Word: basics
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...negotiations, is a good start on ozone. It calls on most signatory countries to reduce production and consumption of CFCs by 50% by 1999. Developing nations, however, will be allowed to increase their use of the chemicals for a decade so they can catch up in basic technologies like refrigeration. The net effect, insist the treaty's advocates, will be a 35% reduction in total CFCs by the turn of the century...
...Baby Doc was disbanded by decree after Jean-Claude fell from power last year, but in spite of repeated promises, it was never disarmed. The provisional government has prosecuted only a few of the most notorious thugs. "It isn't easy to get rid of something as basic as the Macoutes," says Aubelin Jolicoeur, a Haitian journalist and former gossip columnist. The recent rampages have a signature style that has led many Haitians to suspect that elements of the Macoutes are involved: the late-night assaults, the beatings of entire families, the arbitrariness, the brutality...
...adjustment has not been easy. In such basic industries as shipbuilding, textiles and small electronics, Japan began losing customers to South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. Many Japanese firms had to cut production and sacrifice profits to remain competitive. Mazda, for example, saw its net earnings drop 77% in the six months ending April 30, compared with the same period a year earlier, as it struggled to keep its car prices down...
...international banking community. The financial crisis has forced Brazil to curb imports and go all out on the export front. So far, the results have been unexpectedly impressive. In July alone Brazil achieved a record monthly trade surplus of $1.4 billion. The Brazilians still rely on sales of such basic goods as orange juice and coffee, but the country has also become a prominent exporter of manufactured items, including steel and small aircraft...
Lately, business leaders have been warning about an even more deep-seated problem: a lack of basic skills among workers. While America's colleges and universities are second to none, its high schools are failing to give students the verbal and math basics they need for increasingly technical jobs. When New York Telephone recently administered a test of fundamental skills to 22,880 job applicants, 84% failed. Better job-training programs are key parts of major competitiveness-boosting trade bills now being considered in Congress...