Search Results for: World Trade Organisation

KEITH NUTHALL
GLOBAL consumption of textiles is “continuing on its upwards trend,” the latest World Commodity Survey from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has said. Consumption volume is predicted to rise from 48 million tonnes to between 56 and 58 million tonnes by 2005, said the report.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Health Organisation has announced an agreement with the world’s six largest medical journal publishers, where they will allow medical schools and research institutions to access their scientific information for free or at reduced rates.

Blackwell, Elsevier Science, the Harcourt Worldwide STM Group, Wolters Kluwer International Health & Science, Springer Verlag and John Wiley have agreed to grant almost 1,000 of these institutions preferential Internet access to their journals for at least three years from January 2002.…

Keith Nuthall
THE LATEST World Commodity Survey from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has given a half-hearted welcome to the liberalisation of the power sector that is proceeding throughout the developed world, especially in Europe. Its electricity chapter concluded that it was “stimulating competition, increasing transparency and leading to industrial reorganisation,” but questioned whether this would lead to lower prices and increased demand.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States has formally lifted its retaliatory 100 per cent duties on EU exports of bath preparations, other than bath salts, following the solution of the years-long row with the European Union over its import procedures for Caribbean bananas.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE COLLAPSE in world cocoa prices, at a time when its national market has been liberalised, has left policy makers with the difficult task of reinventing financial protection for its producers, a UN World Commodity Survey 2000-2001 has concluded.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union has been pressing its trading partners to loosen the emergency import restrictions that they imposed on EU meat products at the height of the foot and mouth crisis, because of the clear evidence that the outbreak is under control.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has moved to end tax exemptions enjoyed by Schiphol airport, Amsterdam, which currently is exempt from paying Corporation Tax. Brussels has claimed that in an increasingly liberalised air market, this concession cannot be justified and is illegal state aid from the Dutch government.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRAZIL and the USA have struck a deal over the licensing of generic drugs, which should see an end to the looming World Trade Organisation dispute between the two countries, brought by the American government.

The Brazilian government have agreed to consult the US, if in the future it thinks that it might have to use its Article 68 law to a grant compulsory licence on patents held by US companies.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission said today (Wednesday) it was taking France to the European Court of Justice over restrictions preventing alcoholic drinks producers from participating in the cross-border provision of television broadcasting services, sports sponsorship and advertising services.

Brussels said that the French Loi Evin “disproportionately restricts the cross-border media sales services by sports events organisers in other Member States” and restricted alcoholic drink producers from buying advertising and sponsorship services from sports events organised in other EU countries.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has dismissed a claim by Portugal that its system of landing fee discounts for some domestic flights is justified under EU law. In one of the last legal disputes on this issue, judges ruled that the fees for Lisbon, Oporto and Faro airports illegally discriminated against foreign carriers and so broke EU fair trade regulations.…