Search Results for: World Trade Organisation

AMBITIOUS recycling measures in a proposed European Union (EU) packaging and packaging waste regulation (PPWR) are essential to boost packaging waste collection and achieve a true circular economy for packaging, EU can industry experts have told CanTech International.

Indeed, as EU ministers and MEPs negotiate the final legal text of these planned reforms, the CEO of industry association Metal Packaging Europe (MPE), Krassimira Kazashka, said her group wants “EU legislators to provide for stronger recyclability measures and more pragmatic reuse requirements”.…

Production of ‘burel’, a traditional Portuguese wool fabric, which almost ceased in the last century, has been reborn as a natural and biodegradable material with unique functional characteristics for sports footwear.
 “We are currently rediscovering burel” and its “various applications” and “excellent features”, António Braz Costa, general director at the Portuguese Technological Centre for Textile and Clothing (Centro Tecnológico Têxtil e Vestuário – CITEVE) and the affiliated Centre for Nanotechnology and Smart Materials (Centro de Nanotecnologia e Materiais Técnicos, Funcionais e Inteligentes – CeNTI), told WTiN.…

The garment and textile industries in the European Union (EU) and the Mercosur region of South America (Southern Common Market, in the Spanish initials) are losing hope after 25 years of negotiations to finalise a long-touted trade agreement.

Often, when both sides thought a deal was almost reached, there has been a setback for a deal that would link the 27 EU member states with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.…

Transparency International’s 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) (1) released on Tuesday (January 30) has concluded 122 of 180 countries worldwide scored below 50 on perceived levels of public sector corruption from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). This number shows how “corruption levels remain stagnant globally” – as the same number was reported last year (2022).…

The Bulgarian dairy market and industry is struggling to survive and grow after the Covid-19 pandemic hit sales, followed by steep inflation and economic disruption caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But innovative companies are building a future by developing quality and new dairy products, making the most of Bulgaria’s special yoghurt and cheese traditions.…

As consumer goods brands are increasingly burdened with a flood of regulations for the reduction of emissions and waste, and consumers are incorporating more sustainability criteria into their consumption decisions, there is a strengthening rationale for including packaging machinery-makers at the start of the product development process.…

Disruptions to the supply chain in the Red Sea are driving up shipping costs for the clothing and textile sector, causing alternative routes to be used, and may result in longer-term shifts in sourcing as well as logistics, if the crisis continues.…

The disruption to shipping through the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthi militants is having a mixed impact on the Egyptian garment exporting industry – a key European near-sourcing hub. On the one hand shipping rates have increased, and the import of raw materials from east Asia has been impacted; while on the other hand, there has been an uptick in orders from European clients to take advantage of Egypt’s proximity to Europe, without running the gantlet of Houthi attacks.…

Despite low domestic demand and transportation challenges posed by poor cold storage facilities, Bangladesh’s nascent cheese industry is showing potential for growth.

Consumers are eating more of this dairy product than ever before, spurring growth in imports. According to data from United States-based export-import trade intelligence firm Volza, there were 4,464 import shipments of cheese into Bangladesh, imported by 524 Bangladesh traders, as of from last January 1 (2023) to October 31 (1).…

Predictions that a post-pandemic surge in nearshoring would follow clothing brand fears about volatile supply chains have only been partly realised. Inadequate advances in automation, limited raw material supplies, lack of appropriate infrastructure and persistent high costs have limited the ability of many near-sourcing industrial hubs close to Europe and north America to grab market share from Asia.…