Search Results for: japan

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PRINTING equipment and supplies imported from the United States are to be a focus of retaliatory tariffs imposed by the European Union following the erection of controversial ‘safeguard’ duties by Washington to protect its steel industry.

The European Commission has announced that it is asking EU ministers to approve a selected range of products, where the levying of duty will cause the most pain to US exporters, in a bid to try and force the Bush administration to lift its tariffs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DRAFT recommendations on improving the treatment of oil spills have been agreed by the International Maritime Organisation, during the UN agency’s third research and development Forum on High Density Oil Spill Response.

Experts present discussed the particular problems posed by this kind of pollution, including its high viscosity and tendency to sink.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
JAPAN’S Nippon Mitsubishi Oil Corp. has said that it intends to follow up its planned merger of three group refineries by expanding exports of gas oil, fuel oil and other petroleum products by 50 percent in fiscal year of 2003, the Shipping & Trade news has reported.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
SOME sensible words were spoken recently by the EU’s agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler on the way forward for farmers. His starting point was the quality of farm produce. Noone is going to say that quality has ever been far from farmers’ minds, but until recently it wasn’t really the first consideration.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States has launched initial WTO disputes proceedings with Japan, which it claims is unfairly restricting the import of American apples. Meanwhile the US has banned the import of Spanish clementines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A FINANCED global action plan to improve safety in the nuclear energy sector has been approved in principle by the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency. A number of countries have pledged around US$4.6 million to fund its programmes, although this falls far short of the US$12 million price tag claimed by the IAEA, which also wants a fund of US$20 million established to handle security emergencies.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Montreal
JAPAN’S Futaba Industrial Co. Ltd. has signed a deal to purchase land in Canada’s Stratford, Ontario, which will be home to a new plant making parts for Toyota automobiles. Kiyoshi Hina, its future plant manager, told the local Beacon Herald that the company will invest a total of US$20 million, employing about 70 employees.…

BY MARK ROWE
A ROW over dealership rights could lead to a permanent parting of the ways for Malaysia’s Oriental Holdings and Honda. Oriental was sole distributor for Honda cars until last July, when Japan’s second biggest carmaker took back those rights to form a local unit, giving it direct involvement in Malaysia’s market.…

BY MARK ROWE
TOYOTA Motor Corp plans to buy Chinese parts to make cars in its operations in China as a way to cut costs, instead of shipping them in from Japan. Toyota would procure discount door parts and materials including steel sheet from China’s leading steel-maker, Shanghai Baoshan Iron & Steel.…

Keith Nuthall
THE INDIAN government has abandoned its appeal against last December’s World Trade Organisation ruling that it had broken global commerce rules by insisting that auto-manufacturers within its territory not only promise to buy some components locally, but that they export products of an equal value of imported inputs.…