Search Results for: World Trade Organisation

BY DEIRDRE MASON
MANY Health and Safety leaflets are going over their small and medium-sized business targets’ heads because the reading age needed to understand them is too high for their owners and managers.

Delegates at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents’ (RoSPA) recent conference at Birmingham heard Sandra Caldwell, head of the Health and Safety Executive’s Health Directorate, bring this surprising fact out in the open.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has ducked making a potentially controversial ruling on the legality under EU freedom of trade rules of the Swedish laws banning alcohol advertising.

Judges had heard a case referred by the Stockholm district court, which had been brought by Sweden’s consumer ombudsman against a food and drink magazine Gourmet, which had carried ads for red wine and whisky.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
DEFINITIVE anti-dumping duties have been imposed by the European Union on aluminium foil exported by China and Russia. The EU Council of Ministers said that the duties would apply on imports of aluminium foil of a thickness of not less than 0.009 mm and not more than 0.018 mm, not backed, not further worked than rolled and in reels of a width not exceeding 650 mm.…

BY KATE REW
THE NEW edition of the global code, which sets the standard for imports and exports of healthy fish has just been released. The third version of the International Aquatic Animal Health Code published by Office International des Epizooties (corr), lists the diseases that would stop the import or export of fish, molluscs and crustaceans, under international trade laws.…

Keith Nuthall
A REPORT from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) calling for liberalisation is a little like a report from the Pope suggesting more prayer, but the world’s premier international think tank has refined its arguments regarding utilities in a recent formal recommendation to its member governments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed that sulphur should be banned from petrol in the EU by 2011, and has proposed that sulphur-free petrol and diesel should be made available in every Member States from January 1, 2005.

Brussels thinks sulphur elimination is important, because the chemical damages catalytic converters and makes them less efficient.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Shippers Council has welcomed a decision by the European Commission to issue a statement of objections to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) over its cargo tariff consultations. The Commission says that the IATA consultations restrict competition “and are no longer indispensable to provide customers with efficient interlining services within the EEA.”…

Keith Nuthall
A REPORT published at the ongoing meeting of the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice has asked delegates to consider whether the world should be protected by a global cybercrime convention.

Its aim would be to outlaw Internet offences in every UN member country, denying hackers and virus designers legal safe havens.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
(maximum marks for this one, I think. Only drawback – it’s only as good as the alarm system it comes with.)

Price (installed):

the 2000 model (155 cubic metres) – pounds 1,350

the 4000 model (250 cubic metres) – pounds 1,800

the 8000 model (400 cubic metres) – pounds 2,200

Contact:

Smokecloak

10 Cochran Close, Crownhill

Milton Keynes, Bucks.…

KEITH NUTHALL
IN the world’s continually growing urban communities, household consumption of water accounts for the bulk of demand, and as such, has to be the target of conservation strategies, for them to maximise their effectiveness.

However, a rather gloomy report from the European Environment Agency has claimed that high prices and lack of information are preventing many households from using devices that can substantially cut their water consumption.…