Search Results for: Dominican Republic

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FRENCH government has adopted delaying tactics in its opposition to a proposed European Union (EU) directive establishing welfare rules for broiler chickens, calling for additional studies into the legislation. It asked the EU Council of Ministers to refer a European Commission impact study on the directive to the council’s special agriculture committee.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GUATEMALA government has launched the first stage of disputes proceedings at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over complaints about 25.87% anti-dumping duties imposed by Mexico on imports of certain Guatemalan steel pipes and tubes. The small central American republic has logged 18 claims alleging its larger neighbour broke WTO rules when imposing the duties.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has released details of a fishing agreement that will give 40 European Union (EU) tuna seiners and 17 surface longliners access to the Indian Ocean waters off the Comoros archipelago. Asking EU ministers to approve the deal, Brussels said it would cover an annual catch of 6,000 tonnes of tuna in Comoros waters until December 2010.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is planning to lend Romania’s European Drinks Group Euro 195 million to fund a long-term investment and expansion programme. Its aim, said a bank memorandum, was to ensure the drinks and food producer changed from “a (large) family run entrepreneurial company into a well organised large corporate”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD’S crime-fighting great and good met in Bangkok in April, at the United Nations’ 11th Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. They decided rich countries should better help the poor to fight organised crime. Keith Nuthall reports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WORKING hours in Britain exceed those in most new European Union (EU) member states from eastern and southern Europe says a report showing how western Europe workers generally work fewer hours. Britain’s usual weekly work hours, said the European Industrial Relations Observatory are 43.1, only exceeded in the expanded EU by Latvia’s 43.3.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has conditionally approved the greenhouse gas pollution allocation plan of Poland and the Czech Republic, leaving the European Union (EU) just two countries shy of approving all national components of its emissions trading scheme. Now only Greece and Italy await approval.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
HONDURAS has failed to persuade the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to order the abolition of all Dominican Republic cigarette import red tape and tax measures it opposes. Despite winning a WTO dispute last year, forcing Dominican Republic reforms, Honduras asked an appeals body to specifically rule against a bond system and a consumption tax.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has accused nine European Union (EU) governments of dragging their feet over promoting biofuels in their countries. It has sent critical formal notices to Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland and Slovenia accusing them of failing to submit national reports framing 2005 targets for biofuel consumption, as required under the Biofuels Directive.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission is drafting an action plan to improve transparency in its infamously opaque accounting procedures, with resulting legislative reforms maybe demanding the public unveiling of the recipients of European Union (EU) funds. At a speech in Nottingham before European Foundation for Management Development the EU’s new Commissioner for anti-fraud Siim Kallas noted with disapproval: “At the moment, in most member states, data on end beneficiaries (of Brussels’ agricultural spending) are not publicly available”.…