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BY KEITH NUTHALL

ONE of the lynchpins of the European Union’s (EU) single market is its public procurement rules, which try to ensure pubic authorities, and some utilities and transmission operators, openly tender for their major purchases. The aim is that all EU suppliers have a fair crack of the whip in offering them goods and services.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MONTREAL Protocol treaty that has banned substances – including textile flame retardants – that can damage the ozone layer is now universal – every United Nations member country has now ratified its terms. The last country was newly independent Timor-Leste in south-east Asia: the Vatican State is the only country not part of the UN.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) sugar importers can benefit from new liberalised trade rules that came into force today (OCTOBER 1). The European Commission is urging the industry to exploit the new quotas. Notably, exporters from the poorest producer countries – labelled "least developed" by the United Nations – can now send unlimited amounts of sugar to the EU, duty free.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE USA food manufacturing industry, packagers and chemical suppliers may face additional controls on the chemicals they buy and use, maybe mirroring Europe’s REACH system. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is preparing proposed reforms to American toxic chemicals regulations, branding them an "inadequate tool for providing the protection against chemical risks that the public rightfully expects".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has confirmed that it has launched an anti-dumping investigation into alleged cut-priced exports to the European Union (EU) of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from Iran, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

A spokesman for the Commission’s trade directorate general said officials started probing the problem last Thursday (Sept 3) – it could lead to punishing anti-dumping duties being imposed by the EU on these products.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

REAPPLYING perfume ten times a day may not count as an addiction, but the ingredients found in your favourite scent could certainly lead to one: cosmetic ingredients have been historically targeted by clandestine drug manufacturers as sources of chemicals used to produce illicit street drugs such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IT is a little like the election of a Pope. The five-yearly reappointment of the European Commission – now underway – is shrouded in complex procedure and murky backroom deals. Closed discussions between Europe’s power-brokers in Brussels offices, embassies and national capitals divide up the available positions – currently there are 27: one per member state.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

IN the Persian Gulf, the traditional dress of the ‘dishdasha’ or ‘thobe’ is still a staple of most men’s wardrobes. In the region’s short, three- to four-month winter the typically white cotton dishdasha is replaced by light wools and cashmere dishdashas, with the season’s trend influenced by the Gulf’s monarchical rulers.…

BY SAEED AKHTAR BALOCH

PAKISTAN’S tobacco industry, despite unfavourable circumstances such as the devaluation of its local currency the Pakistani Rupee (PKR), an unstable political situation, law and order problems, and the trade of counterfeit and smuggled brands of cigarettes, has fared well and grown at an average rate of 3% over the last five years.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

FOLLOWING the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Israel was quick to come out and identify itself with the ensuing US-led ‘war on terror’. This was not surprising, given the Arab-Israeli conflict and the attacks Israel has sustained from militant Palestinian groups.…