Governments to sign first arms trade treaty regulating conventional weapons
Governments will today sign the world's first internationally binding agreement to regulate the trade in conventional weapons. The treaty, which seeks to control the global trade in arms and ammunition, will be signed by top arms exporters including the UK, Germany and France, with the US expected to sign later this year. Anna Macdonald, head of arms control at Oxfam, said: “This treaty now makes governments take responsibility for every arms transfer that enters or leaves their territory, and requires they put human rights and humanitarian law, not profit, at the heart of every decision. Too many lives have been lost to armed violence – today's ceremony marks a new dawn.” (Guardian, Bloomberg)
Environment
Asda to slash waste by giving away millions of surplus meals
UK supermarket Asda, a subsidiary of retailer Walmart, has revealed plans to save up to 1,500 tonnes of food waste a year through an innovative new partnership with charity Fareshare that will see surplus stock given to needy families. Barry Williams, chief merchandising officer for food at Asda, said the new partnership would help tackle the twin problems of food poverty and food wastage. “I hope that our work will inspire other retailers to work together to find new ways of redistributing food wasted in the supply chain to those who need it most,” he said. (BusinessGreen, Independent)
Financing scheme launched for sustainable shipping
A novel financing scheme has been unveiled by the Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) to encourage retrofitting vessels with energy-saving technologies. The initiative, founded in 2010, has developed a “Save As You Sail” model in which expected fuel-cost savings are shared between the ship-owner, the time charterer and a finance provider. Maersk Line, a leading ship-owning and operating SSI member, is understood to have already completed retrofitting projects for its entire owned fleet of containerships and to be holding advanced retrofit discussions with major independent vessel providers. (Lloyd’s List)
Corporate Reputation
UK cracks down on unpaid internships
Nine UK companies have been forced to pay out almost £200,000 to interns who were required to work without payment, after an investigation by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The firms, including the retail group Arcadia, were fined for breaching minimum wage legislation. HMRC said it was alarmed at the number of companies recruiting young people to work for nothing. The law makes clear that if a position has set hours and set duties it amounts to a job, and the person doing it must be paid the minimum wage. About 100,000 young people are thought to be working without pay. (The Times*)
UBS under investigation over French tax evasion
The French unit of UBS, the Swiss bank, has been placed under formal investigation in France in a probe into allegations that it solicited French clients to open accounts designed to evade taxes. The move is the latest step in a judicial inquiry opened in April 2012 into the bank’s activities in France and comes as the French Government is stepping up efforts to clamp down on tax evasion. The court has placed UBS under formal suspicion of complicity in illegal solicitation. UBS offices in Paris and several other French cities have also been raided in the course of the probe. (Financial Times*)
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