Search Results for: united nations⊂mit=Search

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL leather trade is facing a fall in demand for American raw hides, skin and finished leather exports, as well as leather finished goods and components, with the European Union (EU) planning to impose heavy duties such exports from the United States.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE UNITED States is to slap quota limits on imports of Chinese knitted fabrics, brassieres and dressing gowns, because it claims a surge in imports from China has disrupted its markets and could endanger US textile industry employment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the European Union (EU) are to introduce a new manufacturing standard in Europe, reducing the flammability of materials – including textiles – used inside cars. The draft UNECE regulation (which the EU is expected to support) covers “the burning behaviour of materials…ensuring a high level of safety and environmental protection.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
TRADITIONAL weavers from the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan are being trained in using the Internet to source raw materials from India and advertise their colourful fabrics online. A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) project is teaching weavers e-business basics as well as subsiding Internet connections in rural areas of this remote country and improved working conditions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has lost patience with the United States and has moved to impose retaliatory duties on a wide range of US clothing industry exports over a row about American foreign sales corporations, which have been deemed illegal by the World Trade Organisation.…

BY PHILIP FINE

DESPITE protests from a coalition of the major food associations, the US Department of Agriculture has laid out the specifics for its mandatory country of origin labelling (COOL) programme. The proposed rule identifies what products fall under the law and who is responsible for fulfilling them, with most cuts of meat and variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts and dairy products required to carry a "United States country of origin" declaration at the retail level.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INNOVATIVE nanotechnology technology has been trialled in the United States, effectively spraying a protective crystal crust on a New Mexico mountainside that had been left exposed to erosion by a fire. Its flames destroyed 5,000 acres of land considered sacred by the Taos Pueblo Native Indian group.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE WORLD’S first hydrogen fuel cell power plant to operate on coal mine methane gas has been launched in the United States. Based in Hopedale, Ohio, the 200-kilowatt Rose Valley power plant uses between 55,000 and 80,000 cubic feet per day of 42-47 per cent pure mine methane gas from an abandoned mine.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
STATE legislators in New Mexico, the USA, are currently debating a plan to drastically raise taxes on all alcoholic beverages sold. Its congress has proposed a “dime a drink tax” (ten cents per drink), which has been framed to raise funds to open more detoxification centres for problem drinkers and educational programmes in the state.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN law is to guarantee the rights of European Union (EU) citizens to access environmental information, participate in environmental decision-making and grant them the right to bring public authorities to court over this policy area, if EU ministers agree a proposal from the European Commission.…