On August 22, 1979, Graham and Candy Robins launched A & A Contract Customs Brokers Ltd. It all started in a humble trailer they fixed up and parked on 176th Street in Surrey, BC – just down from the Pacific Highway border crossing - where our head office remains today.
Over the years we have grown ... from that modest little office to multiple branches across Canada and in the US. We found our winning formula – providing extraordinary service – and stuck to it. For three decades we never lost sight of one fact: when our clients are successful, we are successful.
The past year has been a tough one, but we have faced the worst and come out a winner. This has only been possible because of the people of A & A – you are what makes this business tick.
To formally mark our thirtieth anniversary, we are creating a book with Echo Memoirs. It will be an impressive, full-colour chronicle of A & A, its people and our industry. This photo collage is just a teaser of what is to come.
All the best,
Graham Robins Jr.
President
A & A Contract Customs Brokers Ltd.
"Providing our customers with first class trade facilitation through our passion for service."
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Saturday, August 01, 2009
August 2009 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting
August 2009 Edition
VEGGIES
A pair of giant agricultural companies are trying to make spinach and some other vegetables taste better. They have launched a five-year project to produce new varieties of spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce. The objective is to improve the nutrition, flavour, colour, texture and aroma of these vegetables. While farmers and food companies have been breeding plants for decades, even producing different colours of cauliflowers, this project seeks to go further by breeding for taste and smell.
WHALES
According to a new report by the International Whaling Commission, whale watching now generates far more money than whale hunting. Worldwide, the industry now generates about US$12.1-billion per year. In 2008, about 13-million people went to sea to watch cetaceans in 119 countries. Whale watching is clearly more environmentally sustainable and economically beneficial than hunting and whales are worth far more alive than dead.
WORK
The world economy's deepest post-war slump has resulted in higher rates of unemployment in many countries. Spain's jobless rate has increased by more than 8 percentage points in the past 12 months and is now over 18 per cent, the highest in the rich world. The situation is also dire in Russia where the unemployment rate is now over 10 per cent.
CELLPHONES
Since 2002, the African market for cellphones has shown the fastest growth rate in the world having grown by 49 per cent, where the French market has only seen 7.5 per cent growth compared with 28 per cent in Brazil and 27 per cent in Asia. Cellphones have penetrated 37 per cent of the potential market and this figure could rise to 61 per cent by 2018.
CHARITY
Charitable giving in the U.S. fell last year by the largest percentage in five decades. Individuals and institutions made gifts and pledges of US$306.65-billion, a decrease of 5.7 per cent on an inflation-adjusted basis over the $414-billion given in 2007. Some experts are surprised the drop was not even bigger given that endowments fell by as much as 40 per cent, the stock market declined by similar margins, corporations posted unheard-of losses and unemployment rose steadily.
WEIGHT
Airlines are reducing the size of spoons and dropping in-flight magazines to make planes lighter and save fuel during the recession. Northwest Airlines has excluded spoons from its cutlery pack if the in-flight meal does not require one. Another carrier, JAL of Japan, took everything it loaded from a 747 and put it on the floor of a school gym to see what it really needed. As a result,it shaved a fraction of a centimetre off all its cutlery to save weight. The next generation of aircraft seats are likely to be up to 30 per cent lighter than the current generation with composite replacing aluminum.
FOOTBALL
England's leading football clubs pull in far more money than their counterparts elsewhere in Europe. Revenues of the UK's Premier League clubs amounted to US$3.8-billion in the 2007-08 season. The rapid growth of revenues has been fuelled largely by television fees. But crowds are biggest not in England but in the German league with an average of 42,000 per game last season, about 7,000 more than in England.
BARCODES
This year, the ubiquitous Universal Product Code barcode, with its 59 machine-readable black and white lines and 12 digits turned 35 years old. The UPC bar code ranks high on the list of technological innovations that changed not only the economy since the 1970s but our day-to-day lives. The first live use of a UPS bar code was in Troy, Ohio when a cashier scanned a pack of Wrigley's gum. Now, more than 10 billion UPC bar codes are scanned in the U.S. each day and it is estimated that bar codes save the grocery industry alone more than US$17-billion each year.
FREE TRADE
Canada and the European Union have now formally launched free trade talks. The EU is Canada's second-largest export market, after the United States. In 2008, two-way trade in goods and services between Canada and the EU totalled C$114.6-billion, up 6.2 per cent from 2007. Canada-EU free trade in aerospace, chemicals, wood products, automotive vehicles and parts, agricultural products, transportation and other sectors is forecast to increase trade by about 20 per cent.
STANDARDS
The U.S. and Canada have agreed to accept each other's standards for organic food, expanding opportunities for organic food trade. Canadians buy an estimated C$2.1-billion to $2.6-billion worth of organic food, about 80 per cent of which is imported. About 75 per cent of those imports come from the U.S. The US organic market is worth about US$24.6-billion in 2008, up from $3.6-billion in 2007
SUGAR
Sugar mills in Brazil are making the sweetener at full capacity and can't increase output further to meet rising demand and will maintain its current forecast for output of 31.2-million tonnes in the current year. Output in India, Thailand, Mexico and Pakistan is declining creating a global deficit.
STEALING
According to the most recent National Retail Security Survey, retail shrinkage averaged 1.52 per cent in 2008, an increase from 1.44 per cent in 2007, and total retail losses grew to US$36.5-billion. The survey said that employee theft accounted for $15.9-billion (44 per cent) of the losses and that 14 per cent of those cases involved collusion. Shoplifting claimed $12.7-billion (35 per cent) of retail shrinkage. Administrative error ($5.4-billion and 15 per cent shrinkage) and vendor fraud ($1.4-billion and four per cent shrinkage.
WEALTH
The ranks of the world's millionaires shrank at the fastest rate in 2008 with North America suffering the biggest wealth loss worldwide. The global slump in property and equity markets last year cut the number of millionaires by 15 per cent to 8.6-million, wiping out two years of increases. The value of the world's millionaires' assets slid 20 per cent to US$32.8-trillion. The U.S. is home to the most millionaires with 2.5-million followed by Germany, Japan and China.
DEATH
The funeral industry, once considered the safest of investment havens in recession, is having a tough time across North America, but not because people are spending less to bury their loved ones. Strangely, fewer people are dying, a phenomena that is puzzling executives in the business. The number of funerals conducted by one company that owns 1,300 funeral homes and 370 cemeteries in the U.S. and 200 in Canada fell by 11 per cent in the first quarter of the year over the year earlier.
FILMING
Canada's two busiest centres for film and TV production, Vancouver and Toronto, have seen a significant jump in the number of pilots shot this year. A recent study shows that networks are shunning Los Angeles which has seen its share of total U.S. pilot production drop 42 per cent in the past five years. Canada is now more popular for pilot production than LA's closest rival New York.
TRUCKING
Mexican trucking companies are suing the U.S. government for US$6-billion over Washington's refusal to allow Mexican carriers onto U.S. roads under the North American Free Trade Agreement. About 4,500 trucking companies are involved in the lawsuit. Under NAFTA, companies can sue the governments of the three NAFTA signatories, Mexico, Canada and the U.S., if they think they have been unfairly treated by public policies.
FUEL
Earlier this year, in an experimental flight, a Continental jet flew with one of its engines burning fuel derived from microscopic algae to push the 45-ton aircraft into the air, and keep it aloft. Last year, Virgin Atlantic flew the first commercial jet on biofuels on a 40 minute flight between London and Amsterdam in which one engine burned a mix of conventional jet fuel and 20 per cent biofuel derived from coconuts and babassu nuts. Japan Airlines has flown an aircraft using a biofuel from camelina, a weedy flower.
DIGITAL
Over one-fifth of the music industry's worldwide revenues in 2008 came from sales of digital music. The move away from formats like CD's is well advanced in the U.S., the world's largest music market, where more than a third of the industry's revenue now comes from digital sales. The share of digital sales in other big markets such as Britain, Germany and Canada is less than half that in the U.S.
DEBT
Canadians owe far more money than they bring in over the course of a year. In total, individual Canadians owed about C$1.3-trillion at the end of 2008 which works out to almost $40,000. In 2000, the figure was $24,000.
ARCTIC
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic contains 13 per cent of the world's remaining undiscovered oil and as much as 30 per cent of its natural gas. These updated estimates come as Canada and its polar neighbours aggressively pursue their competing claims to vast areas of continental shelf under the Arctic Ocean. The estimate of major oil reserves off North America's northern coast will also increase pressure to open the region to more oil and gas development.
DIET
According to Statistics Canada, in 2008, the Canadian diet included more tea, yogurts, breakfast cereals, berries, processed fruits, asparagus, poultry meat and wine, but less oils, red meat and soft drinks. The total daily intake of calories per person fell to 2,382, down from the peak recorded in 2001.
MILK
A collapse in milk prices has wiped away the profits of U.S. dairy farmers, driving many out of business while forcing others to slaughter their herds or dump milk. But nine months after prices began tumbling on the farm, consumers have yet to see the full benefits of the crash at the checkout counter.
TRADE
Canada is the biggest trading partner for 38 of the 50 American states. Trade between the two countries reached US$597-billion, an average of $1.6-billion each day in 2008. That figure does not include tourism. Canadian exports to the U.S. reached $ 336-billion while imports hit $261-billion.
REVENUES
Online advertising revenue in the U.S. market sank to US$5.5-billion in the first quarter of 2009, down 10 per cent from $6.1-billion in the fourth quarter of last year. This is the first major slump since the burst of the dot-com bubble in 2002. This news could be especially troubling for magazines and newspapers which have increasingly turned to the web to make up for the loss of print advertising dollars.
BULBS
Frosted light bulbs are to be phased out in Europe under EU plans to force people to use more energy-efficient bulbs. From September, retailers will not be able to buy new stock of any type of opaque incandescent bulb.
COMMUNICATIONS
Guards at a prison in Brazil have intercepted two carrier pigeons carrying mobile phones and chargers to inmates.
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 pair of giant agricultural companies are trying to make spinach and some other vegetables taste better. They have launched a five-year project to produce new varieties of spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce. The objective is to improve the nutrition, flavour, colour, texture and aroma of these vegetables. While farmers and food companies have been breeding plants for decades, even producing different colours of cauliflowers, this project seeks to go further by breeding for taste and smell.
WHALES
According to a new report by the International Whaling Commission, whale watching now generates far more money than whale hunting. Worldwide, the industry now generates about US$12.1-billion per year. In 2008, about 13-million people went to sea to watch cetaceans in 119 countries. Whale watching is clearly more environmentally sustainable and economically beneficial than hunting and whales are worth far more alive than dead.
WORK
The world economy's deepest post-war slump has resulted in higher rates of unemployment in many countries. Spain's jobless rate has increased by more than 8 percentage points in the past 12 months and is now over 18 per cent, the highest in the rich world. The situation is also dire in Russia where the unemployment rate is now over 10 per cent.
CELLPHONES
Since 2002, the African market for cellphones has shown the fastest growth rate in the world having grown by 49 per cent, where the French market has only seen 7.5 per cent growth compared with 28 per cent in Brazil and 27 per cent in Asia. Cellphones have penetrated 37 per cent of the potential market and this figure could rise to 61 per cent by 2018.
CHARITY
Charitable giving in the U.S. fell last year by the largest percentage in five decades. Individuals and institutions made gifts and pledges of US$306.65-billion, a decrease of 5.7 per cent on an inflation-adjusted basis over the $414-billion given in 2007. Some experts are surprised the drop was not even bigger given that endowments fell by as much as 40 per cent, the stock market declined by similar margins, corporations posted unheard-of losses and unemployment rose steadily.
WEIGHT
Airlines are reducing the size of spoons and dropping in-flight magazines to make planes lighter and save fuel during the recession. Northwest Airlines has excluded spoons from its cutlery pack if the in-flight meal does not require one. Another carrier, JAL of Japan, took everything it loaded from a 747 and put it on the floor of a school gym to see what it really needed. As a result,it shaved a fraction of a centimetre off all its cutlery to save weight. The next generation of aircraft seats are likely to be up to 30 per cent lighter than the current generation with composite replacing aluminum.
FOOTBALL
England's leading football clubs pull in far more money than their counterparts elsewhere in Europe. Revenues of the UK's Premier League clubs amounted to US$3.8-billion in the 2007-08 season. The rapid growth of revenues has been fuelled largely by television fees. But crowds are biggest not in England but in the German league with an average of 42,000 per game last season, about 7,000 more than in England.
BARCODES
This year, the ubiquitous Universal Product Code barcode, with its 59 machine-readable black and white lines and 12 digits turned 35 years old. The UPC bar code ranks high on the list of technological innovations that changed not only the economy since the 1970s but our day-to-day lives. The first live use of a UPS bar code was in Troy, Ohio when a cashier scanned a pack of Wrigley's gum. Now, more than 10 billion UPC bar codes are scanned in the U.S. each day and it is estimated that bar codes save the grocery industry alone more than US$17-billion each year.
FREE TRADE
Canada and the European Union have now formally launched free trade talks. The EU is Canada's second-largest export market, after the United States. In 2008, two-way trade in goods and services between Canada and the EU totalled C$114.6-billion, up 6.2 per cent from 2007. Canada-EU free trade in aerospace, chemicals, wood products, automotive vehicles and parts, agricultural products, transportation and other sectors is forecast to increase trade by about 20 per cent.
STANDARDS
The U.S. and Canada have agreed to accept each other's standards for organic food, expanding opportunities for organic food trade. Canadians buy an estimated C$2.1-billion to $2.6-billion worth of organic food, about 80 per cent of which is imported. About 75 per cent of those imports come from the U.S. The US organic market is worth about US$24.6-billion in 2008, up from $3.6-billion in 2007
SUGAR
Sugar mills in Brazil are making the sweetener at full capacity and can't increase output further to meet rising demand and will maintain its current forecast for output of 31.2-million tonnes in the current year. Output in India, Thailand, Mexico and Pakistan is declining creating a global deficit.
STEALING
According to the most recent National Retail Security Survey, retail shrinkage averaged 1.52 per cent in 2008, an increase from 1.44 per cent in 2007, and total retail losses grew to US$36.5-billion. The survey said that employee theft accounted for $15.9-billion (44 per cent) of the losses and that 14 per cent of those cases involved collusion. Shoplifting claimed $12.7-billion (35 per cent) of retail shrinkage. Administrative error ($5.4-billion and 15 per cent shrinkage) and vendor fraud ($1.4-billion and four per cent shrinkage.
WEALTH
The ranks of the world's millionaires shrank at the fastest rate in 2008 with North America suffering the biggest wealth loss worldwide. The global slump in property and equity markets last year cut the number of millionaires by 15 per cent to 8.6-million, wiping out two years of increases. The value of the world's millionaires' assets slid 20 per cent to US$32.8-trillion. The U.S. is home to the most millionaires with 2.5-million followed by Germany, Japan and China.
DEATH
The funeral industry, once considered the safest of investment havens in recession, is having a tough time across North America, but not because people are spending less to bury their loved ones. Strangely, fewer people are dying, a phenomena that is puzzling executives in the business. The number of funerals conducted by one company that owns 1,300 funeral homes and 370 cemeteries in the U.S. and 200 in Canada fell by 11 per cent in the first quarter of the year over the year earlier.
FILMING
Canada's two busiest centres for film and TV production, Vancouver and Toronto, have seen a significant jump in the number of pilots shot this year. A recent study shows that networks are shunning Los Angeles which has seen its share of total U.S. pilot production drop 42 per cent in the past five years. Canada is now more popular for pilot production than LA's closest rival New York.
TRUCKING
Mexican trucking companies are suing the U.S. government for US$6-billion over Washington's refusal to allow Mexican carriers onto U.S. roads under the North American Free Trade Agreement. About 4,500 trucking companies are involved in the lawsuit. Under NAFTA, companies can sue the governments of the three NAFTA signatories, Mexico, Canada and the U.S., if they think they have been unfairly treated by public policies.
FUEL
Earlier this year, in an experimental flight, a Continental jet flew with one of its engines burning fuel derived from microscopic algae to push the 45-ton aircraft into the air, and keep it aloft. Last year, Virgin Atlantic flew the first commercial jet on biofuels on a 40 minute flight between London and Amsterdam in which one engine burned a mix of conventional jet fuel and 20 per cent biofuel derived from coconuts and babassu nuts. Japan Airlines has flown an aircraft using a biofuel from camelina, a weedy flower.
DIGITAL
Over one-fifth of the music industry's worldwide revenues in 2008 came from sales of digital music. The move away from formats like CD's is well advanced in the U.S., the world's largest music market, where more than a third of the industry's revenue now comes from digital sales. The share of digital sales in other big markets such as Britain, Germany and Canada is less than half that in the U.S.
DEBT
Canadians owe far more money than they bring in over the course of a year. In total, individual Canadians owed about C$1.3-trillion at the end of 2008 which works out to almost $40,000. In 2000, the figure was $24,000.
ARCTIC
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic contains 13 per cent of the world's remaining undiscovered oil and as much as 30 per cent of its natural gas. These updated estimates come as Canada and its polar neighbours aggressively pursue their competing claims to vast areas of continental shelf under the Arctic Ocean. The estimate of major oil reserves off North America's northern coast will also increase pressure to open the region to more oil and gas development.
DIET
According to Statistics Canada, in 2008, the Canadian diet included more tea, yogurts, breakfast cereals, berries, processed fruits, asparagus, poultry meat and wine, but less oils, red meat and soft drinks. The total daily intake of calories per person fell to 2,382, down from the peak recorded in 2001.
MILK
A collapse in milk prices has wiped away the profits of U.S. dairy farmers, driving many out of business while forcing others to slaughter their herds or dump milk. But nine months after prices began tumbling on the farm, consumers have yet to see the full benefits of the crash at the checkout counter.
TRADE
Canada is the biggest trading partner for 38 of the 50 American states. Trade between the two countries reached US$597-billion, an average of $1.6-billion each day in 2008. That figure does not include tourism. Canadian exports to the U.S. reached $ 336-billion while imports hit $261-billion.
REVENUES
Online advertising revenue in the U.S. market sank to US$5.5-billion in the first quarter of 2009, down 10 per cent from $6.1-billion in the fourth quarter of last year. This is the first major slump since the burst of the dot-com bubble in 2002. This news could be especially troubling for magazines and newspapers which have increasingly turned to the web to make up for the loss of print advertising dollars.
BULBS
Frosted light bulbs are to be phased out in Europe under EU plans to force people to use more energy-efficient bulbs. From September, retailers will not be able to buy new stock of any type of opaque incandescent bulb.
COMMUNICATIONS
Guards at a prison in Brazil have intercepted two carrier pigeons carrying mobile phones and chargers to inmates.
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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