynamics, steering angle and engine parameters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE STRUCTURE of the World Trade Organisation negotiations launched last year in Doha, Qatar, to liberalise much of global commerce, has now been set, with committees and working parties being given the task of agreeing detailed timetables for their work.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CONCLUDING that the health of between 100,000 to 200,000 people is still at risk because of radioactive contamination from the Chernobyl disaster, a United Nations report has called for an international fight against the resulting pollution.

The joint study involving agencies such as the UN Development Programme and the World Health Organisation has claimed that 2,000 people have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer because of the explosion, and as many as 8,000 to 10,000 cases are expected to develop it over the coming years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM) has warned companies to avoid an offer from a German company ZDR-Datenregister to register their trademark in a so-called Central Data-Register Community Trade Marks, for payment of Euro 1,235.40.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A GLOBAL Forum on Food Safety Regulators has been staged in Morocco by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation and the World Health Organisation, reflecting concern about recent food safety disasters, such as BSE.…