September 2001 Edition
EUROPE
Plans for the European Union to liberalise trade with the world's poorest countries are on hold. Following complaints from farm lobbies, Europe's trade commissioner has pushed back a proposed transition period for an "everything but arms" market-opening to 2006-08. The original plan was to eliminate tariffs on most goods by 2004.
PUBLIC SERVICE
Employment in the Canadian public sector has rebounded to the levels of the mid-1990s after several years of tight budgetary control and government restructuring. The public sector employed an average of just under 2.9 million people in the first quarter of 2001. This is an increase of 1.1%, or 31,100 people, from the first three months of 2000, and is the eighth straight quarterly increase. There are now as many people working in the public sector as there were in the first quarter of 1996.
PHONES
Nearly 50 per cent of children in Britain aged between 7 and 16 own a mobile phone. A study by the NOP Research Group revealed that 52 per cent of girls and 44 per cent of boys have their own mobile phones.
ICELAND
Global warming is giving Iceland an unexpected headache. Its roads--recently freed of much of their ice cover--are being ground to dust by cars fitted with studded winter tires. Plumes of asphalt are drifting across the island, raising cancer fears among health experts and environmentalists, while roads are breaking apart under the strain.
RADIO
Revenues of private Canadian radio broadcasters surpassed $1.0 billion for the first time in 2000, advancing 5.2 per cent from 1999. This increase was largely the result of the good performance of FM broadcasters, whose revenues grew 7.9 per cent; AM broadcasters' revenue grew 0.8 per cent. FM stations, as a group, have generated profit margins exceeding 16.0 per cent in the last four years, reaching a high of 22.5 per cent in 2000. During that period, AM stations recorded losses every year.
DANGER
A British 1999 study found that far more people were injured by magazines (4,371) than chainsaws (1,207); accidents involving tea cosies jumped to 37 from 20 the previous year.
FARES
The average Canadian domestic air fare in the second quarter of 1999 was a record $208, up 5.6% from the second quarter of 1998 and 2.1% above the previous record level of $204 reached in the second quarter of 1995. This was the ninth consecutive quarterly increase in average fares in the domestic sector, erasing the effect of seven consecutive quarterly decreases in 1995 and 1996. The average international air fare in the second quarter of 1999 was $364, 13.1% lower than the record average international fare of $419 reached in the third quarter of 1994.
TRAFFIC
The Mayor of London, England, has announced a plan that would see all vehicles entering the heart of London paying a $10.00, one-day, congestion fee starting in 2003. It is hoped that the plan will raise half a billion dollars a year to be ploughed into the public transport system and reduce traffic jams by 15 per cent. It is estimated that 750,000 vehicles pass in and out of the congestion zone each day. More than 100 digital cameras, both static and mobile, will enforce the new law. The pass will last the whole day and allow unlimited entries and exits.
CHINA
Swarms of newly affluent Chinese are helping to bolster the tourist-hungry economies of their Asian neighbours. More than ten million Chinese went abroad last year, up from just three million less than a decade ago. The Chinese list foreign travel as their No. 3 desire, after housing and education. Those that go abroad currently spend $2,000 to $3,000 (U.S.) each per trip. In Thailand and South Korea, for example, they are becoming an important source of revenue, particularly as arrivals from Western countries slow along with their economies.
FRANCE
The French government has announced a US$1.5 billion project to make high-speed Internet access available throughout France within five years. As part of a far-reaching technology initiative, government and industry will pool another US$180 million to bring mobile-phone service to the 8 percent of France that does not have it. The Internet services will be developed using cable, satellite and high-speed modem technologies.
CONTROL
The majority of Canadians are against letting control of the country's media and communications companies fall into foreign hands, fearing it could lead to a loss of national identity and sovereignty. A survey found that seven out of 10 Canadians oppose raising the current limits on foreign investment in the industry. 41 per cent said they strongly oppose changes that would allow foreign majority ownership. Just 5 per cent said they strongly favoured it.
PIRACY
The first pirate-proof compact discs which cannot be copied have gone on sale in California. CDs recorded on the new system play normally on a CD player or computer, but the digital code holding the sound is corrupted if anyone tries to copy it.
ONTARIO
Ontario's exports to Europe jumped 8.9 per cent in the first four months of 2001 relative to the same period last year. In 2000, Ontario's exports to Europe increased 9.7 per cent over 1999. According to the government, this year's increase has led to 2,000 new jobs in Ontario. In 2000, Ontario's exports to Europe totalled C$7 billion. Aircraft, computer parts, optical devices and precious metals led Ontario's export gains. Key markets were the U.K., France, Germany, Russia and Norway.
MEAT
The European Union, whose beef market collapsed in the wake of the mad cow epidemic, is to spend US$10 million promoting beef consumption. The 12 month scheme is to win back some of the estimated 1.5 million tons of consumption lost due to the collapse of public confidence in the safety of beef and beef products. The main emphasis of the campaign will be to reassure consumers that beef is safe to eat as well as emphasizing the nutritional benefits of eating beef.
ORGANIC
The Canadian government has created a national centre for organic agriculture based out of Nova Scotia's Agricultural College. The new facility will carry out research and education. Organic food accounted for C$1 billion in sales last year and has a 20 per cent annual growth rate. The centre will help Canadian producers eat into markets in Europe, Japan and the U.S. Key to the centre's mandate will be the development of four web-based courses in organic agriculture available to students and farmers across Canada.
DOGFISH
Marine biologists used to condemn these fish as an enemy of the fishing industry. Now, the spiny dogfish is creating a small Maritime industry. Landings of the small shark have shot up over the last four years. Meanwhile, markets have grown with a steady demand for their thick white meat in fish and chips in British pubs, in Chinese shark-fin soup and as snacks in German beer gardens. There are about 40 boats in Nova Scotia catching dogfish compared to eight four years ago. Fishermen caught about 2,400 tonnes last year, six times the catch in 1996.
PAY PHONES
It is predicted that pay phones and telephone booths will disappear in Canada within a few years due to the popularity of increasingly sophisticated and relatively cheap cell phones. Already, the explosive growth of cell phone use--20-to 30-per cent annually--is causing many Canadian pay phones to be permanently disconnected. About 9.1 million Canadians now carry cell phones.
TIME
Researchers have developed an atomic clock that keeps even better time than the microwave atomic clocks currently in use. The newer clock uses optical (visible) light and is accurate to one second in the lifetime of the universe--about 15 billion years. Until now, the best atomic clocks were only accurate to one second every 15 million years!
CHANGE
Tupperware Corp. is to begin selling its products in SuperTarget stores in the U.S in October. The stores will be staffed with Tupperware consultants who will explain and demonstrate the products like they do at Tupperware parties. The partnership with Target is only the latest step the company has taken recently to expand the distribution of Tupperware products beyond the parties. In the last three years, Tupperware has sold its kitchen utensils and plastic storage containers at 148 shopping mall kiosks, online and on television
FLOTSAM
The amount of buoyant, indestructible rubbish that floats in the world's oceans has exploded since the 1950s and 1960s. Before that, most marine garbage was organic, so it eventually rotted or sank. As many as 1,000 or more boxcar-size shipping containers fall off ships annually, releasing fleets of floatable goods. Autopsied sea animals have been found with items like cigarette lighters, plastic bags and toy soldiers.
OLYMPICS
In recent years, the Olympics have become a great commercial success. The TV rights alone have shot up from US$101 million for the 1980 Summer games to US$1.33 billion in 2000. By 2008, the IOC forecasts its TV rights for the Summer games will be worth US$1.72 billion. Revenue from its top 10 advertisers program will grow from US$96 million for the 1988 Calgary Winter and Seoul Summer games to an estimated US$600 million for the combined 2002 Salt Lake City Winter and 2004 Athens Summer Olympics.
BRIBES
Foreign companies bribed their way into obtaining US$37 billion in overseas commercial contracts over the past year, according to a Department of Commerce report. In the period from May 1, 2000 to April 30, 2001, the competition for 61 contracts may have been affected by bribery of foreign individuals, and of these contracts, US firms are believed to have lost nine, worth approximately $4 billion. Aided by eavesdropping and other intelligence, the US also found that over the past 15 years, firms from 53 countries have offered bribes and officials from 112 countries have taken them.
SIZE
Of the 100 largest economies in the world, forty-nine are countries and fifty-one are corporations. (Wal-Mart's $167 billion in sales for 1999, for example, is bigger than the GDP of Norway). Canada's GDP of about $1 trillion has yet to be surpassed by any corporation. With $45 billion in sales last year, Nortel was Canada's largest corporation. Larger, financially speaking, than every province except Ontario (provincial revenue last year $67 billion) and Quebec (revenue last year $56 billion).
MIMICS
The electronic tweeting of mobile phones is so widespread in Australia that some birds are mimicking the sound as part of their mating and territorial songs. Australia has six so-called mimic birds that commonly imitate sounds in nature.
MONEY
Australia's 'paper' currency is made from plastic. The special polymer is virtually uncounterfeitable and is recyclable.
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
Plans for the European Union to liberalise trade with the world's poorest countries are on hold. Following complaints from farm lobbies, Europe's trade commissioner has pushed back a proposed transition period for an "everything but arms" market-opening to 2006-08. The original plan was to eliminate tariffs on most goods by 2004.
PUBLIC SERVICE
Employment in the Canadian public sector has rebounded to the levels of the mid-1990s after several years of tight budgetary control and government restructuring. The public sector employed an average of just under 2.9 million people in the first quarter of 2001. This is an increase of 1.1%, or 31,100 people, from the first three months of 2000, and is the eighth straight quarterly increase. There are now as many people working in the public sector as there were in the first quarter of 1996.
PHONES
Nearly 50 per cent of children in Britain aged between 7 and 16 own a mobile phone. A study by the NOP Research Group revealed that 52 per cent of girls and 44 per cent of boys have their own mobile phones.
ICELAND
Global warming is giving Iceland an unexpected headache. Its roads--recently freed of much of their ice cover--are being ground to dust by cars fitted with studded winter tires. Plumes of asphalt are drifting across the island, raising cancer fears among health experts and environmentalists, while roads are breaking apart under the strain.
RADIO
Revenues of private Canadian radio broadcasters surpassed $1.0 billion for the first time in 2000, advancing 5.2 per cent from 1999. This increase was largely the result of the good performance of FM broadcasters, whose revenues grew 7.9 per cent; AM broadcasters' revenue grew 0.8 per cent. FM stations, as a group, have generated profit margins exceeding 16.0 per cent in the last four years, reaching a high of 22.5 per cent in 2000. During that period, AM stations recorded losses every year.
DANGER
A British 1999 study found that far more people were injured by magazines (4,371) than chainsaws (1,207); accidents involving tea cosies jumped to 37 from 20 the previous year.
FARES
The average Canadian domestic air fare in the second quarter of 1999 was a record $208, up 5.6% from the second quarter of 1998 and 2.1% above the previous record level of $204 reached in the second quarter of 1995. This was the ninth consecutive quarterly increase in average fares in the domestic sector, erasing the effect of seven consecutive quarterly decreases in 1995 and 1996. The average international air fare in the second quarter of 1999 was $364, 13.1% lower than the record average international fare of $419 reached in the third quarter of 1994.
TRAFFIC
The Mayor of London, England, has announced a plan that would see all vehicles entering the heart of London paying a $10.00, one-day, congestion fee starting in 2003. It is hoped that the plan will raise half a billion dollars a year to be ploughed into the public transport system and reduce traffic jams by 15 per cent. It is estimated that 750,000 vehicles pass in and out of the congestion zone each day. More than 100 digital cameras, both static and mobile, will enforce the new law. The pass will last the whole day and allow unlimited entries and exits.
CHINA
Swarms of newly affluent Chinese are helping to bolster the tourist-hungry economies of their Asian neighbours. More than ten million Chinese went abroad last year, up from just three million less than a decade ago. The Chinese list foreign travel as their No. 3 desire, after housing and education. Those that go abroad currently spend $2,000 to $3,000 (U.S.) each per trip. In Thailand and South Korea, for example, they are becoming an important source of revenue, particularly as arrivals from Western countries slow along with their economies.
FRANCE
The French government has announced a US$1.5 billion project to make high-speed Internet access available throughout France within five years. As part of a far-reaching technology initiative, government and industry will pool another US$180 million to bring mobile-phone service to the 8 percent of France that does not have it. The Internet services will be developed using cable, satellite and high-speed modem technologies.
CONTROL
The majority of Canadians are against letting control of the country's media and communications companies fall into foreign hands, fearing it could lead to a loss of national identity and sovereignty. A survey found that seven out of 10 Canadians oppose raising the current limits on foreign investment in the industry. 41 per cent said they strongly oppose changes that would allow foreign majority ownership. Just 5 per cent said they strongly favoured it.
PIRACY
The first pirate-proof compact discs which cannot be copied have gone on sale in California. CDs recorded on the new system play normally on a CD player or computer, but the digital code holding the sound is corrupted if anyone tries to copy it.
ONTARIO
Ontario's exports to Europe jumped 8.9 per cent in the first four months of 2001 relative to the same period last year. In 2000, Ontario's exports to Europe increased 9.7 per cent over 1999. According to the government, this year's increase has led to 2,000 new jobs in Ontario. In 2000, Ontario's exports to Europe totalled C$7 billion. Aircraft, computer parts, optical devices and precious metals led Ontario's export gains. Key markets were the U.K., France, Germany, Russia and Norway.
MEAT
The European Union, whose beef market collapsed in the wake of the mad cow epidemic, is to spend US$10 million promoting beef consumption. The 12 month scheme is to win back some of the estimated 1.5 million tons of consumption lost due to the collapse of public confidence in the safety of beef and beef products. The main emphasis of the campaign will be to reassure consumers that beef is safe to eat as well as emphasizing the nutritional benefits of eating beef.
ORGANIC
The Canadian government has created a national centre for organic agriculture based out of Nova Scotia's Agricultural College. The new facility will carry out research and education. Organic food accounted for C$1 billion in sales last year and has a 20 per cent annual growth rate. The centre will help Canadian producers eat into markets in Europe, Japan and the U.S. Key to the centre's mandate will be the development of four web-based courses in organic agriculture available to students and farmers across Canada.
DOGFISH
Marine biologists used to condemn these fish as an enemy of the fishing industry. Now, the spiny dogfish is creating a small Maritime industry. Landings of the small shark have shot up over the last four years. Meanwhile, markets have grown with a steady demand for their thick white meat in fish and chips in British pubs, in Chinese shark-fin soup and as snacks in German beer gardens. There are about 40 boats in Nova Scotia catching dogfish compared to eight four years ago. Fishermen caught about 2,400 tonnes last year, six times the catch in 1996.
PAY PHONES
It is predicted that pay phones and telephone booths will disappear in Canada within a few years due to the popularity of increasingly sophisticated and relatively cheap cell phones. Already, the explosive growth of cell phone use--20-to 30-per cent annually--is causing many Canadian pay phones to be permanently disconnected. About 9.1 million Canadians now carry cell phones.
TIME
Researchers have developed an atomic clock that keeps even better time than the microwave atomic clocks currently in use. The newer clock uses optical (visible) light and is accurate to one second in the lifetime of the universe--about 15 billion years. Until now, the best atomic clocks were only accurate to one second every 15 million years!
CHANGE
Tupperware Corp. is to begin selling its products in SuperTarget stores in the U.S in October. The stores will be staffed with Tupperware consultants who will explain and demonstrate the products like they do at Tupperware parties. The partnership with Target is only the latest step the company has taken recently to expand the distribution of Tupperware products beyond the parties. In the last three years, Tupperware has sold its kitchen utensils and plastic storage containers at 148 shopping mall kiosks, online and on television
FLOTSAM
The amount of buoyant, indestructible rubbish that floats in the world's oceans has exploded since the 1950s and 1960s. Before that, most marine garbage was organic, so it eventually rotted or sank. As many as 1,000 or more boxcar-size shipping containers fall off ships annually, releasing fleets of floatable goods. Autopsied sea animals have been found with items like cigarette lighters, plastic bags and toy soldiers.
OLYMPICS
In recent years, the Olympics have become a great commercial success. The TV rights alone have shot up from US$101 million for the 1980 Summer games to US$1.33 billion in 2000. By 2008, the IOC forecasts its TV rights for the Summer games will be worth US$1.72 billion. Revenue from its top 10 advertisers program will grow from US$96 million for the 1988 Calgary Winter and Seoul Summer games to an estimated US$600 million for the combined 2002 Salt Lake City Winter and 2004 Athens Summer Olympics.
BRIBES
Foreign companies bribed their way into obtaining US$37 billion in overseas commercial contracts over the past year, according to a Department of Commerce report. In the period from May 1, 2000 to April 30, 2001, the competition for 61 contracts may have been affected by bribery of foreign individuals, and of these contracts, US firms are believed to have lost nine, worth approximately $4 billion. Aided by eavesdropping and other intelligence, the US also found that over the past 15 years, firms from 53 countries have offered bribes and officials from 112 countries have taken them.
SIZE
Of the 100 largest economies in the world, forty-nine are countries and fifty-one are corporations. (Wal-Mart's $167 billion in sales for 1999, for example, is bigger than the GDP of Norway). Canada's GDP of about $1 trillion has yet to be surpassed by any corporation. With $45 billion in sales last year, Nortel was Canada's largest corporation. Larger, financially speaking, than every province except Ontario (provincial revenue last year $67 billion) and Quebec (revenue last year $56 billion).
MIMICS
The electronic tweeting of mobile phones is so widespread in Australia that some birds are mimicking the sound as part of their mating and territorial songs. Australia has six so-called mimic birds that commonly imitate sounds in nature.
MONEY
Australia's 'paper' currency is made from plastic. The special polymer is virtually uncounterfeitable and is recyclable.
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
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