More Trade News in Brief Week 34 (17 – 23 August 2015)

FAO – World Food Prices Hit Lowest Level in Almost Six Years

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) the prices for global agricultural products in July hit their lowest level since September 2009.

Check here for more: UN agency reports world food prices declining to six-year low .

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EPA – The Clean Power Plan

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled The Clean Power Plan, it aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions from US power stations and it shows the determination of the US to address global warming.

Read more here.

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WMO – First Half of 2015 ‘Hottest Six Months on Record”

The United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported the globally averaged temperature over land and ocean surfaces was the hottest for such period on record, from January to June 2015.

Find more here.

 

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FAO – Agriculture’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions

 

For the first time FAO has released its own global estimates of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU), contributing to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

 

New FAO estimates of greenhouse gas data show that emissions from agriculture, forestry and fisheries have nearly doubled over the past fifty years and could increase an additional 30 percent by 2050.

 

Check here and here for more.

More Trade News in Brief – Week 23 (28 May – 3 June 2012)

* South Sudan Becomes 184th ILO Member State

 

25 May 2012, Geneva

 

The Republic of South Sudan accepts the obligations of the Constitution of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

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* Online Global Agro-ecological Zones Interactive Data Portal

 

25 May 2012, Rome

 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) developed an online data portal to help identifying areas for  increased global food production while maintaining natural resources base and facing the challenge of climate change.

 

The Global Agro-ecological Zones (GAEZ) Portal  seeks to enhance planners’ and decision makers’ capacity to estimate agricultural production potentials and variability under different environmental and management scenarios.

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* Swiss Votes Through Tax Deals

 

 31 May 2012

 

 The Swiss Council of States has agreed on the bilateral tax deals concluded with Germany, the UK and with Austria. The deals aimed at resolving the issue of undeclared and untaxed assets of foreign residents held in Swiss bank accounts.

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* NAFTA Industry Guide

 

Research and Markets has published the report “Apparel Retail – North America (NAFTA) Industry Guide”.

 

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* Revised Chinese VAT Pilot

 

The Beijing office of China’s State Administration of Taxation (SAT) announced to replace the existing business tax on the country’s service sector with value-added tax (VAT) from July 1^st.

 

New FAO Statistical Yearbook 2012

20 March 2012, Rome

 

The FAO’s Statistical Yearbook is a wide-range collection and a main reference point for statistical data on food and agriculture. The new Statistical Yearbook 2012 present revised format that give a better picture around food and agriculture numbers related to economic, environmental and social trends and issues.

 

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was founded in October 1945 and is the largest autonomous agency within the United Nations system. The main objectives of the organisation are to raise levels of nutrition and standards of living, to improve agricultural productivity, to encourage sustainable agriculture and rural development, to implant strategies for the conservation and management of natural resources.

 

The FAO statistical publication is divided in five parts:

Part I – The Setting (the state of the agricultural resource base, people and demography, labour, capital, infrastructure, macroeconomic dates)

Part II – Hunger Dimensions (with reviews regarding: risks, hazards and shocks, malnutrition, trade and food security, food prices and food price volatility, education, health and sanitation)

Part  III – Feeding the World (taking a tour of: trends in crop sector, in the livestock sector, in the fisheries sector and in agricultural trade)

Part IV – Sustainability Dimensions (examines the sustainability of agriculture, land, water, pollution, climate change, biodiversity and conservation, organic farming, genetically modified crops)

Part V – Metadata (concepts, methods and bibliography)

 

Every section of the yearbook is accompanied by background and narrative text, charts, maps and references to additional publication. The FAO document is available in both online and print forms.

UN’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures

On 10 January 2012, the five-agency programme adopt a new medium-term strategy for 2012-16 in regard to help developing countries meet international standards on food safety and animal and plant health.

 

The Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) was set up by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), World Bank, World Health Organization (WHO) and World Trade Organization (WTO), and is run by the five partners together with donor countries and representatives of developing countries.

 

Since it was set up in 2002, the STDF has supported 47 projects and 48 project-preparation grants benefiting 54 developing countries. The current voluntary donors countries are Canada, Denmark, EU, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Chinese Taipei, US.