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BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

IRAN’S US$1 billion paint sector is going through a boom period: it is expected to grow by up to 20% this year on the back of strong decorative paint growth, an expanding automotive sector, and surging demand for specialised paints in the shipping and energy sectors.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) director general Pascal Lamy has welcomed a proposal from the United States and Switzerland to expand the group of countries charging no import duties on medicine imports. Speaking to the Assembly of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, Lamy regretted the summer suspension of the WTO Doha round, but claimed WTO initiatives on generic medicines and this zero-duty initiative was having an effect.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HONG Kong and China have been branded as the world’s serious hotspots for counterfeit clothing and accessories, in a global European Commission survey of countries where product fakes are manufactured. The Commission’s directorate general (DG) for trade gathered the information from companies, diplomatic missions and trade federations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project has been launched to establish common rules measuring damage caused to consumers by food-borne illnesses, to iron out inconsistencies in assessments between EU countries. Part of the EU’s Med-Vet-Net initiative, scientists will focus on two common infections: salmonella and campylobacter.…

BY MARK ROWE

OFFICIALS in the central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan have called for urgent action to tackle the country’s uranium dumps, a legacy of the country’s role in the nuclear industry of the former Soviet Union. Their call has highlighted increasing concerns about how depleted uranium is stored, at a time when the United Kingdom and other governments look set to press ahead with a new generation of nuclear power stations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SECRETARIAT running the United Nations’ Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) has been opened at the Rome headquarters of the UN Food & Agriculture Organisation. The body is charged with promoting bioenergy, helping international exchanges of know-how and technology, promoting policies and identifying potential funding.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A UNITED Nations unit is coordinating the introduction of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) accrual systems across all agencies of the global body. The UN Task Force on Accounting Standards is overseeing the development of implementation timetables, which must see all UN agencies and branches adopting IPSAS by January 2010, except for peacekeeping operations, which must comply by July 2010.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) body established to help EU prosecutors and crime fighters pursue cross-border investigations has signed an agreement with the United States, maybe making it assist trans-Atlantic extraditions. In a potentially controversial move, given the uproar surrounding cases such as the Nat West Three extradition, Eurojust can now stage joint meetings with USA judicial authorities, "where data regarding cases under evaluation of charges are considered".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Commission global survey into counterfeit goods has revealed concerns about Mexico being a centre for the counterfeiting of fake medicine packaging and leaflets. The study of businesses, industrial federations and diplomatic missions was told the problem is particularly rife in the large cities of Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey, along with the northern frontier zone with the United States.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

IT’S COMMONLY acknowledged that, whatever its merits, the globalisation of world trade and commerce brings with it vastly enhanced opportunities for money laundering. As the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) points out, in an online report explaining its work, the world-wide spread of inter-connected financial markets greatly extends the range of countries where anti-money laundering (AML) controls are absent or embryonic and enforcement is weak "and unfortunately, many countries particularly those classified as emerging markets, fall into this category."…