The battle between the US and EU over bananas is just the first skirmish. Trade in a world of constant innovation, cheap transport and powerful interests inevitably creates conflict.
This theme has come even more dramatically to the foreground following the recent events in the Balkans and was the subject of an interview published on June 6 in Welt am Sonntag and released by Gerhard Schroeder, upon his return from the European Council meeting in Köln.
Perceptions of the United Nations
The results of a survey, shown at a press conference at the United Nations Building on 27th April 1999, have drawn attention to current perceptions of the UN.
Last March the Canadian House of Commons passed a motion to "encourage the Government to promote a supranational levy on financial speculation in agreement with the international community".
The European Parliament for a UN Parliament
On 26 March 1999 the European Parliament passed a resolution on UN reform, proposed by Enrico De Melo, the Portuguese member of the European People’s Party.
France, birthplace of human rights, has been convicted by the European Court in Strasbourg of having violated article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits torture and inhuman and degrading treatment.
Iran between Reform and Recession
Faced with economic globalisation and the spread of the scientific revolution, countries like Iran, locked in a theocratic regime, are in increasing difficulty.
African Unity, like the Arabian Bird
The forty-three Heads of State and Government of the Organization for African Unity (OAU), who met on 9-10 September in Syrtis, Libya, have decided to give new impetus to the project for the United States of Africa.
Serious friction between India and Pakistan over Kashmere have brought to the foreground once again the fear of a nuclear arms race; although a global war using non conventional weapons seems unlikely, nuclear weaponry is still considered an effective deterrent by some developing powers and the cold war climate, which seemed to have been forgotten after the end of the bipolarism, is reappearing on a regional scale.