Search Results for: World Trade Organisation

BY ALAN OSBORN
AN UPDATED list of sensitive “dual-use” products and technologies published by the European Commission will allow some exporters a little more marketing freedom than in the past, despite the recent heightened concern about terrorism.

The revised list of items that are considered to be dangerous in the wrong hands allows for higher thresholds in a number of areas and this will permit some exporters, notably of computers, to increase sales without having to seek prior permission from Brussels.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
FROM the beginning of next year exporters of medicinal products will find it easier to sell in Japan following completion of a Mutual Recognition Agreement between that country and the EU.

The deal includes a Good Manufacturing Practice agreement under which both sides will agree to honour each other’s testing, certification and approval of products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND ALAN OSBORN
WATER pricing reform is on its way in the European Union. The water framework directive passed last year imposes a commitment on Member States by the year 2010 to ensure that their pricing policies “provide adequate incentives for users to use water resources efficiently.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DESPITE the disruption caused by the BSE and Foot and Mouth crises to the smooth operation of the EU bovine leather market, the epidemics may actually help the industry prosper in the future, a new European Commission study has claimed.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
PERHAPS the greatest dilemma facing air transport in the new millennium is the need to balance the demand for airspace from passenger and cargo carriers, with the expectation of ever-improving safety in our skies.

Through its Safety Regulation Commission (SRC), Eurocontrol coordinates efforts to achieve consistent high levels of safety in air traffic management within the European Civil Aviation Conference, (ECAC), area.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A HIGH-LEVEL meeting of the Montreal Protocol controlling ozone-depleting chemicals has reviewed data on the use of CFC’s by developing countries, concluding that while most are in compliance, 25 of 136 had increased their consumption in 1999.

Participants from more than 100 countries took part in the meeting, in Sri Lanka, the latest in a regular schedule which makes THE protocol a dynamic and constantly-changing system of global regulation, rather than a static treaty that could become outdated.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank and the European Investment Bank are to lend US$183 and Euro 55 million respectively to Tanzania, where the money will establish Songas, a privately owned and managed natural gas and power utility. The company will develop Tanzania’s natural gas field on Songo Songo Island and construct a 230 km pipeline to bring the gas to a power plant, which will be refurbished and converted to gas production.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS the world’s environment ministers meet in Marrakesh, Morocco, to agree detailed rules on the operation of the Kyoto Protocol, the European Commission has formally proposed that the EU should ratify the convention and has also tabled legislation that will bring it to life in Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BOOM in the robot market that continued through the 1990’s into last year has hit the skids in north America, where demand plummeted by 28 per cent in the half-year to June. However, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and International Federation of Robotics says that in Europe, the market is still expanding, with sales rising by 11 per cent in the first six months of 2001.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS the world’s environment ministers meet in Marrakesh, Morocco, to agree detailed rules on the operation of the Kyoto Protocol, the European Commission has formally proposed that the EU should ratify the convention and has also tabled legislation that will bring it to life in Europe.…