Imports

Strategy paper on coal import substitution: Inter-ministerial committee report

The “Strategy paper on Coal Import Substitution” has been prepared as a report of the IMC (Inter-Ministerial Committee). The paper focusses on the present energy mix of the country, domestic coal production, trends and projections, import trends (sector-wise), coal import substitution measures already taken by the Government and most importantly, …

BANGLADESH, DRUGS

To meet its objective of health for all by AD 2000, Bangladesh has decided to open its doors for importing pharmaceutical ingredients, packaging products and finished drugs. Medicines inadequately produced in the country can now be imported without any restrictions. However, curbs will remain on drugs manufactured on a large …

Bananas over bananas

The European Court of Justice has rejected Germany's complaint about the European Community's (ec) banana import rules. Germany, the largest importer of bananas, favours the Latin American variety and its grouse is that the ec regime prefers producers in Europe and its former colonies over Latin America. Until recently, Germany …

What a waste

LAST week, Australians admitted to their interest in selling hazardous waste to India for recycling. It is telling that hazardous waste has been dumped in India before, often indiscriminately and irresponsibly. This lackadaisical attitude towards toxins was the reason for the signing of the Basel Treaty on the Transfer of …

Yen for ecofriendly grain

INDIAN exporters had pinned their hopes on gaining entry into the Japanese rice market in the wake of the compulsory opening up under GATT. But the Japanese Food Agency has recently communicated that they would consider placing India in their shopping list only if its rice were free from harmful …

Fishy business

THE United States has once again lost the battle to use trade measures to determine not only tuna fishing methods but also the impact of tuna fishing on other species. In response to a complaint by the Netherlands and the European Community, the second panel report of the General Agreement …

Tiffs with scrap

THERE are several kinds of toxic wastes that are dumped in Asia. According to Greenpeace, among the noxious wastes that have been shipped to Asia since 1990 are aluminium, cadmium, copper, nickel, tin, zinc, other non-ferrous and ferrous metals, ash and residues, computer scrap, plastic, medical and radioactive wastes. The …

Threatened farmers

YEARS of government protection and a ban on imports had so far insulated Japanese rice farmers from foreign competition. Now, however, they face double trouble -- emergency imports of foreign rice by the Japanese government to tide over a shortfall in production. The imports coincide with a decision to allow …

The logic of importing lowly dung

THE largely deprecatory reports in the Indian media about the proposed import of Dutch dung have missed a key point. The idea seems to sound so outlandish because dung is a lowly thing in the perception of the modern Indian middle class. But if India can import chemical fertilisers, which …

Report of the committee on prevention of illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products

Ministry of Environment and Forests constituted on May 24, 1994, a committee to look into the issues relating to illegal trade in wildlife species. The committee was requested to look into the issues related to the illegal trade in wildlife and suggest ways and means to improve the existing control …

Withdrawal not lethal

THE WITHDRAWAL of USA -- the largest consumer of coffee -- is unlikely to invalidate the International Coffee Agreement, which aims at stabilising coffee prices for the benefit of both consumers and producers. Sufficient importing members have already agreed to the pact. Though the loss has been acknowledged to be …

Hauled over the coals

The Tamil Nadu State Electricity Board (TNSEB) has been castigated by the Union ministry of coal for trying to import Australian coal to step up power generation. The ministry is worried the high sulphur content of Australian coal may cause acid rain. A disgruntled TNSEB has retaliated by pointing out …

No wood, no pests

IN A BID to protect its forests from a voracious, microscopic pest called the pinewood nematode, the European Community (EC) has banned imports of untreated softwood lumber from Canada. The ban affects the bulk of Canada's $388.50 million yearly export of untreated lumber to EC states. Now all Canadian lumber …

French fries prompt battle with McDonald`s

ISRAELI potato growers have dug in for a fight to the finish against McDonald's of Big Mac hamburger fame, which is due to open its first outlet in Israel outside Tel Aviv in autumn. McDonald's says it wants to import frozen fries because irrigation has made the wholesale prices of …

Dhaka to give drug policy a free market dose

FOR 11 years now in Bangladesh, transnational pharmaceutical firms have been squeezed out of the market because of a drug policy that has kept down prices of medicines, increased their production and encouraged the local drug industry. But the big firms looking for big bucks may be back if the …

The state of Bangladesh`s health care

THE FIRST patient of the day at M A Muttalib's clinic in Dhaka is a 6-year-old boy. After asking the boy's mother a few questions, Muttalib prescribes medicine for a parasitic and then comments, "The child goes back into the same unsanitary environment and becomes re-infected. Within six months, he'll …

Some drugs are more essential than others

BANGLADESH'S national drug policy is based on the essential drugs concept propounded by the World Health Organisation (WHO). It says that drugs that satisfy the health needs of the majority of the population should be available at affordable prices at all times in the right dosage. Since 1977, WHO has …

The battle is won, but who won the war?

NOW THAT Hiroshi Nakajima has been confirmed as director of the World Health Organisation (WHO), at the organisation's annual general assembly held in early May, he has to start setting his house in order -- a formidable task by all accounts. At the WHO annual general assembly, 93 countries voted …

Worms in US apples

"EMPTY boxes, empty promises", read a sign put up by the Washington Apple Commission, to protest against Japan's "unfair" ban on American apples, at a recent food exhibition in Osaka. The organisation that represents growers producing 60 per cent of the US apple crop said Japan has been rejecting import …

Jakarta scavengers moan loss of scrap trade

IMPORT of waste scrap material -- some of which could be toxic -- for recycling, has created a controversy in Indonesia. Scavengers in Jakarta are complaining that the price of recycled items has fallen so low, their livelihood is threatened. Their demand for an immediate ban is supported by the …

Thais dig deep into wallets for songbirds

THAILAND is literally a land of happy people for in the local language, thai means happy. The Thais are nature lovers and they are so fond of songbirds, they keep them as pets. Often, houses in Bangkok, the capital, have a decorated cage in which a bird coos melodiously. But …

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