Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A ROOT-AND-BRANCH reform of the European Union’s customs administrations is being proposed by the European Commission, to enable officials to deal with the flood of new trade that is being created by the development of e-commerce.

Brussels wants to ensure that customs forces are not overwhelmed by high workloads and are also able to effectively fight fraud.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADIAN farmers are awaiting a Supreme Court of Canada decision, which could allow farm workers in Ontario the right to establish effective unions and engage in collective bargaining.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union challenged the provincial Progressive Conservative government’s constitutional right to repeal legislation imposed by a previous social democratic government in 1995, which allowed the province’s farm workers to unionise and bargain collectively.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CANADIAN government is considering making some changes in its cattle feed policies in order to reduce the risk of BSE, following recommendations from a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation report earlier this month.

The UN named Canada as being at risk because it imports live cattle and parts for feed from countries that have had cases of the disease.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE CONFECTIONARY industry has not escaped the onset of globalisation. Indeed, the trade in confectionary and sweet bakery food products has become increasingly international in the past 20 years and there is no sign of this trend reversing.…

KEITH NUTHALL
CHINA has agreed to stop its pharmaceutical manufacturers from copying medicines patented in Austria, Finland and Sweden, extending ‘administrative protection’ enjoyed by the rest of the European Union to these countries.

Beijing has been refusing to grant these rights – which are a form of patent protection – because when it agreed to stop its citizens copying European Union patented pharmaceuticals, neither Austria, Sweden nor Finland were EU members.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commissioner for enterprise and the information society Erkki Liikanen has told the European Parliament that his officials are drawing up a new proposed directive on alternative medicines and have been working on the legislation since last year.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States has launched disputes proceedings against Brazil at the World Trade Organisation, complaining that the Latin American country’s patent laws allow local drug companies to copy US-patented pharmaceuticals, in contravention of the Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is threatening France with legal action at the European Court of Justice over its alleged failure to recognise pharmacist diplomas from other EU Member States. Under European law, a special alternative recognition procedure is in place for Member States to assess and, where necessary, recognise some pharmacist diplomas whuch do not meet minimum training requirements under EU Directive 85/433/EEC.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States has launched disputes proceedings against Brazil at the World Trade Organisation, complaining that the Latin American country’s patent laws allow local drug companies to copy US-patented pharmaceuticals, in contravention of the Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commissioner for enterprise and the information society Erkki Liikanen has told the European Parliament that his officials are drawing up a new proposed directive on alternative medicines and have been working on the legislation since last year.…