EU seeks exclusive use of food names like Champagne
Brussels: EU wants exclusive use of food names like Champagne, according to news reports. The European Commission has drawn up a list of 35 food and drink brand names including Champagne, Bordeaux wine, Roquefort cheese and Parma ham that it wants to reserve for EU producers. The EU executive is launching a campaign to return established European food and drink names to the EU fold and stop their use in the rest of the world by fighting for trademark protection in the World Trade Organisation. “We’re trying to recuperate the exclusive use of such names in the WTO,” said a Commission official.

“We’ve been usurped of the names and we want them back.” The Commission said it was disgrace that Parma ham made in Italy had to be marketed as “super ham” in Canada because a Canadian firm had the local rights to the Parma name. The Commission said it wanted to present the list at a crucial WTO meeting in Cancun, Mexico in September where the principles on how to liberalise farm trade could be agreed. The agriculture negotiations are one of the sticking points in the wide-ranging trade talks, pitting the EU variously against the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina.
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Post-SARS, Singapore Airlines restores few flights
Singapore: Singapore Airlines says it has restored some flights as demand for air travel recovers from SARS but said capacity would stay below pre-SARS levels for the near future. The world's sixth-largest airline said it lost S$6 million ($3.43 million) a day in April and May as the outbreak of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus hurt passenger traffic, forcing the carrier to cut wages, slash capacity by a third and axe nearly 600 staff - the largest lay-offs in its 56-year history. "As demand comes back, we have begun to put some of our flights back," said Chairman Koh Boon Hwee.

"Compared to the pre-SARS period, it is likely we will still be in the range of 12-15 per cent down (in terms of capacity) for the foreseeable future. He said the airline was "not in a position" to comment on whether it would restore all flights. Singapore Airlines, which cut nearly 300 weekly flights in April and May, has restored some services to New Zealand, Spain, Japan and China but flights to American cities such as Chicago and Las Vegas remain suspended. Koh said job cuts by the airline would result in savings of around S$40 million each year but cost-cutting alone would not be sufficient to return the company to profitability.
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Daimler not to sell Chrysler, says report
Frankfurt: German auto giant DaimlerChrysler AG remains committed to its ailing US Chrysler unit and has no intention of selling it, a company board member told a German newspaper. "Chrysler belongs to us, just like Mercedes-Benz," DaimlerChrysler board member Ruediger Grube told Die Welt newspaper, according to an advance copy of an article to be published on Monday.

"The strategy that DaimlerChrysler has been following since the 1998 merger needs time, because we are dependent on the product cycles in the auto industry," Grube was quoted as saying.

The world's fifth-biggest carmaker said last week its core profits sank by nearly two thirds in the second quarter, hit by losses of €948 million ($1.1 billion) at Chrysler. Chrysler's woes have fuelled questions about the strategic logic of its 1998 merger with Daimler-Benz, since when the group's stock has lost nearly three quarters of its value. Grube also said DaimlerChrysler was confident of sealing a planned trucks joint venture with Korean manufacturer Hyundai Motor, with union negotiations the final hurdle. DaimlerChrysler planned to form a €400-million joint venture in the first half of 2003 with Hyundai, South Korea's top automaker, but tough labour demands have been delaying the deal.
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