“Commercial Awareness Is Global.”
By Charles Wanguhu A lot of column inches have been taken up trying to dissect the emerging Sino-African relations. In Africa more and more Chinese goods as well as people are visible. The Africa -West relationship has been largely characterized as an aid relationship or “carrot stick diplomacy”. Experimental policies such as the structural adjustment programmes have been imposed
By: Ainsley Brown It would seem that yet another Canadian bank has received a wrap on the knuckles in the UK. The latest bank to be disciplined: Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), who lost an employment age discrimination case. The case was brought by a 42 year old London based banker who was made redundant in 2008 as part of
By: Ainsley Brown The Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the agency charged with policing trade practices – read unfair trade practices – has launched a study into the high cost associated with business insolvency. The study will focus on the way insolvency practitioners, namely accountants and lawyers are appointed and how they set their fees. The importance of the study
By: Ainsley Brown The European Union (EU) voted this week to continue the anti-dumping duties it put on certain Chinese and Vietnamese footwear imported in the EU. In a previous post, I speculated that the EU would vote to discontinue the tariffs – boy was I ever wrong. And the EU’s decision has not gone unnoticed in the EU and
By: Ainsley Brown The Toronto Dominion Bank (TD), one of Canada’s leading financial instructions has been fined £7 million by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). The FSA, charged with policing financial institutions in the UK, has imposed the fourth highest fine in its history on TD for repeatedly failing “to follow established procedures in ensuring the trader’s books were independently
By: Ainsley Brown “Gimme a break, gimme a break, break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar,” has taken on a new meaning in the UK as Kit Kat ‘breaks off’ some cash cocoa to farmers. Nestlé, the Swiss makers of Kit Kat, has announced that the very tasty chocolate snack as of mid-January will become a Fair
By: Ainsley Brown In what is clearly a sign of the continuing rise of tensions in global trade relations, China last week imposed duties US and Russian steel. The target of the duties is flat rolled steel used in the electric power sector. According to the Chinese the steel products were being dumped – that is being sold at below
By: Ainsley Brown Under a British Columbian Court of Appeal ruling Canada’s Most Reliable Network has gotten the boot – well the ad at least. Rogers Communications Inc., the Canadian telephone, internet and cable company, that advertised as Canada’s Most Reliable Network has been told by the B.C. Court of Appeal that it has to drop the Most in its
By: Ainsley Brown Imagine being told that you could no long buy a BlackBerry or being told that the services of the one you already own will be restricted, just imagine. Think it can’t happen; well think again for this has now entered the range of possibility in the United States. The Canadian company, Research In Motion Ltd (RIM), the
By: Ainsley Brown In a very surprising move HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has extended it tax amnesty program – the New Disclosure Opportunity (NDO). The NDO was set to expire on November 30 of this year but has been extended to January 4 of next. Under the program tax payers with undisclosed offshore accounts nestled away in any number