Search Results for: saudi arabia

BY PAUL COCHRANE
IN the Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian paint markets there is always an extra ingredient that must be thrown into the mix: politics. The political situation, internal or external, can have positive knock-on effects, such as Jordan’s booming construction market due to an influx of Iraqi refugees, or negatively, such as in Lebanon, where the sector is experiencing something of a slump due to political instability.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SAUDI Arabia is eliminating a ban on importing food products with less than half of their remaining official shelf life, via commitments made to join the WTO. In a key deal with the United States, the Saudis have promised to accept “internationally-recognised manufacturer-determined use-by dates, with the exception of certain perishable foods and baby foods”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN USA-Saudi Arabia agreement, easing the oil-rich kingdom’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will liberalise the international meat trade with Saudi buyers. Saudi Arabia is eliminating a ban on imported meat containing growth hormones, and will recognise USDA food safety certificates.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BARRIERS preventing the insurance industry from penetrating one of the world’s last largely-untapped insurance markets are to be demolished, with Saudi Arabia agreeing to liberalise a strict regulatory system to gain World Trade Organisation (WTO) membership.

In a key deal with the US, Saudi Arabia has promised to sweep away restrictions hindering insurers from offering standard western-style services previously deemed un-Islamic under the country’s strict Wahabist Sunni Muslim system.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has ruled that European Union (EU) institutions have the legal authority to freeze the funds of private individuals “in connection with the fight against international terrorism”, if such action is sanctioned by the UN Security Council.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank has launched an energy conservation fund for Bulgaria, that is expected to spend US$200 on taming the country’s notoriously profligate electricity consumers over 15 years. The bank is initially injecting US$10 million into this Bulgaria Energy Efficiency Fund it thinks will create so much spare energy, the country will be prosper from the leftovers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed imposing definitive anti-dumping duties on imports into the European Union (EU) of polyester staple fibres from China and Saudi Arabia. It has also proposed extending (at a lower level) duties imposed against South Korea in 2000 and scrapping 13% duties levied since 1999 on Taiwanese exporters, who are now dumping at very low levels, said the Commission.…

BY MARK ROWE AND PAUL COCHRANE

INTRODUCTION

JUST as chocolate sells well in cold countries, so do soft drinks flourish in hot countries, which would suggest that North Africa and the Levant presents an inviting face to the international drinks market.…

Keith Nuthall
THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation, of the World Bank, has agreed to advise the Saudi Presidency of Civil Aviation in securing private investment for two projects improving the King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah. One plan will rehabilitate or replace the airport desalination plant that currently supplies too little water, expensively and unreliably.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IT could be the most underestimated commercial crime in the world, the illegal trade in wildlife and their products. Some estimates put its value at US$5 billion-a-year, but governments do not really seem to care. Keith Nuthall reports.…