International Shipment Research Articles

Hamburg Rules United Nations Convention on the Carriage of Goods by Sea, 1978 - An Appraisal

The Hamburg Rules are a set of rules governing the international shipment of goods, resulting from the United Nations International Convention on the Carriage of Goods by Sea adopted in Hamburg in 1978. They were drafted largely as an answer to the concerns of developing nations that The Hague rules were unfair in some respects. These concerns stemmed mainly from the fact that they were seen to be drawn up by the mainly colonial maritime nations and had the purpose of safeguarding and propagating their interests at the expense of other nations. The United Nations responded to this concern by drafting the Hamburg Rules. The Hamburg rules are far more than a simple amending of the Hague/Visby regime and came up with a completely different approach to liability. This paper explains the definition for each rule and how they affect the liability of maritime shipping carriers and what effects the amendments have on carriers while also examining the limitations placed.

The New Regulations on Waste Shipments: Green List Controls

On 12 July 2007, European Parliament and Council Regulation 1013/2006 on Shipments of Waste (“the Regulation”) came into force. This establishes new rules applicable to transboundary shipments of waste, both within the EU and with non- EU countries. This article explains and analyses the rules on the international shipment of waste in view of this new Regulation and also considers how the position is enhanced in the UK by the UK statutory instrument the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007. In order to ascertain which controls apply to shipments of international waste, legal practitioners need to consider the details of: . whether the waste is to be recovered or disposed; . the type of waste being exported; . and the status of the consignee’s country. This article focuses on the export of international waste shipments from the UK and the “Green List Controls” applying to shipments of non-hazardous waste for recovery. The purpose of the article is to provide analysis on whether the new rules place the responsibility on the carrier to ensure that the documentation is correct or whether it is the responsibility of the shipper.

International good market segmentation and financial innovation

While international capital flows are now well liberalized, markets for goods remain segmented. To investigate how financial innovation may relieve the effects of this segmentation on risk sharing, we examine a series of two-country economies with internationally segmented good markets, distinguished by the available financial securities. Sufficient conditions for efficiency include complete international financial markets together with liberalized international financial flows. Under these conditions, heterogeneous agents from the same country may use securities as a substitute for the international shipment of goods. This allows them to partially circumvent the segmentation, allowing for efficient risk sharing.

Evaluation of FTA ® paper and phenol for storage, extraction and molecular characterization of infectious bursal disease virus

Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) is an important poultry pathogen and is distributed world wide that can cause immune suppression and lesions of the bursa of Fabricius. The main component of the virus, VP2, is not only responsible for the bird's immune response, but is important for the molecular identification of this virus as well. The nucleic acid of the virus must be adequately preserved to be analyzed by reverse-transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) and sequenced for the molecular characterization of the field strain. Phenol inactivation has been the standard for IBDV tissue collection and international shipment; however, there have been some reports of interference with molecular detection capabilities when using phenol. Phenol is also a hazardous chemical and must be handled and shipped carefully. The ability to use the Flinders Technology Associates filter paper (FTA ® card) for inactivation of several avian pathogens has been proven previously, however no work has been published on its use in IBDV nucleic acid detection. Bursas from experimentally infected birds was imprinted on FTA ® cards, and then placed in phenol. Samples were evaluated and compared based on molecular detection capabilities between the two inactivation methods. The nucleic acid of the virus was detected in 85% of the FTA ® card inactivated samples compared to 71% in the phenol inactivated samples. Sequence analysis was performed on samples inactivated by both methods and no differences were found. When comparing the RNA stability at different temperatures, euthanized IBDV infected birds were held at two different temperatures before sampling. No differences were detected for FTA ® sampling; however, for tissues in phenol the nucleic acid was only detectable up to 2 h post-mortem in the tissues held at 4 °C prior to sampling. These findings indicate that the FTA ® card is an efficient and reliable alternative collection method for molecular detection and characterization of IBDV.

International Good Market Segmentation and Financial Innovation

While financial markets have recently become more complete and international capital flows well liberalized, markets for goods remain segmented. To investigate how financial innovation and more complete security markets may relieve the effects of this segmentation, we examine a series of two-country economies with internationally segmented good markets, distinguished by the available financial securities. We show that risk-sharing may be limited even with complete financial markets, and that additional securities may be needed to reach an efficient equilibrium allocation; the location of these securities also profoundly affects the equilibrium. Key to this result is our assumption that there may be heterogeneity and imperfect risk-sharing within countries as well as across countries, a novelty of this work. Sufficient conditions for efficiency include complete international financial markets together with liberalized international financial flows. Under these conditions, heterogeneous agents from the same country may use securities as a substitute for the international shipment of goods. This allows them to partially circumvent the segmentation, allowing for efficient risk sharing.

Use of Smears for Assessing Removable Contamination

It is the authors' recommendation that all non-fixed contamination limits apply to the total non-fixed surface contamination on an object or structure rather than the activity removed by a single wipe. This would bring the United States in line with the international approach, something that would be particularly helpfid with respect to the international shipment of radioactive material. It would also provide a consistent approach within the United States for the characterization of non-fixed contamination, something that does not currently exist.

Nations agree to ban hazardous exports

The international shipment of hazardous wastes between rich and poor nations became illegal last month as 91 nations meeting at a United Nations-sponsored conference in Geneva formalized the Basel ...

Bacterial Angular Leafspot Disease of Strawberry: Search for Resistance

Bacterial angular leafspot disease (BALD) of strawberry, caused by Xanthomonas fragariae, a slow-growing and often difficult pathogen to isolate from infected plants, is most commonly manifested as small discrete, angular, translucent lesions on leaves and sepals. As the bacteria infect systemically, plants may wilt and die. BALD has become increasingly important in North America and other strawberry-growing areas of the world. The systemic nature of the pathogen also is cause for concern with international shipment of strawberry plants, especially because there is no practical method for determining the presence of the bacteria in symptomless, infected plants, nor is there a practical method of chemical control. All cultivars of Fragaria × ananassa (8×) are susceptible to BALD, although a range of susceptibility is often apparent in plantings. Resistant genotypes have been reported among clones of F. virginiana (8×), F. moschata (6×), and F. vesca (2×). A program has been initiated to evaluate native octoploid and diploid strawberry germplasm for resistance to BALD.

Garbage imperialism: health implications of dumping hazardous wastes in Third World countries.

This paper calls for studies of the potential health implications of today's hazardous waste disposal practices, and suggests that such studies are urgently needed in Third World countries where industrial nations are increasingly dumping their unwanted waste materials. The United States produces enormous quantities of hazardous waste each year, and approximately 1,200 "priority hazardous waste sites" presently threaten the nation's health. Because of environmental regulations, landfill closings, and citizen opposition to local waste facilities, industrialized countries are increasingly disposing of their problematic materials by shipping them to the Third World, where they pose substantial threats to human health and the environment. From a political economy perspective, this paper suggests that global health would be better served by reducing hazardous waste production, encouraging reusing and recycling, and restricting or banning international shipment of toxic wastes.

Hot Water Treatment of Rice Seed for International Shipment

Hot Water Treatment of Rice Seed for International Shipment

Hazards of International Shipment

Hazards of International Shipment

The International Shipment of Adult Entomophagous Insects1

When the transfer of entomophagous insects can be accomplished by using adults, most of the danger of including undesirable hyperparasitic species is avoided. However, in order to take full advantage of this relatively safe method of transferring natural enemies to new areas, shipping methods must be developed which are greatly improved over those now in use. To this end an examination was made of the extreme conditions likely to be encountered during air-mail transit and of the critical sustenance, temperature, humidity, and confinement conditions which certain delicate adult entomophagous species could endure. Using these data as guides to the degree of protection and sustenance required for the safe transport of parasite and predator adults, various shipping techniques were devised and tested under both simulated and actual shipment conditions. A shipping procedure was developed that provided entomophagous insect adults with optimum protection and sustenance during air-mail transport. The insects were shipped in ventilated, honey-striped vials placed inside sealed vacuum bottles that contained honey as a humidity regulator. The relative humidity inside the sealed vacuum bottles was regulated at 59%±4% throughout temperature changes of 40° to 100° F. by the honey.