AFTA-CER FREE TRADE
A task force composed of representatives of ASEAN countries plus Australia and New Zealand met recently in Jakarta to look into the feasibility of establishing an AFTA-CER free trade area by 2010 [ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) - Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Agreement (CER)]. The Task Force also held initial discussions on the possible scope and coverage of the proposed FTA and agreed on the areas requiring further study and consideration which would include the views of the business community and the experiences of other regional groupings.
SIGHTSEEING
The Canadian sightseeing segment of the bus industry has grown significantly. During the first half of 1999, companies specializing in sightseeing reported gross revenues of about $8 million, compared with about $1 million in the first half of 1995. In 1999, 15 sightseeing companies reported data compared with only three in 1995. Several companies began operations during 1997 and 1998, especially in Ontario and British Columbia. These gains were in part a result of more activity in the tourism industry.
HORMONES
The European Commission (EC) has extended the deadline for the US to satisfy requirements for hormone-free meat exports. The US has announced an improved monitoring programme to test for unauthorised substances and residue levels exceeding EU limits in fresh meat and meat products. Recently, EU scientists found traces of hormones in 12-20 percent of beef samples from US slaughterhouses--samples which were supposed to be hormone-free. This has posed a significant obstacle to resolving the broader dispute between the EU and US over the EU ban on US (and Canadian) hormone-treated beef.
METAL
Palladium is a precious metal used in car catalysts, dentistry, mobile phones and laptops, among other things. Recently, the price of palladium shot up to over $700 an ounce, an all-time high, making it more valuable than gold for the first time since the mid-1970s and dearer than platinum.
FAILURE
Statistics Canada reports that at least half of new companies in Canada go out of business before their third anniversary, and only one-fifth of them survive a decade. Roughly one out of every four new firms (23%) won't make it past their first birthday. The study examined 1.3 million businesses that began operations during the 10 years between 1984 and 1994. In terms of overall survival rates, new firms in Ontario, B.C. Quebec and Alberta fare better than those in other provinces. In these four provinces, between 20% and 25% of firms in their first year will go under, compared with 35% of new companies in the Atlantic provinces.
CONVENIENCE
According to a recent poll by Yankelovich Partners Inc., the availability of 24-hour convenience stores was one of the highest-ranked items that Americans want to see continue into the new millennium and was chosen by 85 percent of those polled. The country's 100,000 convenience stores provide goods and services that reach practically every community in the country. In 1998, nationwide convenience store sales topped $164 billion, a five per cent increase over the previous year. Convenience stores also sell roughly 60 percent of the gasoline sold in the U.S.
TRENDS
A major British supermarket chain plans to cheer up British shoppers this summer by turning its car parks into free drive-in movie venues. The chain aims to show films at 50 stores across the country. Movies will be free to the public who arrive on foot and it will cost one pound for cars with the money being given to charity. The supermarket is planning to provide a separate entrance and tiered seating for about 500 customers who wish to take advantage of the offer.
ELECTRICIANS
The overwhelming obstacle to wiring American businesses over the next decade will be recruiting and training thousands of professional electrical workers needed to cable the nation's new commercial buildings and rewire outdated ones. It is estimated that an additional 50,000 telecommunications technicians and installers will need to be recruited and trained over the next 10 years to meet the demand for cabling the nation's commercial buildings. Currently 5,000 apprentice technician/installers are enrolled in an $80-million-a-year program, which has more than 40,000 apprentices in multi-year training programs for highly-skilled electrical jobs.
EMPATHY
Computer systems that understand human emotions are being developed. A current project is "Orpheus, the affective CD player, a digital musical delivery system that plays music based on your current mood and listening preferences." Mood sensing jewellery is also being developed.
FREE TRADE
By 2003, as part of a free-trade deal agreed with the EU, Mexico will dispense with tariffs on just over half the industrial goods exported there by EU countries, with the remainder going by 2007. The EU will drop its tariffs on most industrial goods, which account for 93% of bilateral trade, by 2003.
PATENT 5970300
This is a Xerox Corp. patent and could be one of the most interesting printing advances in years. Xerox has developed an apparatus that applies scents to paper in a printer or copier. In addition to printing images onto sheets, this new printer has a conditioner that adds odour to selected images of a job. By matching this technology with an image recognition database, you could have instant matching of smell to image. An advertisement with apples would smell like apples.
RVs
Sales of recreational vehicles are at a 21-year-high. Modern RVs include such amenities as large-screen, Internet-equipped TV sets and walk-in closets.
EUROPE
According to Progressive Grocer, major retailers are charging into Central Europe as the region recovers from the Russian economic crisis. In the capitals of Budapest, Prague and Warsaw, dozens of big-box hypermarkets are sprouting up with vast car parks and even vaster inventories of food and other goods. Consumers with growing bankrolls are flocking to the new stores, leading to forecasts of rapid expansion, and giving some relief to western merchants from crowded home markets and the constant competitive headaches.
TRADE
According to the U.S. Commerce Department, the U.S. trade deficit rose 65 per cent in 1999 to a record $271 billion. Contributory factors were the doubling of oil prices and a booming economy that saw a flood of imports from Canada, Japan, China and Europe. Meanwhile, Canada's exports grew twice as fast as imports in 1999 leaving a positive trade balance of $34 billion. In all, Canada exported $360 billion worth of goods, up 11 per cent over 1998. Imports were up eight per cent at $327 billion. 85 per cent of Canada's exports went to the U.S.
COUPONS
For the first year in the last five, Consumer Packaged Goods Manufacturers (CPG) in the U.S. increased the number of coupons distributed to promote purchases of their products. The volume of coupons grew by nearly 3% in 1999, to a total volume of 256 billion. The average face value of coupons distributed was 73 cents. Coupons printed at home via the Internet and coupons delivered via the mail or electronically activated as a result of an Internet site visit grew by more than one-third over 1998, although they remained less than half a share point of the total 256 billion CPG coupons distributed.
TRANSPORTATION
According to the President of Canadian National, the Canadian transportation industries, and the governments that tax and regulate them, must come together to forge a comprehensive national transportation policy. Transportation is crucial to Canadian competitiveness in world markets. 42 per cent of the nation's gross domestic product is exported, yet Canadian carriers must contend with complicated regulations, unfavourable tax treatment and differing policy frameworks. He said that the lack of a cohesive national transportation policy is harming Canadian competitiveness.
A Pitney Bowes survey indicates that Canadian office workers send and receive an average of 169 messages a day. This is an eight per cent increase over last year but still short of the U.S. average of 201 messages. While North American workers are using e-mail and the Internet, workers in Britain are more likely to pick up a cellphone. Half the U.K. workers use a cellphone daily compared with 27 per cent in the U.S. 56 per cent of Canadians use the Internet daily or weekly; the number is 45 per cent in Germany and 36 per cent in Britain.
FOOD
The Concorde has a per-passenger budget of $90.00 (U.S.), compared with the $3.87 that U.S. carriers spend to feed the average passenger.
WATER
Asia is a massive market for bottled water where millions of people distrust tap water. Consumption is projected to grow at least 10 per cent a year for the next few years. Presently it is a $3 billion market with high stakes. The average consumer in China uses two litres of bottled water a year, compared with 45 in the U.S. and 111 in France. The situation is similar in India, Thailand and Indonesia, where there are 247 bottlers of fresh water. Over the last three years, major European companies have invested around $750-million in bottling plants.
HYPERMARKETS
Murphy Oil Corp and Wal-Mart have announced plans to build 600 European-style "hypermarkets" in the U.S. by 2003. They will be located in the parking lots of giant Wal-Mart shopping centres. Murphy Oil claims that if you put a kiosk and gas pumps in the parking lots of huge hypermarkets, your volume is so great and capital cost so low that you will probably do well. These models of discount sales are proving successful in Europe. In France, they account for a 49 percent share of the retail gasoline market and 21 percent of the market in the United Kingdom.
CDs
An Angus Reid survey of Canadians suggests that those who download music are ready to buy it later. Seventy-two per cent of those who downloaded on-line music over the previous six months said they would continue to do so and that the practice would have no impact on the number of CDs they planned to purchase. This finding seems to contradict fears by musicians and record companies that downloading on-line music without paying poses a major threat to CD sales.
HIPPOS
According to the U.S. Postal Service website, a medium sized hippo occupies at least as much space as 200 gallons of water. To ship this large animal, you'll need: a 1,000 gallon tank, (per hippo), 800 gallons of water, half a kilogram of sedative and soothing music.
Other details are available at http://www.usps.gov/moversnet/plain/howtopacka2.html#hippos.
SUBSCRIPTION
If you wish to receive either our Economic Digest or the A & A Newsletter electronically each month, please visit our website at http://www.aacb.com and complete the subscription form. Thank you.
Thank you for reading the A & A Economic News Digest. For more information visit our website www.aacb.com or contact A & A Contract Customs Brokers Ltd. at strehler@aacb.com.
Past issues of the A&A Economic News Digest can be found at http://www.aacb.com/publications/ed/index.asp
Posts
