Search Results for: World Trade Organisation

Germany’s estimated 1,300 breweries are leaving the Covid-19 pandemic behind only to find themselves faced with skyrocketing energy prices and the affiliated rapid consumer price inflation. Several of large German brewery groups have already raised their prices to compensate for their past Coronavirus losses, and a second wave of price increases has recently been announced for early 2023.…

Fraud has spiked since the outbreak of Covid-19 and is still on an upward trajectory as economies struggle to rebound from the pandemic, according to research by Grant Thornton and the US-based Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). One of the biggest growth areas in fraudulent activity, according to the American Bankers Association (ABA) is related to the exploitation of the elderly, particularly in ageing societies such as the USA, Europe and the east Asia.…

The textile and fibre sectors of Ethiopia have been looking to expand domestic sakes as Ethiopia approaches one year anniversary of its exclusion of the USA’s Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). This process continues even as a new peace deal between the government and rebel Tigray forces is being rolled out, growing hope that Ethiopia may be readmitted to AGOA and its preferential US market access in 2023.…

WORLDWIDE inflation is impacting the can making industry and its supply chain partners. Indeed, metal packaging prices have risen by at least 25% this year, according to industry association FoodDrinkEurope. A key reason has been soaring prices for energy used in manufacture, up more than 50% in 2022 according to the World Bank.…

WHEN European energy experts consider the future of hydrogen as an energy source, assessments sound remarkably like comments made about wind or solar power in the late 1990s – it is a great idea, but it would help if production and processing were less expensive.…

European Union (EU) food manufacturers are facing the potential imposition of new rules on the presence of nitrosamines in food products, following a European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) review that ended in November. EFSA has concluded that “it is highly likely that for all age groups dietary exposure to nitrosamines is above the level that could indicate a health concern”.…

An African garment and textile sector rebounding from the Covid-19 pandemic has seen strong export growth in the first three-quarters of 2022 start to sputter through a tightening of retail demand in Europe and the United States. These remain Africa’s two primary export markets and their consumers are reducing spending as inflation and recession concerns grow.…

The African knitwear manufacturing sector has been regaining ground lost during the Covid-19 pandemic, with established manufacturing hubs capitalising on the growing demand for nearshoring in Europe and to a lesser extent the USA. There are major investments under way in developing production capacity, particularly in West Africa.…

The Egyptian garment and textile sector has rebounded from the dip caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, with orders returning in 2021 and exports strong in the first half of 2022. Sluggish consumer demand in the country’s primary export markets of the USA and Europe has however seen orders weaken over the past third 2022 quarter.…

The US government is coming under increasing pressure to reinstate Ethiopia as a participant of its African Growth & Opportunity Act (AGOA), now a peace agreement has been signed to end a bloody civil conflict in the country. The Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) have agreed to halt two years’ hostilities that the UN concluded had “intractable and deadly consequences” for civilians.…