Borderlineups.com and Ferrylineups.com and long weekends

For a number of years, A & A has owned and operated http://www.borderlineups.com . We re-designed this website last summer with some great input from the frequent visitors.

We then expanded that to http://www.ferrylineups.com/ as a bit of a service for people using the ferries to see what the traffic is like as well as a simple website with some useful links like ferry reservations, bus schedules, etc.

These sites get views from all over the world from people who are interested in checking the weather or who want to check out the area. They also have a lot of local appeal to transportation companies checking on border congestion or cross border shoppers looking for the best route to take.

The long weekends, like the one we just had, always show a spike in traffic as people are gearing up for travel.

I am always interested to hear how we can improve these sites for the visitors so that we can make them more useful for you.

Please take a look and let me know.
Thank you.

Using our Vehicle Import Cost Calculator

Once the Canadian dollar started heading towards par with the U.S. dollar, it became very economical to consider purchasing a vehicle in the U.S. and importing it into Canada.

There are 3 'big' questions when importing a vehicle from the U.S. (Or, from overseas for that matter.) They are -
1) Is my vehicle allowed into Canada? Some vehicles are inadmissible by Transport Canada.
2) How can I get my vehicle from the seller to my door?
3) How much will all of this cost?

We have been upgrading our Vehicle Import Cost Calculator and it now answers all 3 of those big questions.

You can try it out here - http://www.borderbuddy.com  Once you're finished with the quote, you can email it to yourself for future reference.

The calculator has a nice feature that allows you to put in an eBay item number if you are looking at a vehicle on eBay Motors.

You can read more about vehicle importing requirements on our vehicle importing services page.

Eagles in the City - Vancouver

A & A is proud to be a sponsor of "Eagles in the City" in Vancouver.

Last year, we purchased a number of "Spirit Bears" at auction benefiting the BC Lions Society.

We have the bears at our Pacific Highway / Surrey B.C. office, at our Blaine, Washington office, at our family cabin and at the City Hall in White Rock, B.C.

This year - the BC Lions Society is doing "Eagles in the City" and A & A is a sponsor. This means we will sponsor our own artist and have our own Eagle.

We were at the media launch on Thursday, March 6th and were excited to see our 'blank canvas' Eagle. Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan was on hand along with the BC Lions President and the President from the Vancouver Board of Trade. Our artist, my cousin Barbara Roden, was also there for the unveiling.

Here are a couple of pictures of the event -









The Eagles will be officially unveiled in March/April of 2009 and will remain on display until April 2010.

This event was also published in The Vancouver Province and Barbara was quoted!

We are looking forward to keeping everyone updated as the events unfold for this great cause.

The Power Within 2008 - Vancouver

On Wednesday, March 5, I attended The Power Within in Vancouver at GM Place. Attending with me were my wife and 5 people from our Pacific Highway branch - all of whom wrote a letter describing their desire to attend this uplifting and motivating day. We picked the top 5 submissions to join us.

The following presenters told their own stories -

Martha Stewart, International Business Icon, Best Selling Author, “Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook”, Television Host, “The Martha Stewart Show” on Creating a Brand

Quincy Jones, 7 Time Grammy Award Winner, Composer, Film Producer and Multimedia Entrepreneur on Creativity

Andre Agassi , 60 Career Singles Titles, Eight Grand Slam Tennis Championships, and founder of The Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation (AACF) on Motivation

David Allen, Best Selling Author, “Getting Things Done: the Art of Stress Free Productivity” on Time Management

Christopher P. Gardner, Author “The Pursuit of Happyness” on Personal Inspiration

Frank Abagnale – “Catch Me if You Can” on Learning from Experience

Loretta LaRoche, Best-Selling Author “Life is Short, Wear Your Party Pants” on Stress Management

It was a great day of learning.

March 2008 Economic Digest - Importing and Exportin

March 2008 Edition

TOURISM

 
Canada is threatening to haul China before the WTO for discriminating against Canada by refusing to negotiate a tourism agreement that could provide billions of dollars for Canadian tourism businesses. Canada believes it could attract at least 700,000 and perhaps a million Chinese tourists annually if it wins an agreement known as "Approved Destination Status (ADS) which Canada has been seeking since 1999. Without an ADS, Canada is banned from advertising itself as a tourist destination in China and Chinese tour groups are prohibited from going to Canada.

BUMBERSHOOT

This is another name for an umbrella. A new one should be able to tell Americans when to prepare for rain. The device tracks the forecast for any of 150 U.S. locations. When rain is expected in the next few hours, the umbrella's handle illuminates. Patterns change to indicate rain, drizzle or thunderstorms.

SIZE

Panasonic recently introduced the "life screen," a TV set with a screen six feet high and 11 feet long. It enables viewers to watch everything in life size. The 227-kilogram set is expected to cost around $100,000. One drawback is that the life screen can only be watched comfortably from 30 feet away, making it unsuitable for most living rooms.

TAXES

A new theory hypothesizes that high taxes, not incomes, redistributes people. As proof it is noted that New York State, with maximum personal income tax rate of 10.5 per cent, lost more than 1.9 million people between 1997 and 2006. California with a maximum personal income tax rate of 10.3 per cent lost more than 1.3 million people. In contrast, Florida and Texas, both with a zero tax personal income tax rate, gained more than 1.6 million and 769,000 people respectively.

PIPELINE

The new 1,200 kilometre pipeline being constructed between Vyborg, Russia under the Baltic Sea to Greifswald in Northern Germany is both controversial and a huge technical and logistical challenge. Once construction is completed at the end of 2010, the pipeline will supply Russian natural gas to customers all over Europe. The long-term goal is to supply up to 55-billion cubic metres of gas each year. The project is expected to cost US$7.4-billion, but due to delays could cost much more.

TALENT

Last November, the International Baccalaureate exam, one of the world's most challenging tests of academic proficiency, was taken by 5,500 students from 125 countries. Twenty of them scored the maximum of 45 points and almost half of them were from a single school, the independent Anglo-Chinese school in Singapore. A score of 40 qualifies a student for admission to an Ivy League university in the U.S. or to Oxford in the U.K.

TASTE

Marmalade companies in the U.K are to launch a new form of the orange spread to appeal to youngsters in the hope of halting slumping sales. This market was worth about US$100-million but fell by two per cent in value over the past year because of a drop in demand. One company which has launched an orange spread has also developed apricot and carrot varieties which combine jam and marmalade properties.

DISASTERS

From winter storms in Europe, flooding in Britain and wildfires in the U.S., losses to natural disasters nearly doubled in 2007 to just below US$30-billion globally after an unusually quiet 2006.One large insurer warns that climate change could mean a growing number of weather-related catastrophes in coming years.

VEHICLES

GM executives claim that cars that drive themselves, even parking at their destination, could be ready for sale within a decade. Much of the technology already exists for vehicles to drive themselves such as radar-based cruise control, motion sensors, lane-change warning devices, electronic stability control and satellite-based digital mapping. The most significant obstacles could be human rather than technical; government regulations, liability laws, privacy concerns and people's passion for the control of automobiles.

ELEVATORS

Mitsubishi in Japan has opened the world's tallest elevator testing tower, a 173 metre-high structure. It is worth US$50-million and will be used to conduct research into high-speed elevators to serve the next generation of super tall buildings. It will test new drives, gears, cables and other lift systems. The world's current tallest building is the Taipei 101 at 1,666 feet but it will soon be dwarfed by towers in Dubai, Shanghai, Moscow and Chicago. Even traditionally low-rise London will soon have a 1,017 foot building, the tallest skyscraper in Europe.

LIGHTS

A new type of super-efficient household light bulb is being developed which could spell the end of regular bulbs. Experts have found a way to make Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) brighter and use less power than energy efficient light bulbs currently on the market. The technology, used in gadgets such as mobile phones and computers, had previously not been powerful enough to be used for lighting.

JOBS

According to analysis of U.S. Labour Statistics, department stores have slashed 247,100 jobs since 2001. Economists believe that technology has played a significant role in the downsizing. The industry spends US$34.5-billion annually on all kinds of in-store and stockroom technology.

TRENDS

The number of Christmas cards sold in Britain has dropped by 20 million in the past two years. The fall has been blamed on the rise of the "eCard," an electronic greeting sent over the Internet or by mobile phone. This is increasingly popular with young people who say it is easier, cheaper and more environmentally friendly than traditional cards. A new survey found that 40 per cent of 16 to 35-year-olds are happy to abandon traditional cards in favour of eCards.

PLASTIC

China is declaring war on "white pollution" choking its cities, farms and waterways and is banning free plastic shopping bags and calling for a return to the cloth bags of old, steps largely welcomed by merchants and shoppers. There is no estimate of the number of bags used in China or the savings in terms of petroleum used to produce them.

KNIVES

The iconic Swiss Army Knife fell out of favour when airlines banned pocket knives and mobile phones and MP3 players vied for pocket space. Still, the strong Swiss-made label and perceptions of quality have recently helped lift sales of the knife by five per cent in the past two years in the face of cheaper competition and imitations. The private company that makes them had sales of US$418-million in 2006 and has now diversified into products such as luggage, kitchen knives, clothing, watches and even a perfume.

WINE

European governments are to pay wine makers to tear out 175,000 hectares of vines yielding low-quality grapes and put quality over quantity in a push to make wines from Chianti to Bordeaux more competitive with "New World" producers. Mass produced wines from California, Australia and South Africa are flooding into Europe. The 27-nation EU bottles and drinks three-fifths of the world's wine.

MAINTENANCE

The value of the global industry for aircraft maintenance and overhaul (MRO) in 2007 was US$41-million. 37 per cent of the work was done in North America, one per cent in India, five per cent in the Middle East, six per cent in China and the balance spread around the world. The market is expected to grow by almost nine per cent a year for the next five years and by 2017 will be worth $62-billion annually with both India and the Middle East increasing their share of the market.

ADVERTISING

Eleven leading companies in the European food and beverage industry have voluntarily agreed to change their policies on advertising for children by the end of 2008, setting standards on nutritional content to encourage more healthful lifestyles. They have agreed not to advertise food and beverages on television programmes, web sites or in the print media where children under 12 could be considered target audience, except for products that meet specific nutrition criteria.

AFRICA

A 14-teraflop Blue Gene supercomputer capable of making 14-trillion floating point calculations per second and worth about $2-million is being donated by IBM to a Centre for High Performance Computing in Cape Town, South Africa. This will be the most powerful supercomputer on the African continent and will be available free of charge to any qualifying African institution for use on advanced scientific projects. The donation is to stimulate scientific and socio-economic progress in the region.

HEALTH

Walt Disney Co., which claims to employ more people in one place than any other company in the U.S., has announced plans to build a medical centre for its workers at its Florida theme park. The $6-million, 15,000-square-foot clinic, to be open nights and weekends, is scheduled to open in 2009.

EATING

Restaurant industry sales in the U.S. are expected to reach $558-billion in 2008. The industry is entering its 17th consecutive year of real sales growth this year. Sales at full-service restaurants are projected to reach $188-billion this year, an increase of 4.3 per cent over 2007. Expanded menu choices, meeting the demand of today's increasingly sophisticated and value conscious consumer and added off-premise options (takeout and delivery) will drive the growth.

FUNDS

Saudi Arabia plans to establish a sovereign wealth fund that is expected to dwarf Abu Dhabi's US$900-billion and become the largest in the world. The new fund will be a formidable rival for other government-owned investment funds in the Middle East and Asia which are playing an increasingly active role in channelling capital to western companies.

COMPETITION

Tesco is Britain's biggest supermarket group and the world's third largest retailer. The company now intends to build 50 Fresh & Easy stores in southern California, Las Vegas and Phoenix by February 2009, and 200 more stores per year after that in these areas, becoming about a US$10-billion operation by 2015.

HAM

Pure Iberian ham is one of Spain's most famous and possibly its most expensive export. It can cost up to US$2,000 for a whole leg. Acorns, the staple diet of the thoroughbred pigs used to produce the ham, are in short supply due to the rapid spread of a fungus that has been linked to climate change. Fuelled by drought, the fungus is killing up to 190,000 trees, or 10,000 acres annually. Exports of ham to Europe alone are worth US$90-million a year to the Spanish economy.

RECYCLING

Mourners shivering in a chapel in the U.K. are to be kept warm by using heat generated from cremating their loved ones. The City Council says that the heat generated will be enough to power the boiler and light the chapel. They admit this is a sensitive issue and have promised to consult clergy and the wider community. One priest says that as a final act of generosity, it's a lovely way for the dead to provide comfort for the living at a difficult time.

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