January 2004 Edition
TIME
A recent survey shows that the average American adult spends 16.17 hours on the phone each month, listens to 90 hours of radio and watches 131 hours of TV. The 53 per cent of the U.S. population that uses the Internet, spends more than 25 hours online a month at home and more than 74 hours on the net at work.
OIL
China's fast-growing economy has reached such levels that the country has emerged as the largest force driving the world's growing demand for oil. Faster-than-expected growth in the U.S. and Europe is also resulting in more oil use. But the latest data and forecasts by a Paris-based global energy watchdog show China alone accounting for about a third of the world's rise in the use of oil in 2003 and in 2004 when China is expected to displace Japan to become the second-largest consumer of oil after the U.S.
MEXICO
According to World Trade, Mexico's competitiveness is taking a hit, especially in the electronics, textiles and automobile sectors, as manufacturers of these goods are turning to other countries for low-cost production. Roughly 90 per cent of Mexico's exports are sent to the U.S. For example, for the first eight months of 2003, Mexico's exports of TV receivers to the U.S., including video monitors and projectors, fell by 9.6 per cent while overall U.S. imports of these items grew by 2.1 per cent. Certain apparel exports were down 5.5 per cent while U.S. imports rose 11.8 per cent.
BISCUITS
China has built a biscuit factory to cater exclusively to its captive giant pandas, giving them a more healthy choice than the usual steamed bread which loses much of its nutritional value in cooking, resulting in malnutrition for many pandas. The cream-coloured biscuit, made of bamboo, is rich in vitamins and trace elements and the fibre content is up to 30 per cent.
NAMES
Americans are increasingly turning to the world of popular culture to name their children. Children have been named after big brands as diverse as beauty company L'Oreal, car firm Chevrolet and designer clothes company Armani. There are even two little boys, one in Michigan and one in Texas called ESPN after the sports channel.
JOBS
Canada was one of the few countries that actually saw an increase in factory jobs in recent years, despite a decline in many other countries around the world, including the U.S. A number of countries are losing jobs because of improvements in technology and increasing global competition. From 1995 to 2002, about 2 million U.S. manufacturing jobs were lost, an 11 per cent drop. Brazil had a 20 per cent drop and Japan was off 16 per cent. Even China experienced a 15 per cent decline.
SPEED
The Battelle Memorial Institute has announced that it is building the world's fastest supercomputer. The machine is expected to be capable of 1000 trillion operations a second when completed in 2005 and will cost US$500-million.The machine will be used for biomedical research, modelling world weather patterns and researching black holes.
HUNGER
After declining for years, the number of people in the world who are going hungry is on the rise according to the United Nations. It is estimated that 842 million people were undernourished in 1999-2001, the most recent years for which data are available. This is not the famine-type hunger, it's a diet that routinely supplies 1,400 to 1,700 calories daily when the U.N. says 2,300 calories a day is the minimum needed for a healthy life.
WATER
Statistics Canada reports that even in a country as rich in water resources as Canada, there are growing signs of water scarcity. According to a new report, some of the country's main glaciers have shrunk to close to their smallest size in 10,000 years. The report says Canadians are among the most profligate water users in the world with an average annual use of 1,471 cubic metres, when the total supplied to residents and industry is considered. This ranks second only to the U.S.
LABELS
Nearly nine out of 10 Canadians want Ottawa to force companies to disclose whether any food they sell contains genetically modified ingredients. The survey results show Ottawa, which has refused to make labelling of genetically engineered foods mandatory, is out of step with Canadians according to consumer groups.
VOLCANOES
Some half a billion people worldwide live within 60 miles of historically active volcanoes.
VACANCIES
Canada's hurting office market will have to wait another year for relief and even then there will be no quick fixes for the high vacancy rates. National vacancy rates are expected to inch up to 13.8 per cent in 2004 from 13.6 in 2003 per cent before starting to decline in 2005. National rental rates dropped to $14.68 square foot in 2003 from $20.00 the previous year.
SMOKING
While smoking may be declining in the West, it is still growing in developing nations, especially China, which accounts for a third of all cigarettes smoked in the world. Two out of three Chinese men smoke and they are being joined by rising numbers of teenage and woman smokers. According to some estimates, smoking claims one million lives a year in China, a figure forecast to hit three million when today's population of young men hits middle age.
ADVERTISING
Spending on advertising in Canada is expected to rise by 3.4 per cent in 2004, slightly better than the 3.3 per cent for 2003. It is estimated that Canadian spending on major media, newspapers, magazines, television, radio, cinema, outdoor and Internet, will reach US$5.57 billion in 2004, up from US$5.39 billion in 2003. Canadian advertising spending is forecast to continue rising to US$5.75 billion in 2005 and US$5.9 billion in 2006.
CELLS
Cell phone customers in the U.S. can now start switching companies without having to change numbers. After more than a six year delay, customers in the U.S.' 100 largest metropolitan areas are getting what the telecom industry calls "number portability." Customers in other parts of the country have to wait until May, 2004. The ability to switch and keep their numbers is expected to lead to a wave of low-price, feature-rich packages to try to keep existing customers and attract new ones. Portable cell phone numbers are not available in Canada.
FEES
By Enron's own reckoning, the legal and accounting costs of its bankruptcy will exceed $1-billion in 2006. Typically, legal fees in a bankruptcy drop off dramatically after a company gains approval for a plan of reorganization. But the company's budget through 2006 estimates more than $300-million will be spent after Enron confirms its plans, more than any company has ever spent confirming a Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan.
MARMALADE
An Austrian farmer has become the unlikely star of "a marmalade rebellion" against Brussels bureaucracy. He was fined and threatened with jail after trading standards inspectors found him selling apricot marmalade using his grandmother's recipe. According to a European ruling, marmalade can only contain citrus fruits such as lemons, limes and oranges, not apricots or other soft fruits. Such mixtures have to be labelled as jams.
ECONOMY
Canada's economy measures over C$1.2-trillion a year and export sales are more than $430-billion. But there is another economy, Canadian interests operating abroad. Canadians now own $381-billion in fixed assets abroad, foreign affiliates that generate close to $400-billion in annual sales. Even allowing for the possibility that some Canadian foreign affiliates are double-counted as Canadian exports, these sales are significant. Some 1- million people are employed in Canada's foreign affiliates.
GINSENG
A major ginseng producer is leaving B.C. and moving its operation to Ontario. A continuing problem with root rust, which affects the appearance of ginseng, and lower-than-average prices paid for B.C.'s crop are the reasons for the decision. Meanwhile, the world's largest supplier of North American-grown ginseng, another B.C. company, is expanding its B.C. operation.
BEEF
U.S beef exporters moved quickly to fill the void created in world markets when countries closed their borders to Canadian meat following the discovery of a single case of mad cow disease in Alberta last year. U.S exports of beef jumped by 17 per cent following the ban on Canadian beef exports.
CABS
Less than a year after the New York Taxi Commission agreed to run a pilot program allowing seven entertainment companies to offer some form of television service in the back seats of yellow cabs, officials have decided that the program does not work and have ordered sets to be removed. Surveys indicate that those who experienced the units showed either indifference or negativity.
TRENDS
This last Christmas, the Salvation Army went high-tech adding debit machines to its annual kettle drive in parts of Western Canada. According to Interac Inc. Canada has the highest per capita debit-card use in the world. In 2002, Canadians spent $105-billion with debit cards spread over 2.4 billion transactions.
PRESCRIPTIONS
Boston has added its name to the growing list of U.S. cities and states clamouring to buy cheap prescription drugs from Canada, renewing fears of shortages in Canadian pharmacies. Boston councillors approved a plan that calls for the city's 15,000 insured workers to get their prescriptions from Canada by July, 2004. The city hoped to cut $1-million a year from its $61-million drug budget.
TRADE
A recent merchandise trade reconciliation study shows that in 2001, two-way trade between Canada and Mexico was close to $19-billion. Mexico accounted for 3.6 per cent of Canada's imports in 2002, up from 2.4 per cent in 1995. Canada ranked as Mexico's second most important export market in 2001, after the U.S., and Mexico as Canada's fourth most important export market.
CAMERAS
A British company claims to have invented a "smart" changing room that tells shoppers whether or not an outfit suits them. A defence research firm, said to be the inspiration for Q division in James Bond films, has converted weapons technology for the machine. The system uses 3D digital cameras which can take pictures and record measurements from more than 1,000 points on a body. Six cameras scan the shopper and the new outfit, and feed the data to a computer with that can match styles to body shapes.
CONFIDENCE
A new European Commision report on the current expansion which will add 10 new countries to the Union has concluded that the newcomers as still mostly corrupt, disorganized and alarmingly ill-prepared for the cold blast of merket competition.
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
A recent survey shows that the average American adult spends 16.17 hours on the phone each month, listens to 90 hours of radio and watches 131 hours of TV. The 53 per cent of the U.S. population that uses the Internet, spends more than 25 hours online a month at home and more than 74 hours on the net at work.
OIL
China's fast-growing economy has reached such levels that the country has emerged as the largest force driving the world's growing demand for oil. Faster-than-expected growth in the U.S. and Europe is also resulting in more oil use. But the latest data and forecasts by a Paris-based global energy watchdog show China alone accounting for about a third of the world's rise in the use of oil in 2003 and in 2004 when China is expected to displace Japan to become the second-largest consumer of oil after the U.S.
MEXICO
According to World Trade, Mexico's competitiveness is taking a hit, especially in the electronics, textiles and automobile sectors, as manufacturers of these goods are turning to other countries for low-cost production. Roughly 90 per cent of Mexico's exports are sent to the U.S. For example, for the first eight months of 2003, Mexico's exports of TV receivers to the U.S., including video monitors and projectors, fell by 9.6 per cent while overall U.S. imports of these items grew by 2.1 per cent. Certain apparel exports were down 5.5 per cent while U.S. imports rose 11.8 per cent.
BISCUITS
China has built a biscuit factory to cater exclusively to its captive giant pandas, giving them a more healthy choice than the usual steamed bread which loses much of its nutritional value in cooking, resulting in malnutrition for many pandas. The cream-coloured biscuit, made of bamboo, is rich in vitamins and trace elements and the fibre content is up to 30 per cent.
NAMES
Americans are increasingly turning to the world of popular culture to name their children. Children have been named after big brands as diverse as beauty company L'Oreal, car firm Chevrolet and designer clothes company Armani. There are even two little boys, one in Michigan and one in Texas called ESPN after the sports channel.
JOBS
Canada was one of the few countries that actually saw an increase in factory jobs in recent years, despite a decline in many other countries around the world, including the U.S. A number of countries are losing jobs because of improvements in technology and increasing global competition. From 1995 to 2002, about 2 million U.S. manufacturing jobs were lost, an 11 per cent drop. Brazil had a 20 per cent drop and Japan was off 16 per cent. Even China experienced a 15 per cent decline.
SPEED
The Battelle Memorial Institute has announced that it is building the world's fastest supercomputer. The machine is expected to be capable of 1000 trillion operations a second when completed in 2005 and will cost US$500-million.The machine will be used for biomedical research, modelling world weather patterns and researching black holes.
HUNGER
After declining for years, the number of people in the world who are going hungry is on the rise according to the United Nations. It is estimated that 842 million people were undernourished in 1999-2001, the most recent years for which data are available. This is not the famine-type hunger, it's a diet that routinely supplies 1,400 to 1,700 calories daily when the U.N. says 2,300 calories a day is the minimum needed for a healthy life.
WATER
Statistics Canada reports that even in a country as rich in water resources as Canada, there are growing signs of water scarcity. According to a new report, some of the country's main glaciers have shrunk to close to their smallest size in 10,000 years. The report says Canadians are among the most profligate water users in the world with an average annual use of 1,471 cubic metres, when the total supplied to residents and industry is considered. This ranks second only to the U.S.
LABELS
Nearly nine out of 10 Canadians want Ottawa to force companies to disclose whether any food they sell contains genetically modified ingredients. The survey results show Ottawa, which has refused to make labelling of genetically engineered foods mandatory, is out of step with Canadians according to consumer groups.
VOLCANOES
Some half a billion people worldwide live within 60 miles of historically active volcanoes.
VACANCIES
Canada's hurting office market will have to wait another year for relief and even then there will be no quick fixes for the high vacancy rates. National vacancy rates are expected to inch up to 13.8 per cent in 2004 from 13.6 in 2003 per cent before starting to decline in 2005. National rental rates dropped to $14.68 square foot in 2003 from $20.00 the previous year.
SMOKING
While smoking may be declining in the West, it is still growing in developing nations, especially China, which accounts for a third of all cigarettes smoked in the world. Two out of three Chinese men smoke and they are being joined by rising numbers of teenage and woman smokers. According to some estimates, smoking claims one million lives a year in China, a figure forecast to hit three million when today's population of young men hits middle age.
ADVERTISING
Spending on advertising in Canada is expected to rise by 3.4 per cent in 2004, slightly better than the 3.3 per cent for 2003. It is estimated that Canadian spending on major media, newspapers, magazines, television, radio, cinema, outdoor and Internet, will reach US$5.57 billion in 2004, up from US$5.39 billion in 2003. Canadian advertising spending is forecast to continue rising to US$5.75 billion in 2005 and US$5.9 billion in 2006.
CELLS
Cell phone customers in the U.S. can now start switching companies without having to change numbers. After more than a six year delay, customers in the U.S.' 100 largest metropolitan areas are getting what the telecom industry calls "number portability." Customers in other parts of the country have to wait until May, 2004. The ability to switch and keep their numbers is expected to lead to a wave of low-price, feature-rich packages to try to keep existing customers and attract new ones. Portable cell phone numbers are not available in Canada.
FEES
By Enron's own reckoning, the legal and accounting costs of its bankruptcy will exceed $1-billion in 2006. Typically, legal fees in a bankruptcy drop off dramatically after a company gains approval for a plan of reorganization. But the company's budget through 2006 estimates more than $300-million will be spent after Enron confirms its plans, more than any company has ever spent confirming a Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan.
MARMALADE
An Austrian farmer has become the unlikely star of "a marmalade rebellion" against Brussels bureaucracy. He was fined and threatened with jail after trading standards inspectors found him selling apricot marmalade using his grandmother's recipe. According to a European ruling, marmalade can only contain citrus fruits such as lemons, limes and oranges, not apricots or other soft fruits. Such mixtures have to be labelled as jams.
ECONOMY
Canada's economy measures over C$1.2-trillion a year and export sales are more than $430-billion. But there is another economy, Canadian interests operating abroad. Canadians now own $381-billion in fixed assets abroad, foreign affiliates that generate close to $400-billion in annual sales. Even allowing for the possibility that some Canadian foreign affiliates are double-counted as Canadian exports, these sales are significant. Some 1- million people are employed in Canada's foreign affiliates.
GINSENG
A major ginseng producer is leaving B.C. and moving its operation to Ontario. A continuing problem with root rust, which affects the appearance of ginseng, and lower-than-average prices paid for B.C.'s crop are the reasons for the decision. Meanwhile, the world's largest supplier of North American-grown ginseng, another B.C. company, is expanding its B.C. operation.
BEEF
U.S beef exporters moved quickly to fill the void created in world markets when countries closed their borders to Canadian meat following the discovery of a single case of mad cow disease in Alberta last year. U.S exports of beef jumped by 17 per cent following the ban on Canadian beef exports.
CABS
Less than a year after the New York Taxi Commission agreed to run a pilot program allowing seven entertainment companies to offer some form of television service in the back seats of yellow cabs, officials have decided that the program does not work and have ordered sets to be removed. Surveys indicate that those who experienced the units showed either indifference or negativity.
TRENDS
This last Christmas, the Salvation Army went high-tech adding debit machines to its annual kettle drive in parts of Western Canada. According to Interac Inc. Canada has the highest per capita debit-card use in the world. In 2002, Canadians spent $105-billion with debit cards spread over 2.4 billion transactions.
PRESCRIPTIONS
Boston has added its name to the growing list of U.S. cities and states clamouring to buy cheap prescription drugs from Canada, renewing fears of shortages in Canadian pharmacies. Boston councillors approved a plan that calls for the city's 15,000 insured workers to get their prescriptions from Canada by July, 2004. The city hoped to cut $1-million a year from its $61-million drug budget.
TRADE
A recent merchandise trade reconciliation study shows that in 2001, two-way trade between Canada and Mexico was close to $19-billion. Mexico accounted for 3.6 per cent of Canada's imports in 2002, up from 2.4 per cent in 1995. Canada ranked as Mexico's second most important export market in 2001, after the U.S., and Mexico as Canada's fourth most important export market.
CAMERAS
A British company claims to have invented a "smart" changing room that tells shoppers whether or not an outfit suits them. A defence research firm, said to be the inspiration for Q division in James Bond films, has converted weapons technology for the machine. The system uses 3D digital cameras which can take pictures and record measurements from more than 1,000 points on a body. Six cameras scan the shopper and the new outfit, and feed the data to a computer with that can match styles to body shapes.
CONFIDENCE
A new European Commision report on the current expansion which will add 10 new countries to the Union has concluded that the newcomers as still mostly corrupt, disorganized and alarmingly ill-prepared for the cold blast of merket competition.
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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