Search Results for: food

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Trade Organisation has agreed at its ministerial meeting in Qatar, to intensify its ongoing agriculture talks. Ministers ruled that by the end of 2003, member governments should propose formal concessions on quotas, tariffs, subsidies and other trade barriers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EU health and consumer affairs commissioner David Byrne has called for a strategic rethink by the food industry regarding the safety, quality and cost of its products, so that the sector is not driven purely by the desire for low prices.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CYNICS may look at the hastening political process of allowing eastern European countries, and their large agricultural sectors, into the European Union, and ask, ‘what’s in it for us?’

It’s a good question given that the 10 countries that are at the front of the membership queue, (with the tiny exceptions of Malta and Cyprus), are hardly wealthy.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
DON’T hold your breath, but it looks as if the European Union may soon be moving away from the worst features of the Common Agricultural Policy. Yes, this has been said many times since Britain joined what we once called the European Economic Community and critics say every reform effort until now has failed – even the ambitious Agenda 2000 reforms could be said to have only really tinkered with the system at the edges.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
MOST governments are keenly concerned about the quality of food their people eat, and quite rightly so. They pass laws to ensure food purity and safety and that’s all very commendable – but it can be overdone.

Regulations can, sometimes deliberately, be drawn up so tightly that they effectively bar the sale of food produced in other countries, thus constituting an impediment to free trade.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
The USA’s ConAgra Foods Inc. will launch squeezable Parkay margarine in November, in ‘Electric Blue’ and ‘Shocking Pink’ colours, in child friendly, 10-ounce bottles that are easy to grip. This is the latest product aimed at pleasing children via their visual fun factor competing with the likes of H.J.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FARMERS might fear that the old industrial saying ‘where there’s muck, there’s brass’ may no longer apply to them, but the European Commission is out to prove that crop productivity can be boosted by the filth that can be dumped on land from manufacturing sectors.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WTO’S Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures has agreed information that should be demanded by food importing countries and supplied by exporting countries to make sure that products are safe. The deal is designed to make it easier for developing countries to prove that their products are healthy enough for sale abroad.…

Keith Nuthall
A STREAMLINED system for removing faulty non-food items from retailers and service providers across the European Union, where goods have been shown to be a risk to consumers, is to be set up, following the agreement of reforms to the EU general product safety directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Trade Organisation is moving towards the launch of a general round at its November summit in Qatar, but these negotiations will only be approved if a wrangle affecting the trade in meat and other food products can be resolved.…