Europe to overhaul trade policy
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The EU could seek free trade agreements with leading Asian economies as part of a radically revised trade policy.
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European Commission President-designate Jose Barroso overhauled his leadership team, seeking to end a dispute with the European Parliament and two weeks of policy- making gridlock in the European Union.
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The European Union is considering a  shift in policy toward Cuba that would get it back on speaking  terms with President Fidel Castro's government, diplomats said.
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The World Trade Organisation said that existing reforms to the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy fell short of liberalising farming and called for more cuts in support for EU farmers.
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The European Union and its allies got  the go-ahead on Tuesday to slap potentially heavy sanctions on  U.S. goods in a row that could stir trade tensions ahead of the  U.S. elections.
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European Union officials this week will aim to reduce corporate influence and make polluting more expensive.
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(InfoWorld) - In a surprise move, the European Commission said Wednesday it is shelving plans to overhaul Europeâs rules on copyright fees, after intense lobbying from France and from groups representing artists and authors. The Commission, the executive body of the European Union, was planning to replace the patchwork of national rules with a Europe-wide code designed to better suit the digital age. Presently most countries impose copyright levies on a wide range of products, from photocopiers to mobile phones, and including recordable formats such as CD-Rs, blank cassettes and even paper. The size of levies varies widely from country to country. Only the U.K., Ireland, and Luxembourg do not impose any such levies. Copyright levies are supposed to compensate artists and authors who donât receive any payment when their copyrighted music, documents, or pictures are duplicated by consumers. The Commission wanted to harmonize the rules and scrap levies on most hardware. Its aim was to reduce the fees, which in some cases increase the price of goods dramatically. For example, in Spain consumers have to pay almost â¬300 ($398) in levies when they buy an 80GB MP3 player; in Austria the equivalent charge is just â¬8, according to the Copyright Levies Reform Alliance (CLRA), a coalition of businesses dedicated to harmonizing and lowering copyright fees in Europe. The Commission said it was abandoning the rule change for now. It had planned to publish a proposal before the end of this year. âMore reflection is needed on this complex issue,â spokeswoman Pia AhrenKilde Hansen told journalists. She wouldnât give a new timetable for the legal proposal. She acknowledged that the French prime minister Dominique de Villepin had written to the Commission earlier this month, urging it to drop the plan but she insisted that the Commission will decide for itself when the proposal will be launched. The Commission has been planning to harmonize copyright levies across the E.U. since 2000. Since then the case for scrapping most levies has grown stronger. Digital rights management software, which allows copyright owners to track the copying of their works, has become commonplace. The Commissionâs climb down sparked an angry reaction from the companies and industry groups pushing for a change to the system. âEuropean industry is deeply disturbed by the European Commissionâs apparent about-face on the planned reform of copyright levies,â said Mark McGann, spokesman for the CLRA in a statement issued Wednesday. âWith this decision, it is clear to industry that the Commission has abandoned any serious efforts to establish transparency, efficiency and fairness in the way these levies are set, collected and distributed,â he added, warning that without the revamp of copyright levies, several large European companies now intend to file official complaints with the Commission that will likely result in a wave of infringement procedures against certain member states. âThe reform of copyright levies would then move from the European executive to the European Court of Justice,â CLRA said in its statement.
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Judges to rule on a case that could change the way alcohol and tobacco is bought within the European Union.
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European Union leaders pressed other trading powers on Friday to move to wrap up more than five years of global trade talks, making clear the EU would also pursue the option of bilateral deals with Asian partners.
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EU leaders say they should turn to new priorities now that they have agreed on institutional reforms.
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The European Union (EU) said Monday it would eliminate from January 1, 2005 all quantitative restrictions on the import of textile and clothing products from World Trade Organization (WTO) member countries.
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Pascal Lamy, the former EU trade commissioner, could become the World Trade Organisation&#39;s new director general, replacing Supachai Panitchpakdi when his three-year term runs out in August.
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The European Commission proposed on Tuesday to liberalize market for visible car spare parts by removing design protection rules for such items.
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INDUSTRY is gearing up for a push to reform the European Union&#39;s sluggish markets and to boost the skills of Britain&#39;s workforce as hundreds of thousands of jobs are sucked away to Asia or Eastern Europe.
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The EU industry chief unveiled plans on Friday to revise the bloc's toy safety standards with a ban on some chemicals and on packaging toys as giveaways with foods such as sweets or cereals.
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BRUSSELS -- The European Union moved to lift hundreds of millions of dollars in trade sanctions against US exporters, responding to sweeping new US corporate-tax legislation that closes tax breaks ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization.
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The European Union said it has offered to eliminate most tariffs for imports of industrial goods and to scrap or reduce agricultural import tariffs from South American trade bloc Mercosur.