May 2010 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

May 2010 Edition

ANTI-DUMPING

Dumping investigations are initiated when a country suspects that its domestic industry is threatened by imports sold at unfairly cheap prices. They may result in the levelling of extra duties on "dumped" goods. According to the World Bank, the number of investigations initiated rose during the global economic crisis. The number of new cases in 2008 was 101, up from 73 in 2007. Last year the number went up again to 106. In 2009, developing countries were behind 70 per cent of the cases, up from 58 per cent in 2007.

RAIL

A program to reduce train congestion in the Chicago area is getting a boost with US$100-million in federal stimulus money for 16 rail projects. It is intended to unclog bottlenecks that cause freight trains to take a day or longer to pass through Chicago and block passenger trains and vehicles. The project, which will include overpasses or underpasses and track and signal improvements, hopes to cut rail transit delays by 57,631 passenger hours per year and reduce motorist delays by 344,499 hours annually for a combined savings of nearly $10-million per year.

WATER

Venezuelan officials are battling the effects of a severe drought by sharply increasing rates for people who use too much water. Venezuelans who consume more than 10,567 gallons (40,000 litres) a month will be charged three times the normal rate. The drought has caused water levels to drop to critical lows behind the Guri Dam which supplies roughly 70 per cent of Venezuela's electricity.

DRINK

French exports of expensive Champagne and cognacs suffered a record drop last year as people drank less and switched to cheaper brands in the U.S. and Britain, its biggest foreign markets. Exports of wines and spirits fell 17 per cent to US$10.5-billion last year, the largest ever one-year drop and the first decline since 2004. France is the world's biggest exporter of wine and spirits. Exports of Champagne fell by 28 per cent and cognac sales slid by 15.6 per cent. U.S. imports of French wine tumbled 22.7 per cent last year while sales to Britain were down 20.2 per cent

AID

Foreign aid to poor countries from the rich countries in the OECD's Development Assistance Committee will reach a record US$107.4-billion this year. Although the rich members of the European Union promised in 2005 to give 0.51 per cent of their GDP as aid by 2010, only some with reach that target. France, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Greece and Italy will all miss it. Some, like Sweden and Luxembourg will both give 1 per cent of GDP. Donors promised in 2005 to increase aid to Africa by $25-billion this year but the OECD estimates only half of this will materialize.

TRENDS

An itinerant footloose army of available and wiling retirees in their 60s and 70s is marching through the American outback, looking to stretch retirement dollars by volunteering to work in parks, campgrounds and wildlife sanctuaries, usually in exchange for camping space. Park and wildlife agencies say that retired volunteers have in turn become all the more crucial as budget cuts and new demands have made it harder to keep parks open. Work-campers come together in one place, leading nature walks or staffing visitor centres, typically working 20- to 30 hours a week before moving on to their next assignment.

TAXES

For post-communist Romanians, a Big Mac and soda meant much more than a meal: It was a culinary signpost from the free and capitalist west, a sign that they too had arrived. But now the Balkan country is moving to join the health conscious 21st century by proposing taxes on burgers, French fries, soda and other fast foods with high fat and sugar content. It is estimated that the new taxes could generate up to US$1.37-billion in new revenue, compared with $21.9-billion in total revenue for 2010.

VANCOUVER

The Conference Board of Canada forecasts that the Olympic effect will give Vancouver's economy enough of a boost to make it the top economic performer among Canadian cities this year. The Board estimates that Canada's third-largest city will see economic growth leap by 4.5 per cent this year after shrinking 1.8 per cent in 2009. In addition to the boost provided by the Olympic Winter games, housing construction and consumer spending are expected to rebound strongly in Vancouver.

RUNNING

New research suggests that we don't throw away our old fashioned plimsolls as they may be better for us than high-tech trainers. Running barefoot or in shoes with little padding, encourages runners to land on the ball of their feet, reducing the impact to almost nothing. Most runners wearing trainers today land on their heels almost exclusively, the research shows. The average runner strikes the ground 600 times per kilometre making runners prone to repetitive stress injuries.

POWER

China vaulted over competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world's largest maker of wind turbines and is poised to expand even further this year. China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels. The country is also pushing hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants. These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may trade its dependence on oil from the Middle East for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China.

GREEN

Playing golf and remaining green can be a problem especially if you tend to land in water hazards where it is estimated that it takes between 100 and 1,000 years for a golf ball to decompose naturally. Now, a Spanish golf ball manufacturer has invented a ball that not only dissolves upon contact with water, but is made of fish food. The "Ecobioball's " outer layer is made of recyclable plastic polymer that degrades completely within 48 hours to reveal a dense inner ball of fish food.

SAFETY

An estimated 120-billion riders enter about 750,000 elevators in the United States each year and these devices represent one of the safest ways to travel. But every year, about 2,640 elevator injuries, severe enough to require a visit to the emergency room, occur among the elderly who often have vision and balance problems. Misalignment of the elevator floor and the floor of the hallway is also a common cause of injury.

TRADE

A free trade agreement between Peru and China has now come into effect. Peru's exports to China are expected to increase 17 per cent to US$4.7-billion. Total trade with China last year was $7.1-billion, up from $5.3-billion in 2007. Peru is the second South American country to sign a free trade deal with China, the other is Chile. Peruvian exports to China are mainly metals: copper, lead, zinc, iron and fish products. China sells phones, motor vehicles and footwear. Peru already has a free trade deal with Canada and trade last year was worth US$2.3-billion.

GROWTH

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says it will create up to 6,500 jobs in retail and construction this year as part of a plan to open 35 to 40 massive supercentres in Canada. More than half of the locations will be entirely new stores or relocations and expansions. The remainder will be renovations of existing store layouts. Wal-Mart's investment will add up to almost US$500-million creating 2,000 jobs in construction and 4,500 employees at the retail level. The is will bring its total number of stores in Canada to 325 from 280 which includes 124 supercentres. It already employs more than 70,000 people across Canada.

BREAKFAST

Restaurant breakfast sales across the U.S. are down sharply and analysts blame the troubled economy for the dip because fewer Americans are going to work in the morning. At the same time, staying in has become cheaper. The price of eating at home fell by 2 per cent in the past 12 months, while food in restaurants rose by 1.6 per cent. Orange juice (U.S. frozen concentrate) is up 61 per cent, while eggs are up 2 per cent and bacon (U.S.frozen pork bellies) has risen 18 per cent. Coffee is up 5 per cent globally.

PLASTIC

British scientists have developed food packaging made from sugar. Although there are already plastics on the market made from natural materials like corn, these do not biodegrade quickly. The new discovery would not only cut down on the use of oil that is usually used to make plastic, but potentially enable people to compost plastic at home. Plastics made from oil can take hundreds of years to decompose but the new material would break down in a matter of months. Around seven per cent of worldwide oil and gas resources are consumed in plastic manufacture, with worldwide production exceeding 150-million tons annually.

TRANSPORTATION

There are more than 12,000 RV-related businesses in the U.S. with combined annual revenue of more than US$37.5-billion. RV shipments in January totalled 15,800 units, more than double the number shipped January of 2009. RV shipments are projected to total 215,900 in 2010, a gain of 30 per cent from 2009 shipments as dealers restock reduced inventories.

E-WASTE

Electronic waste is becoming an increasing problem in developing countries as sales of electronics surge and enforcement of environmental laws remain lax. The UN says developing countries like China and India risk serious consequences to the environment and human health unless they institute proper e-waste collection and recycling programs. By 2020, e-waste from mobile phones in China will be about seven times greater than it was in 2007 and waste from computers will be five times greater. The growth in India is even worse. In 2010 China will produce 2.3-million tonnes of e-waste second only to the U.S.

MOVIES

Movies in 3-D are becoming such big potential money makers that Hollywood studios are cramming them into U.S. theatres, even though there are not enough screens available to give each film its fullest possible run. About 3,000-to 4,000 3-D-ready screens are available now in the U.S. and Canada. Typically, a movie might be shown on about 10,000 screens.

PIRACY

An industry report estimates that the growth in illegal file-sharing could cost European countries 1.2-million jobs and US$500-billion by 2015. It claims that without measures to curb piracy, the UK alone could lose up to 250,000 jobs. The report studied the impact of web piracy in Germany, UK, France, Italy and Spain.

DATA

A recent U.S. Commerce Department report highlights the differences between official trade statistics produced by the U.S. and China. The analysis found that official Chinese data on exports to the U.S. are typically lower than official U.S. data on imports. Similarly, China reports higher imports from the U.S. than the U.S. reports that it exports to China.

BARBIE

In her 51 years, the toy doll Barbie has held 125 jobs. She has been an astronaut and a rock star but has moved on. Her latest career is that of a computer engineer.

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

April 2010 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

April 2010 Edition

CRUISING

In 2009, cruise companies invested US$4.7-billion to build 14 new ships and they will launch a further 12 vessels this year. Many of these were planned before the economic downturn. To entice customers, cruise lines have cut prices dramatically, sometimes by as much as 40 per cent. Because of these discounts, more people are taking cruises: 13.4-million in 2009, up from 12.6-million in 2007. There are around 30 ports of embarkation in the U.S. alone and the industry hopes to attract more customers in the next few years. Only 20 per cent of Americans have been on a cruise.

PETS

The breeding of snakes is a serious business in the U.S. Revenue from the sales of boas and pythons amounts to about US$1.6- to 1.8-billion a year. Americans own more than 2.5-million snakes. The recession has hurt what used to be a lucrative hobby. Fewer people want to splurge on snakes that cost thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars.

TURKEY

Over the next decade, Turkey is to invest about US$12-billion to build a high-speed railway network and shift more traffic to trains. Railways carry 3 per cent of passenger and per cent of freight traffic in Turkey. The country opened its first high-speed railway last March, a $4-billion line that links Ankara to the city of Eskisehir. In total, almost 2,300 kilometres of high-speed rail are planned.

SCHOOLS

An imbalance in U.S. medical schools has been growing for a quarter century. Many bright students have had to study offshore while American hospitals were using foreign-trained and foreign-born physicians to fill medical residencies. Now, two dozen new medical schools have opened or may open across the country this year, the most since the 1960s and '70s. The proliferation of new schools is a market response to a rare convergence of forces: Growing population; the aging of the health-conscious baby-boom generation and the impending retirement of as many as a third of current doctors.

WIND

Canada expanded its wind power production in 2009 at a record pace, putting it among the top 10 countries that built new turbines in 2009, but it still supplies only one per cent of the total power produced in the country. The U.S. has the most wind farms, with Germany second, China third followed by Spain. In Canada, hydro-electric power still rules with 59 per cent of Canadian energy produced in this manner followed by nuclear energy. In Europe, burning coal is the most common power source.

CHEESE

Hard economic times has not put a hole in the global appetite for Swiss cheese as exports grew last year to record levels. Some 62,146 tonnes of hard and soft cheeses were exported, an increase of 1.6 per cent over the previous year. An increase in German, French and Italian demand offset a drop in the United States. Emmentaler cheese with its distinctive holes, remained the favourite, accounting for one kilo in three of Swiss cheese eaten abroad.

PORTS

As trade in the region grows more lucrative, China is spending millions on building new port facilities in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar. China recently became India's largest trading partner and both have worked together to advance similar positions in global trade. India and China are the world's two fastest growing economies. In the last 10 years, Chinese companies have become the biggest suppliers to ports of cranes used to move shipping containers, displacing South Korean and Japanese companies. It is estimated that China is involved in US$6-billion worth of projects in Sri Lanka.

COSTS

It used to be that a basic US$25 a month phone bill was the main telecommunications expense. But by 2004, the average American spent $770.95 annually on services like cable television, Internet connectivity and video games. By 2008, the figure rose to $903.00, outstripping inflation. By the end of this year, it is expected to have grown to $997.07. Add another $1000.00 or more for cellphone service and the average family is spending as much on devices as on dining out or buying gasoline.

AIR TRAVEL

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reports that 2009 saw the biggest post-war decline in internationally scheduled air traffic. Passenger demand was down 3.5 per cent with an average load factor of 75.6 per cent. Freight showed a full-year decline of 10.1 per cent with an average load factor of 49.1 per cent. Carriers in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America all showed declines while carriers in the Middle East and Latin America both showed positive growth.

FLOWERS

Valentine's Day generates 12 per cent of annual sales of flowers in Columbia and employs 200,000 Colombians directly or indirectly. In order to meet demand on Valentine's Day, the Columbian industry dispatched 500-million flowers daily on 28 flights destined for international markets, particularly the United States, Canada and some European countries, primarily roses and farm-made bouquets. 80 per cent of all flowers imported by 43,000 florists and supermarkets come from Columbia.

SPENDING

In a down economy, women are more frugal than men. Research by a Toronto-based company reports that in a survey of more than 7,200 American consumers, 72 per cent of U.S. women cut their spending in 2009 compared with only 62 per cent of men. Only four out of 15 industry sectors were unaffected by gender differences in spending, with gas stations, bars, hotels and airlines having similar levels of reduced spending. Restaurants were the most affected by gender differences.

SEATS

Japan's Kioto Industries has admitted to fabricating safety data for seats in more than 1,000 aircraft used by 32 carriers. The company uses fake strength test data for more than 150,000 seats used in the Boeing and Airbus aircraft of customers including Air Canada, KLM, Scandinavian and Singapore Airlines. The company, an auto parts maker affiliated with Toyota, has been ordered to retest the products.

BRIDGES

Transport Canada is in talks to buy the Ambassador Bridge which spans the Detroit River to connect Windsor, Ontario with Detroit. If successful, Transport Canada says it would have no effect on plans for a new bridge further downriver. The Canadian government has purchased land from the city of Windsor to help build a new six-lane bridge. Officials have been working for years to add capacity at the busiest border crossing between Canada and the U.S., now served by the current bridge and a tunnel that runs under the river.

WINE

The first commercially-produced wine from grapes ripened in Scotland is to be launched, if there is enough sunshine. Wine has even been produced in the Outer Hebrides on the Isle of Lewis. Scientists predict that global warming will create a more favourable climate for making wine in Britain, including Scotland. There are already 416 vineyards in England and 2,732 acres of vines under cultivation, an increase of 45 per cent over the past four years.

SALARIES

Spain's government is using emergency legislation to rein in its air traffic controllers who earn up to US$1.3-million a year in a country suffering a recession and nearly 20 per cent unemployment. The controllers are technically civil servants but they signed an agreement in 1999 giving them autonomy and control over their salaries. The high annual salaries average over $541,000 and defeat the government's goal of cutting costs.

SOIL

An estimated 75-billion tonnes of soil is lost annually with more than 80 per cent of the world's farming land moderately or severely eroded. Soil in China is being lost 57 times faster than it can be replaced through natural processes. In Europe that figure is 17 times and in the United States 10 times and five times as much soil is being lost in Australia. A recent conference was told that world soil could vanish within 60 years if action is not taken.

INFLUENCE

Canada's influence in the world has worsened sharply in the past year in an international poll of 20,176 people in 20 countries suggests. Positive views of Canada fell most steeply in the U.S., Britain and China. This is the first time Canada's popularity among its major trading partners has declined since polling began in 2005. This deterioration could hurt Canada's business interests. Much of the decline is blamed on negative media coverage of Canada's environmental policies. However, in Indonesia, Russia and Germany, perceptions of Canadian influence has improved.

WASTE

Thirteen Spanish towns have bid to host a major new nuclear waste storage site, a long-delayed project that is fiercely opposed by environmentalists. Spain's six nuclear plants currently store their own spent fuel. The eventual location of the site is expected to cost US$1-billion and employ about 100 people when operational. The site will bring millions of euros in government subsidies to its host town.

LIQUOR

Americans' love affair with top-shelf liquor cooled last year as the recession took its toll on high-priced liquor. A new report shows people drank more but turned to cheaper brands. They also drank more at home and less in pricier bars and restaurants. Industry growth slowed in 2009 with the amount of liquor sold by suppliers up 1.4 per cent, the smallest increase since 2001 and below the 10-year average of 2.6 per cent. Vodka remained Americas favourite liquor accounting for almost a third of all spirit sold and sales of US$4.56-billion.

DIAMONDS

Canada is set to open its first official diamond trading marketplace in downtown Toronto, a move spurred by the rush in recent years to mine and market the homegrown stones nationally and worldwide. Both polished and rough stones will be bought and sold. There are 28 diamond bourses in places such as Belgium, Israel and South Africa. Diamonds were first discovered in Canada in 1991 and is now the third-largest producer of gem-quality stones. Canada now produces about 15 per cent of the world's annual rough diamonds.

GOLD

The world's gold mines increased production by 144 tonnes last year. This more than offset the drop in output in 2008 caused in part by a slump in production in Indonesia. China remains the largest gold producer accounting for 13 per cent of the world's supply in 2009. It produced half as much again as Australia, the next largest supplier.

CONSUMERS

Wielding buying power that will approach US$1-trillion this year, the 40-million strong African-American population is an important component of an economy increasingly dependent on the needs and preferences of multicultural shoppers. The African-American population isn't as large as the U.S.Hispanic market but the disposable personal income of both demographic groups is projected to trend comparably over the next five years.

COINS

The general manager of the Chilean mint has been dismissed after thousands of coins were issued with the name of the country spelled incorrectly. The coins were issued in 2008 but no one noticed the error until last year.

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.

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March 2010 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

March 2010 Edition

OECD

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, described as the most prestigious economic club in the world, has added Chile to its membership. The Paris-based OECD now with 31 members, is a research organisation that identifies economic benchmarks and promotes best practices in economies with strong free-market convictions. Twenty-one members are European countries; Japan and South Korea are the sole Asian members. Chile becomes only the second member, after Mexico, from South America and the Caribbean.

GAS

The volume of greenhouse gases emitted by 40 industrialized countries that report under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change increased by 1% in 2007. Between 1990 and 2007 emissions fell by 4% in these countries. Control of gas varied widely over the period with Spain increasing by 53%, but in Germany falling by 23%. Britain's switch from coal to gas-fired power stations has helped its green credentials, Countries with significant primary industries, such as mining and forestry tend to emit far greater quantities of greenhouse gases. Australia's emissions are far greater than France, for example, even though France has a much larger economy.

TVs

Power-hungry TVs will be banned from store shelves in California after state regulators adopted a first-in-the-nation mandate to reduce electricity demand. The Energy Commission requires all new televisions up to 58 inches to be more energy efficient beginning in 2 011. The requirement will be tougher in 2013 with only a quarter of all TVs currently on the market meeting that standard. It is estimated that TVs account for 10% of a home's electricity use and the concern is that the energy draw will rise by as much as 8% a year as consumers buy larger televisions.

SPICES

India exports about 180 varieties of spices to over 150 countries around the world. Mint products account for the bulk of spice exports followed by chilies, oils, oleoresins and pepper. East Asia is the biggest buyer in value terms with 41% followed by the U.S with 21%. In 2002-2003 India's total exports of spices was 264,107 tonnes valued at US$432-million. In 2008-2009, exports touched 470,520 tonnes worth $1.168-billion. India's Spice Board has set an export goal of $10-billion by 2017 and is eyeing South America to boost exports.

SINKINGS

Processing and safely storing waste from the chemical, pharmaceutical and other industries can cost hundreds, even thousands, of dollars per ton which makes illegal disposal highly profitable. In the Mediterranean, 39 ships were wrecked under questionable circumstances between 1979 and 1995. An average of two ships a year suspiciously disappeared in the Mediterranean during the 1980s and early 1990s and the number has increased to nine wrecks per year since 1995. The increase in the frequency of wrecking, correlates with the progressive tightening of international dumping regulations.

SAVINGS

Pension funds in the OECD had a bad time, losing over 20% of their value between the end of 2007 and the end of 2008. Funds heavily invested in equities such as those in Ireland and Australia proved particularly vulnerable. The big rally last year allowed some of the losses to be recouped in the first half of 2009 but there is still a long way to go.

PIRACY

Armed robbery and piracy against ships surged nearly 39% in 2009 to a total of 406 incidents around the world. The sharp increase has been attributed to attacks by Somali pirates which accounted for 217 incidents, nearly double the previous year's figure and over half the world's total.

CARS

U.S. luxury-car sales, once considered resistant to recessions, have plunged 40% over the past two years compared with the overall market's drop of 35%. Premium car makers are hoping to revitalize sales with a slew of new or refreshed models, many of them featuring high-end safety features. The used-car market is proving to be an unexpected boon where many luxury-car buyers are turning to replace or buy models they prefer rather than downsize to a new but less-expensive vehicle.

TECHNOLOGY

Pharmaceutical firms are embracing the "smart-pill" technology. Proteus technology enables pills to relay data about a patient back to doctors after they have been swallowed. Another company has an intelligent pill which can be delivered at precisely the right spot in the digestive tract. A cap for pill bottles has been developed that telephones a patient if they fail to take their medicine on time. The technology should be lucrative for all concerned as drug firms currently lose billions of dollars in sales from patients on long-term prescriptions who do not take their pills.

COMMODITIES

By the end of last year, metals prices had more than doubled from the depths of December 2008. Demand was fuelled by emerging economies many of which saw dramatic growth last year. Copper prices rose more than 150% last year and sugar prices more than doubled as a poor harvest in India, the world's biggest consumer, caused it to turn to imports to meet demand. Prices for rubber, nickel, platinum and aluminum also increased significantly.

HANDBAGS

New British research has found that the weight of handbags has dropped 57% in the last two years to 1.5 kilograms and that's with phones, keys, wallets etc included. Between 2006 and 2007 the average weight was 3.5 kilograms. The introduction of multipurpose devices such as the iPhone and Blackberry have helped lower the weight. Handbag makers are also using leathers that are 20% to 40% lighter than skins used several years ago.

PHARMACIES

A recent study shows that Canada has 8,214 licensed community pharmacies (ones not located in hospitals) and 31,284 licensed pharmacists of which 22,000 work in community pharmacies, About 80% of that 22,000 work in chain drug stores which fill about 80% of prescriptions. Generic drugs are used to fill 52% of prescriptions. Ontario has 2.88 pharmacies per 10,000 people compared to 1.46 for every 10,000 in the U.S.

AIRPORTS

China plans to build the world's highest airport in the Himalayan region of Tibet, at an elevation of nearly 4,500 metres. Construction of the airport, which will take three years, is to start next year at a cost of US$270-million and will be 230 kilometres north of the regional capital of Llasa.

BOOKS

Bookseller Barnes & Noble is launching a textbook rental program for college students. The new program, available through campus bookstores or websites began as a pilot program in three of its 636 campus bookstores last fall. It has now expanded to 25 bookstores. Books will rent for 42.5% of their original price for an entire term. College students spend about US$667 per year on required course materials.

ONLINE

Many major retailers are beefing up their web business to get some of the continuing growth online and to keep their sites competitive. They are adding millions of grocery and other products, new kinds of services and even alliances with rival retailers. It is expected that retailers will report that their total U.S. online for 2009 rose 11% to US$156-billion. But web sales remain a small fraction of U.S. commerce. Proctor & Gamble reports only $500-million of $79-billion, or 0.06% of annual sales, comes from online sales.

AGE

A United Nation report says that the elderly will outnumber children for the first time in 2045, increasing demand on nursing homes and increasing the burden on working-age people to support retirees. The proportion of the world's population older than 60 years will reach 22 per cent over the next four decades from 11 per cent in 2009 and eight per cent in 1950.

SPYING

The war between the U.S. and its former cold war adversaries has moved to cyberspace. In the new cyber war, the targets are U.S. companies as much as embassies or spy services because corporations hold giant repositories of sensitive information that can be easier to crack. Companies are responding in kind, often launching their own intelligence operations to counter the spies. Russian hackers have specialized in tapping bank accounts, holding personal computers for ransom and selling stolen U.S. government information. Attacks by China on defense contractors have intensified in the last 18 months.

SMOKED

The European Union Food Safety Authority (EFSA) says one of the flavourings used to give smoke flavour to meat, cheese or fish may be toxic to humans. The authority looked at 11 smoke flavourings used in the EU and says several are dangerously close to levels which may cause harm to humans.

SOLAR

The technology behind solar energy is constantly evolving. Portable devices that charge up gadgets from the sun are becoming smaller and more powerful. A new generation of portable solar chargers can plug straight into a laptop and provide up to a quarter of the power needed while in use. There has been a steady growth in the UK of small-scale electricity production at home in recent years and in 2008 this figure doubled.

HEIGHT

In recent years Dubai has grabbed the headlines with audacious offshore islands and rotating buildings. Now it has opened the world's tallest tower, Burj Dubai. At more than 800 metres, twice the height of the Empire State Building, you can see its spire from 95 kilometres away and the exterior is covered in 28,000 glass panels. The design of the building posed unprecedented technical and logistical challenges, not just because of its height, but also because Dubai is susceptible to high winds and is close to a geological fault line.

CARP

The Great Lakes are threatened by the voracious Asian carp that have evaded poisoning, lock gates and hi-tech electronic barriers as they have penetrated thousands of miles of American rivers and canals devouring much of the food in their path. Now, the silver and bighead carp, originally from Taiwan, are facing the might of the U.S. army in a last ditch effort to prevent them from reaching the world's largest fresh water system, the Great Lakes and their connecting rivers that straddle the Canadian border which could threaten the region's US$7-billion fishing industry.

STUDENTS

Foreign students flock to the U.S. from all over the world. According to the OECD, over 40% of the 106,123 foreign students in the country during the 2007-2008 academic year came from just three Asian countries: China, India and South Korea. China sent 23,779 students and India and South Korea about 10,000 each By contrast the European presence on American campuses has grown more slowly. But between them, Germany, France and Italy send more students to the U.S. than did either India or South Korea.

OPPORTUNITIES

In Manchester and London, the Holiday Inn hotel chain is trying out human bed warmers. The walking electric blankets dressed in special all-in-one sleeper suits are sent to warm the beds of guests for five minutes.

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

February 2010 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

February 2010 Edition

 WINE

Australian wineries are bulldozing and selling vineyards in a desperate attempt to clear cellars choked with more than 100-million wine cases in the worst glut in two decades. If the industry fails to uproot 20 per cent of vines at least 200-million more cases will pile up over the next two years. The glut is pitting Australia's smaller wineries against the nation's giants. Twelve of Australia's oldest wine-making families have banded together to fight a discount binge and preserve the value of their product.

KETCHUP

Mexicans eat more ketchup by sales value than consumers in all but eight other countries. At the start of 2007, ketchup giant H.J. Heinz held less than one per cent of the Mexican market and had only 10 sales people in the country which is three times as large as Texas. Today, Heinz accounts for 12 per cent of the market and now has 120 ketchup sales and marketing employees there. The shift illustrates how Heintz is positioning itself for growth in emerging markets. The market leader in Mexico is Del Monte Foods Co. which claims about 30 per cent of the market.

TRADE

Leaders from five East African nations have signed a common market treaty. Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi have agreed to the free movement of people and goods across the region and it is expected that the deal will lead to greater economic clout for the region.

BABIES

A baby bottle called the Yoomi that heats milk to a perfect temperature at the touch of a button has gone on sale in the UK. The bottle, which has already won a series of innovation and research awards, ensures the milk is heated to between 32 and 34 degrees in just 60 seconds and stays warm for up to an hour. It can be recharged up to 100 times and even features an anti-colic teat which allows a baby to latch on more easily. It was invented by a husband and wife team who were tired of having to painstakingly heat milk to an exact temperature in the microwave.

R&D

Toyota spent most on research and development (R&D) of any company in the world in 2008. The company spent US$10.6-billion, knocking Microsoft off the top spot. Three of the biggest spenders are car makers, but pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies also pour money into R&D. Switzerland's Roche now ranks fourth having increased spending by 50 per cent in the past three years. Worldwide, R&D investment increased by 6.9 per cent in 2008. It grew by 9 per cent in 2007.

FISHING

After years of decline, freshwater sports fishing is on the rebound in British Columbia, according to a new study that found more than 300,000 anglers are spending more than C$500-million a year on the activity. Annually, sports fishermen spend seven times more on equipment than downhill skiers and inject more into the economy than cruise ship passengers. It is estimated that by 2017 there will be 416,700 sports anglers, marking a return to the level of participation not seen since the 1990s.

WEATHER

From a devastating food crisis in Guatemala to water cuts in Venezuela, El Nino compounded drought damage across Latin America in 2009. Ecuador saw its worst drought in 40 years and Bolivian farmers went eight months without rain. El Nino is the occasional seasonal warming of central and eastern Pacific waters that upsets normal weather patterns across the globe and occurs on average every two to five years. Typically lasting around 12 months, El Nino reappeared again last June.

SIZE

The skinniest house in Britain is only 66 inches wide but has gone on the market for over one million dollars. The house, in Shepherds Bush, London, has five levels, a lower ground, ground, first, second and third floor with 1000 square feet of space.

COUNTERFEIT

According to U.S. Customs, China remains the top country of origin for counterfeit and pirated goods. In fiscal 2009, 14,841 seizures were made with a domestic value of US$261-million. 89 per cent of the goods were made in China, and Hong Kong was the source for 10 per cent followed by India. Footwear remains the leading product seized accounting for 38 per cent of seized goods. Other commonly counterfeit and pirated goods are consumer electronics, computers/hardware, pharmaceuticals and wearing apparel.

NOISE

MP3 players, including iPods, will be fitted with maximum volume restrictions to protect users' hearing under new European Union plans. It is claimed that there are up to 10 million Europeans, mainly young people, who are at risk of losing their hearing permanently in the next five years due to their listening habits. Units on the market at the moment are capable of generating a volume beyond 116 decibels. Under health and safety regulations, workers are not allowed to be exposed to that level of volume for more than 30 seconds.

INDIA

Heineken has reached an agreement with India-based United Breweries that allows the Dutch company to brew and sell its own brand of beer in that lucrative, growing market at a time when beer consumption is flat or even declining in its core markets of Western Europe and the U.S. India's beer market is expected to reach 14.4-million hectolitres in 2010. Beer consumption is 1.3 litres per year, much lower than the annual per capita consumption of 79 litres in the Netherlands and 82 litres in the U.S.

AUTOS

For the first time, China has overtaken the United States as the world's biggest market for automobiles. Now that the Chinese buy more cars and trucks, the shift could produce ripples for the environment, gas prices and even the kinds of cars auto makers design. More than 12.7-million cars and trucks were sold in China in 2009, up 44 per cent from the previous year. Because of the size of China's population this trend has been expected but the increase in sales is happening much quicker than originally forecast because of China's tax cuts, its stimulus programme and the depressed U.S. market.

SWEETENERS

The artificial sweeteners saccharin and aspartame were found accidentally when lab workers doing research that had nothing to do with sweetening put a bit of the test compounds in their mouths and liked what they tasted. The scientists who discovered sucralose (now sold as Splenda) were originally trying to create an insecticide. A compound called lugduname is the sweetest compound known, more than 200,000 times as sweet as table sugar.

AIRLINES

After a difficult year battling the recession, the airline industry appears to be headed toward a recovery as fuller planes, fewer discounted fares, lower fuel prices and revenue from a variety of formally free services start to pay off. The signs of improvement are most advanced at low-fare carriers that focus on domestic flights. U.S. airlines have removed one out of every 10 seats flying between January 2008 and the schedules filed for 2010. The drop in domestic seats is the largest since 1942 and takes capacity back to 1998 levels.

GAS

Australia has signed a US$82-billion deal to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to a Japanese power company in what is believed to be the country's biggest export sales contract. The deal will see 4.1-million tonnes of LNG sent to Japan each year. The company selling the LNG has an annual capacity of 16.3-million tonnes. The gas is liquefied for shipping abroad where it is turned back into gas and distributed via a pipeline.

PATENTS

European ministers have agreed on a plan to introduce a common EU-wide patent system and a single European Patent Court that could save companies millions of euros. The Commission says the cut in legal fees could save European firms up to 289-million euros annually. Many firms currently face high costs in the EU for patent litigation. Currently, getting approval for a patent in just 13 EU member states is 11 times more expensive than obtaining a U.S.patent.

TRENDS

A U.S.-based market research company has released its consumer packaged trend predictions for 2010 and identified six key flavour trends that will emerge during the year. They include: Cardomom; Sweet Potato; Hibiscus; Cupuacu (a fruit from the Amazon); Rose water and Latin Spices.

GRANTS

The World Bank is to give India at least US$1-billion over five years for a Ganges River cleanup, part of a commitment to sharply boost lending to the country. The cleanup of the holy river, polluted by industrial chemicals, pesticides and other sewage, involves building sewage treatment plants, revamping drains and other initiatives. The Bank is expected to triple lending to India this year to $7-billion for various projects. India plans to raise $3.4-billion selling shares in three state-run utilities and use the money to build roads and ports.

ENERGY

The UK government wants to have 47 smart electricity meters installed in 26 million homes by 2020 to help people cut their energy usage. This will cost between US$10- and $12-billion, or around $650 per household. Savings per household are estimated to be around $55.00 annually and will require 12 years to recoup the original installation costs. So far, it has not been decided who will pay for the installation of the meters.

CATALOGUES

Last year, an estimated 17-billion catalogues were sent to U.S. households, which is about 56 for every man, woman and child.

SHAPEWEAR

Underwear makers are finding the desire for a svelte silhouette has created a booming line for women, and now men, in shapewear. These are garments that help slim and sculpt a figure by holding it in, and has become the fastest-growing category in intimate apparel for women, with lines available in most major stores, but it is also now taking off for men. Market researchers estimate that the market has tripled in the past few years to be worth US$750-million in annual sales.

VACATION

When it comes to time off, Canadians receive among the least-generous entitlements in the world. At 31 days a year of paid leave, Canada ranked third-last in a survey of 19 countries. Only Australia and the U.S. were lower with 30 and 28 days respectively. Top of the list was Japan with 44 days a year followed by Brazil and Lithuania with 41 days and Russia, France and Finland with 40 days off each year. Figures are based on typical vacation days or paid time-off for someone with ten years of service including all statutory and public holidays.

GUARANTEES

The Economist reports that shoppers typically pay 10 to 50 per cent of the cost of a product to insure it beyond the term covered by the manufacturer's guarantee. The terms of these deals vary but they usually promise to repair or replace a faulty device for between one and four years. Yet products rarely break within the period covered and repairs tend to cost no more than the warranty itself. This makes warranties amazingly profitable generating over US$16-billion annually for U.S. retailers.

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 

January 2010 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

January 2010 Edition

WATER

China has postponed a plan to raise the Three Gorges reservoir to its ideal height of 175 metres due to a lack of water. There has been less water than expected flowing into the reservoir from the upper reaches of the Yangtze river. The reservoir needs to be 175 metres deep for the project to fully meet its roles of providing electricity, preventing floods and ensuring navigation. So far only 11 of the scheme's 26 hydropower generators are operating.

TICKETS

The average price for a ticket to a National Basketball Association game has fallen for the first time in eight years, as a weak economy continues to affect U.S. sports leagues. The average price has fallen 2.8 per cent to US $48.90, the biggest drop ever for the league and the first decline since the 2001-02 season. The NHL had a 7.5 per cent drop in 2005-06 season following a season-long lockout.

NEWSPAPERS

Last October, the Audit Bureau of Circulations found that the Los Angeles Times had lost 11 per cent of its paying readers in the past year. Circulation at the Boston Globe tumbled by 18 per cent and at the San Francisco Chronicle, it fell by 26 per cent. Daily sales of the New York Times fell by 7 per cent but circulation at the Wall Street Journal, which includes paying online subscribers, rose to more than 2 million, making it America's biggest paper.

CARE

Boasting a highly skilled work force of medical practitioners and top notch private health care facilities, India is actively vying for a bigger share of the estimated US$60-billion spent by Canadians and others on medical procedures in foreign countries each year. The global medical tourism industry is expected to grow to $100-billion by 2011. India is competing with more than 35 countries including Mexico, Cuba, Thailand and Singapore.

ABROAD

An estimated 2.8-million Canadians live abroad with naturalized Canadians leaving the country at a rate three times higher than those born here. 57 per cent of all overseas Canadians live in the United States, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom or Australia. Foreign-born Canadians from Taiwan had the highest rate of return to their country of origin at 30 per cent, followed by emigrants from Hong Kong at 24 per cent.

TASTE

A new report shows sales of ethnic foods in the U.S. have climbed steadily since 2004 and reached a record high of US$2.2-billion last year with solid growth forecast of nearly 20 per cent from 2010 to 2014. The demand for ethnic products and their projected increase is being fed by U.S. Census reports that the fastest-growing populations in the U.S. continue to be Asians and Hispanics. Since 2005, one million foreigners have become legal permanent residents in the U.S. each year.

CLAIMS

A US$250,000 compensation claim has been made against Saudi Arabia's oil giant Saudi Aramco for causing the death of a prized camel which fell into a large hole dug in the desert to store oil. The camel had been entered in one of the regions popular beauty pageants.

GIVING

Statistics Canada reports that Canadians donated C$8.19-billion to charities in 2008, a 5.3 per cent drop from the previous year, as the recession led people to contribute a little less to good causes. It was the lowest annual donation figure since 2005's $7.9-billion. However, the number of people whose tax returns reported charitable giving went up by 7.4 per cent in 2008 to almost 5.8-million. Manitoba was the province with the highest rate of donors. The statistics do not take into account the millions of hours of volunteer work that Canadians give to charities.

REMITTANCES

Unemployment has hit migrant communities in the United States so hard that a startling new phenomenon has been detected: instead of receiving remittances from relatives in the richest country on earth, some down-and-out Mexican families are scraping together what they can to support their unemployed loved ones in the U.S. Statistics measuring what experts are calling reverse remittances are hard to come by but they appear to be on the rise. At one bank in Chiapas that used to see money flowing in from the U.S., more money is now going out than coming in.

SIZE

Russia, the world's largest country, has grown even bigger, thanks to an earthquake and volcanic eruption in its seismically active far eastern regions. 4.8-square kilometres was gained from a 2007 earthquake on Sakhalin Island and from lava flows last summer on Matua Island which gained another 1.5-square kilometres. Both are close to Japan.

CHEESE

Cheddar cheese eaten in Britain is now more likely to come from Latvia that from the area of Somerset from which it takes its name. British dairy farmers, who are quitting the industry at the rate of about 14 per week, argue that the country of origin on cheddar packaging would encourage consumers to buy British and would help to revive the sector. The UK imported 136,938 tonnes of cheddar last year, a record amount. The largest exporter is Ireland but cheese is also shipped from New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the U.S. as well as several European countries, including Latvia.

DEFORESTATION

The level of deforestation in the Amazon has dropped by 45 per cent and is the lowest on record since monitoring began 21 years ago. According to the latest figures from the Brazilian government, just over 7,000 sq km was destroyed between July 2008 and August 2009. The government wants to see an 80 per cent reduction in the deforestation rate by 2020 and is proposing that half of a 40 per cent cut in Brazil's carbon emissions would come from reducing deforestation.

B&W

Almost 30,000 people across the UK still tune into their favourite programmes on black and white TV sets. The figures were released by TV Licensing to mark the 40th anniversary of the first colour transmissions in the country. The 28,000 black and white license holders included 1,950 in Scotland. The figures show that the black and white sets have not yet been consigned to history despite the rise of flat screen colour TVs.

ENERGY

According to the International Energy Agency, energy demand in the OECD countries is expected to fall slightly by 2015. In 2007, these nations used around 5.5-billion tonnes of oil equivalent, compared with 6.2-billion tonnes in non-OECD countries. That gap is expected to widen because the annual rate of growth of non-members' energy use is predicted to be more than ten times that of member economies between 2007 and 2030. China's energy demand will overtake that of the U.S. by 2015. By 2030 China and India together are expected to account for almost a third of global energy use.

GOLD

Global gold production is in decline despite record prices and efforts by mining companies to find fresh sources of ore in remote spots. Global output has been falling by roughly 1-million ounces a year since the start of the decade. Exploration budgets have tripled in recent years with disappointing results so far. Ore grades have fallen from around 12 grams per tonne in 1950 to nearer 3 grams in the U.S., Canada and Australia. South Africa's output has halved since peaking in 1970.

GIFTS

Gift cards are profitable because retailers receive money up front for them and around 10 per cent are never redeemed. Also, when people do use them, they often spend more than the amount given, on products with high margins. But sales of gift cards in the U.S. were down by around 6 per cent last year, to about US$25-billion. Bargain hunters are flocking to websites to buy discounted second-hand gift cards for their own use. Some are discounted as high as 40 per cent. eBay is rumoured to sell around 100,000 gift cards every month.

LABELS

Consumers may no longer have to deal with those annoying little adhesive stickers tacked on to fruit and vegetables thanks to new laser etching technology. The technology uses a low-energy carbon dioxide laser beam to label or etch information directly onto a fruit's peel or skin. It has been approved for use in Canada and many other countries, including the EU, and is in the final stages of approval in the U.S. However, Florida researchers have questioned whether laser etching will cause fruit to deform or rot more quickly.

COKE

Coca-Cola has introduced a new bottle that is 30 per cent derived from plant-based waste material. The new bottle, marketed under the name PlantBottle will be sold throughout the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter games. PlantBottle packaging is made through a process that turns sugar cane and molasses, a by-product of sugar production, into a key component of PET plastic (Polyethylene terephtalate).

MISSING

A beverage company has asked a team to drill through Antarctica's ice for a lost cache of some vintage scotch whiskey that has been on the rocks for over a century. Two crates of McKinlay whiskey were shipped to the Antarctic by British polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton as part of his 1909 expedition.

SPEED

China has now become one of a handful of nations to own one of the top five supercomputers in the world. Its Tinhe-1 computer, housed in Tianjin, was ranked fifth on the bi-annual Top 500 supercomputer list. The machine packs more than 70,000 chips and can compute 563-trillion calculations per second (teraflops). It is used for petroleum exploration and engineering tasks such as simulating aircraft designs. However, the fastest machine is the U.S.-owned Jaguar supercomputer, which now boasts a speed of 1.759-petaflops. One petaflop is the equivalent of 1,000-trillion calculations per second.

GMO

Japan has found genetically modified flaxseed, which has not been approved by Japan, in imports from Canada. In Japan, the bulk of flaxseed is used to produce oil for industrial uses such as the production of paint, with the waste from that process used for animal feed and some food for human consumption. Japan imported 11,713 metric tons of flaxseed in 2008, all of which came from Canada. The same GMO material has also been found in the European Union from Canadian flaxseed shipments.

WINE

The 7-Eleven convenience store chain has announced that it is getting into the value wine business, releasing two low-priced proprietary wines in the U.S. and Japan. Sold under the Yosemite Road label, the California wines, a chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon, will retail for about US$3.99. Bargain wines have been booming in the U.S. as budgets have shrunk. Some brands such as Two Buck Chuck, named after the $1.99 price in California, have attracted near cult following.

FARMING

The Republic of Congo has signed an agreement to lease 200,000 hectares of land to South African farmers. Congo's agriculture minister said it will bring expertise to the country and reduce its dependence on imports. Under the terms of the agreement, South African farmers will lease the land in Congo for 30 years to produce food and fibre, mainly for the domestic market.

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

December 2009 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

December 2009 Edition

SAFETY

A recently released report states that an 80-year-old vehicular bridge that handles a fourth of U.S.-Canada trade, needs major repairs, including steps to shore up its main cables and deck. The Ambassador Bridge, running between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, is the busiest border crossing in North America, carrying 11 million trucks and cars annually. It is a critical link between major automakers and component suppliers in the U.S. and Canada.

PLOTS

In Japan there is a chronic shortage of burial plots which, in Tokyo, can now cost more than US$100,000. There is now a cheaper high-tech solution, multi story graveyards. From the outside they look like a block of apartments, a grey building five or six storeys high but with few windows which cost about a third of a normal graveyard. The vast majority of Japanese are cremated with the ashes placed in a ceramic urn which are then buried under a family tombstone. In a highrise graveyard, the urns are stored on shelves. Family members can retrieve them by swiping a card in a reader attached to a computer to activate a robotic arm which will pick up the urn and deliver it to a mourning room.

BRANDING

Kellogg's has developed a high-tech method to help stamp out imitation cereals by branding Corn Flakes with the company logo to guarantee the cereal's origin and protect against imitation products. If the system is successful, it could be used on other popular Kellogg brands including Frosties, Special K, Crunchy Nut and Bran Flakes. A staggering 128-billion bowls of Kellogg's Corn Flakes are eaten worldwide annually in countries as far a field as Guatemala, Japan and India. 2.8-million bowls are served in the U.K. each year.

PENSIONS

In a recent survey involving 11 countries conducted on behalf of the government of Victoria in Australia, Canada ranks fourth for its retirement-income system. The Netherlands was ranked No.1. The countries were ranked on their pension systems' adequacy, sustainability and integrity. Rounding out the top six countries, Australia was second, Sweden third, the U.K. fifth and the United States sixth. In the category of adequacy, the amount of income going to retirees, Canada was second after the Netherlands.

FAITH

A new survey by Pew Research estimates the total number of Muslims in the world to be 1.57-billion, or about 23 per cent of a global population of 6.8-billion. Almost two-thirds live in Asia, with Indonesia providing the biggest contingent (203 million) followed by Pakistan (174m) and India (160m).The highest Muslim population in Europe is Russia where 12.5-million adherents make up nearly 12 per cent of the total population.

PARTNERS

In 2007, Chinese-Russian trade reached US$48-billion, up from $5.7-billion in 1999, making China Russia's second biggest trading partner after the European Union. Current Russian-EU trade exceeds $250-billion, the lion's share being between Russia and Germany. Chinese-U.S. trade exceeds $400-billion. In 2006, two million Russian tourists visited China and a million Chinese visited Russia.

WHISKY

The American whisky market is seeing domestic sales flatten but overseas business is booming and driving overall growth. Jack Daniel's and Jim Beam have enjoyed six per cent growth in markets such as Western Europe and Australia for the past 10 years. Both compete head on with Scotch, Irish and Canadian whiskies. The U.S. whisky market was worth 28.3-million cases in 2008, more than twice the size of the French cognac market at 12.4-million but well below the scotch industry at around 100-million cases.

AIRSHIP

Engineers for Boeing Co. say they have advanced their design of a massive airship that could cut costs for energy companies in the Arctic. Though its 130-metre-long craft has yet to fly, Boeing estimates that an airship could float drilling rigs across Canada's remote Mackenzie Delta for a third of the cost of current methods, which involve trucks and ice roads. This could allow energy companies to drill three to six times more targets each year.

SAHARA

A dozen companies have agree to draw up blueprints for a project to harness power from the Sahara Desert sun to bring extra electricity to European homes. The plan, including technical and financial requirements to pipe power from the Sahara under the Mediterranean Sea to Europe will need three years to be developed. The project could supply 15 per cent of Europe's electrical needs by mid-century. It may create two million jobs.

SWEETENERS

The natural sweetener stevia looks set to become the next big thing according to research firm Mintel. Since December 2008, when the FDA approved the use of rebaudioside, an active ingredient in stevia, the stevia market has undergone tremendous growth. By mid-July 2009, sales topped US$95-million, in contrast to the $21-million for the whole of 2008.

CHRISTMAS

A British retailer is selling half Christmas trees this year. The artificial tree appears bushy and full from the front, but it is an illusion. It has been sliced down the middle so it has no back allowing owners to push the tree against a wall, saving valuable space.

URUGUAY

This South American country has become the first one to provide a laptop for every child attending a state primary school. This programme has cost the state US$260 per child, including maintenance cost, equipment repairs, training for teachers and internet connections. Over the past two years, 362,000 pupils and 18,000 teachers have been involved in the scheme. The total figure represents less than five per cent of the country's education budget.

GOLF

In 1998, golf replaced hockey as the most popular sport in Canada based on participation. In 2006, Canada's golf participation rate was 21.5 per cent, or 5.95-million, the highest in the world. The golf market is estimated to be worth C$13-billion, including fees, equipment, apparel and travel. There are 16,000 regular golfers in Russia playing on 3 18-hole golf courses although 40 new courses are under construction.

POWER

Researchers have discovered a magnetic equivalent to electricity: simple magnetic charges that can behave and interact like electrical ones. The work is the first to make use of the magnetic monopoles that exist in special crystals known as spin ice. Monopoles gather to form a magnetic current like electricity that could be used in magnetic storage or in computing. Magnetic monopoles were first predicted over a hundred years ago.

CRIME

An estimated 15 per cent of the world's economy is the proceeds of crime according to a recent Interpol conference. The FBI estimates that global organised crime generates profits of around US$1-trillion a year, equivalent to the entire gross domestic product of Australia. The scale and breadth of organised crime has shown a marked increase in the last two decades and due to globalisation and technological advances.

INDIA

McDonald's Corp is staking its future in India on burgers made from mashed potatoes, peas and spices. The company is expanding in India as a middle class is predicted to grow tenfold by 2025 and develop a taste for Western-style fast food. Sales were up 30 per cent in the first nine months of the year. There are 170 outlets in India but will add 120 more over the next three years. The chain, famous for its hamburgers, has to tailor its menus to local taste which means no beef because the majority of its 1.22-million people are Hindu and revere cows. It also does not serve pork in deference to Muslims.

TRADE

The European Union and South Korea have initialled a free-trade deal despite protests from EU car makers which fear Asian competition. The trade pact, which scraps nearly all import tariffs is potentially worth US$154-billion to both economies. The EU Association of Automakers says it gives South Korean car makers an unfair advantage because it allows them to reclaim tariffs on imported materials from cheap countries.

CONTAINERS

The new port facility in Montevideo which has now opened, will expand handling to over 1.1-million containers annually, making it the most advanced terminal in South America. The new facilities also include an additional 15.7-hectares of land for container storage reclaimed from the sea and a quay 350-metres long by 35-metres wide which can handle 14-metre draught vessels. A total of nine straddle cranes, four of which can operate with 11,000 TEU vessels (double the current capacity) have been incorporated.

MAURITIUS

This Indian Ocean island is hoping to boost its struggling real estate sector by allowing foreigners to buy rooms and suites in new hotel developments. Under the project buyers will get 45 days use a year of their room or suite plus a share of the income from tourist occupancy at other times. Tourism is the key driver of the nation's US$9-billion economy and a leading source of foreign exchange. Mauritius hopes to more than double the number of visitors on its beaches to two million a year by 2015.

TIMBITS

Building on its ambitious expansion in the U.S., the Canadian coffee giant Tim Hortons has opened a restaurant in Fort Knox, home to 147.3-million ounces of gold and where once was stored The Magna Carta, The United States Constitution and three volumes of the Gutenberg Bible. The Fort Knox coffee shop is the first for Tim Hortons on a U.S. military base which now has 500 stores in the United States.

MAGAZINES

So far this year, 383 magazine titles have disappeared in North America, or will soon. Another 64 magazines have gone from print to online only publications this year. These total put 2009 on track to challenge 2008 when 613 titles folded. The industry's true catastrophe was 2007 when 643 magazines closed down.

STUDENTS

In 2008, there were 42,000 students from mainland China studying in Canada. It costs up to C$18,000 in tuition fees for an international student in Canada for a bachelor's programme. However, there are 130,000 Chinese students studying in Australia, a country with 10-million fewer people than Canada.

SURGERY

A race is on in the U.S. to develop the potentially big thing in heart surgery: a replacement valve that can be implanted through thin tubes known as catheters rather than by traditional open-heart surgery. Analysts estimate a market for the product that could exceed US$1.5-billion within six years. The devices are currently being tested in older, critically ill patients in clinical trials. Many medical experts believe the process could revolutionize valve replacement operations.

FRUIT

Chile's fresh fruit exports for the 2008/2009 season totalled US$3.14-billion or $188-million less than the previous season. Chile needs to become less dependent on the U.S. and EU and develop markets in Asia and the Middle East.

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

NEXUS and FAST membership cards now accepted as proof of identity

NEXUS and FAST membership cards now accepted as proof of identity

NEXUS and FAST membership cards will now be accepted as proof of identity and as documents that denote citizenship when entering Canada at all land and marine ports of entry. This means that citizens of Canada and the United States who are NEXUS or FAST members, and are carrying with them valid membership cards, are no longer required to carry other supplementary documents such as passports or birth certificates with them when entering Canada by boat or by land, when using non-NEXUS or non-FAST lanes.

NEXUS and FAST members who are permanent residents of Canada or the United States are still required to travel with a passport and proof of permanent residence, and may be requested to present these documents to a border services officer upon arrival at the border.

It should be noted that program members who choose to use their card in non-NEXUS or non-FAST lanes will be processed as regular travellers and will not receive the benefit of expedited entry.

Please note that the new policy concerning the use of the NEXUS card as proof of identity and documents that denote citizenship does not pertain to the air mode of transportation. Members of the NEXUS program will still be required to carry the appropriate documentation when travelling by air.

http://cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/prog/nexus/proofid-preuveid-eng.html

November 2009 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

November 2009 Edition

BUDGETS

 
A majority of American employees are finding themselves hard-pressed to live up to their household budgets. A survey of more than 4,4000 full-time U.S. staffers found that 61 per cent of respondents reported that they always or usually live paycheck to paycheck. This is an increase from 47 per cent in 2008. One in five workers (21 per cent) polled said they are taking money from their long-term savings to satisfy financial burdens and have decreased their personal savings.

TARIFFS

The Canadian government plans to permanently eliminate all remaining tariffs on imports of machinery and equipment used by manufacturers, offering some relief to businesses pained by a sharp rise in the currency. It is claimed that these new measures could generate C$250-million to $300-million in savings. Exporters have been particularly hurt by the Canadian dollar's rise of more than 20 per cent against the U.S. dollar.

ADVERTISING

For the past few years, New York and London have been engaged in a transatlantic catfight over which is the superior city. Now the two are banding together to boost tourism to each other. Each will hand over about US$380,000 worth of their advertising space to their rival which works out to about 71 New York bus shelters and 250 posters for the London Underground.

AUDIO

A device that allows blind people to attach and read audio labels on everyday objects has been developed. The PenFriend uses minute barcodes which, when scanned by a digital pen, trigger MP3 files recorded on the unit. It costs about C$120 and can be used to label foods and medication as well as clothing, personal documentation and music collections. It uses optical identification technology (OID) to print microdots on to adhesive labels which are then read by the scanner in the tip of the PenFriend which can hold up to 70 hours of audio recordings.

FREIGHT

France is to invest C$12.3-billion to develop freight transport by rail and reduce road traffic. At a crossroads between northern and southern Europe, France plans to nearly double freight transport by 2022, in particular through a system of "rail highways" for truck carrying trains.

INVESTMENT

The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada (APFC) suggests that Canada should be ready for a growing influx of Chinese investment over the next few years. A survey of 1,100 Chinese companies found that Canada is near the top, just after the U.S., of the list of overseas investment targets for Chinese companies. The third target country is Australia. China is most interested in Canada's energy and natural resources, agrifood and biotech sectors.

DRIVING

Canadians drove less in the first quarter of this year. Compared to the same quarter last year, there were fewer vehicles on the road at the start of 2009 and they were not driven as far, meaning the average for vehicle driving was down 4 per cent. Canadians were also driving more small cars and fewer gas guzzlers like SUVs. This follows two quarters in a row when driving had increased.

DIAMONDS

After virtually abandoning diamonds last year amid the global economic crisis, consumers are once again buying the shiny stones, albeit cautiously. Industry executives say diamond buyers are sticking to modest stones measuring between 3/4 carats and three carats in size, the type most commonly used for engagement rings. There has also been stronger than expected sales to China, India and Japan.

CAMELS

Some experts feel that the camel is an incredible resource for the planet and are ideally placed to become the "new livestock animal" as countries such as Australia become hotter and drier with global warming. Drought-adapted camels are highly resistant to disease and produce lean meat and milk loaded with vitamins, minerals and disease-fighting compounds. Meanwhile, camel racing in the United Arab Emirates and Quatar alone is now worth US$1-billion a year.

BANKS

Canada retained its position as home to the world's soundest banks according to the World Economic Forum which supports the country's efforts to trumpet its industry as a model for the world's largest economies. Canada was No. 1 for the second consecutive year, followed by New Zealand and Australia. The U.S. was 108th out of 133 countries, one below Tanzania. None of Canada's banks have sought government funding since the credit problems of last year.

SOLAR

A U.S. company has received approval from the Chinese government to build what may become the largest solar field in the world. First Solar, which makes more solar cells than any other company, has struck a 10-year deal to build in China's vast desert north of the Great Wall. The project will eventually cover 65 square kilometres of Inner Mongolia, slightly larger than the size of Manhattan, with a sea of black, light-absorbing glass. The solar field will dwarf anything in operation in the U.S. or Europe. The plant will pump enough energy into China's grid to light up three million homes.

COUPONS

The Neilson Company reports that coupon enthusiasts in the U.S. are the driving force behind exploding redemption rates. Eighty-one percent of units purchased using manufacturers coupons came from just 19 per cent of U.S. households during the first half of this year. The most avid users, called "coupon enthusiasts" are households that purchased 104 or more items using coupons.The 10 per cent of shoppers that fall into this category account for 62 per cent of manufacturers' coupon units. They also accounted for 16 per cent of total unit sales, making them an attractive and important consumer target.

SCRAP

Maritime experts report that the number of container vessels sold for demolition so far this year has reached record highs. A total of 148 ships have been scrapped this year which exceeds 275,000 twenty-equivalent units (TEU), with increasing numbers of larger ships among them. The number of idle ships continues to climb which has now reached over 10 per cent of the global fleet.

VACANCIES

Hotels in most big cities around the world are emptier than they were last year. London has weathered the global downturn better than most cities. Almost 79 per cent of its hotel rooms were taken by paying customers in the seven months to July, the highest occupancy rate of the 87 cities in a survey. Fewer business visitors and the trend for taking holidays closer to home have hurt the hotel trade in the capitals of Argentina, Mexico and Spain. In Mexico City more then half the hotel rooms are empty.

THEFT

Retailers in the U.S. lost US$6-billion to theft by shoplifters and dishonest employees in 2008. Apprehension of thieves rose 7.26 per cent last year while recoveries were up 21.64 per cent versus last year. This is the third consecutive year to see a rise in both these factors. The data for this survey came from 22 major department stores, mass merchants and big-box retailers, representing 19,151 store locations and nearly $572-billion in annual retail sales for 2008.

POLLUTION

Western governments pushing China to use clean-coal technology may need to lower their expectations for the world's largest producer of greenhouse gases. It will cost as much as US$400-billion over 30 years to install systems to capture carbon dioxide from power plant smokestacks in China and bury it underground. China has little incentive to invest because the technology will raise power prices and it's unclear if wealthier nations will pick up the bill.

GARMENTS

Bangladeshi entrepreneurs say the garment sector, a mainstay of the country's exports, is feeling the pinch of the global economic crisis with about 30 factories shutting in the past three months. Prices for Bangladeshi garments have fallen nearly 25 per cent in the global market. Bangladesh annually earns US$12-billion, or almost 75 per cent of the country's export earnings from garment making.

BIKES

Harley-Davidson Inc. is to start selling motorcycles in India next year, the world's second-largest motorcycle market, hoping that the iconic heavyweight bikes will find a niche among the country's rising middle class. In 2008, motorcycle shipments within the United States fell 15 per cent to 206,000 units, while international shipments climbed 9 per cent to 97,000. Harley shipped 32 per cent of its motorcycles overseas in 2008, up from 27 per cent in 2007.

TRENDS

The Swiss postal service is offering a new service to customers wanting to receive their physical letters over the Internet. For C$25.00 a month, letters are redirected to a secret location in Zurich where the envelopes are scanned and an image e-mailed out to customers. They can then decide whether the letter should be opened and scanned for the client by personnel sworn to secrecy or simply shredded.

GREEN

A washing machine using thousands of nylon beads and just a cup of water has been developed to provide a greener way to do laundry. The system, developed by Xeros, a spin-off from the University of Leeds, uses thousands of tiny nylon beads each measuring a few millimetres across. They are placed inside the smaller of two concentric drums along with dirty laundry, a cup of water and a squirt of detergent. As the drums rotate, the water wets the clothes and the detergent loosens the dirt. Then the nylon beads mop it up.

TRADE

In 2001, there were just 49 bilateral and regional free-trade agreements (FTAs) in place. After a deal signed in August between India and South Korea, there are now a total of 167 FTAs. South Korean firms are keen to make more use of India as a manufacturing base from which to export to the rest of the world. In return, Indian programmers will more easily be able to set up shop in South Korea.

EATING

A U.S.survey of nearly 2,200 shoppers has found that 68 per cent of adults have changed their cooking and eating behaviours due to the economy. Over half of the respondents eat at home more often, while 37 per cent are more careful about budgeting their food shopping trips. 45 per cent say they are now more likely to buy private labels and half of the consumers are more likely to comparison shop.

VANILLA

Some vanilla growers In Madagascar, the world's biggest producer of the flavourant, are demanding a minimum price for their crop that would see a return to a marketing system abandoned two decades ago. The producers want a floor price to be set around US$27.00 a kilogram. This could force up the price of exports to the U.S. by as much as a quarter. Vanilla comes from the only edible fruit produced by the orchid family of plants and accounts for a quarter of Madagascar's export income.

CONGESTION

There has been traffic chaos recently in two Paris suburbs after their feuding mayors declared the same street one-way, but in opposite directions.

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

2009-2010 CBSA National Verification Priorities

This is the list of products that customs is focusing on for audits this year 2009-2010

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0BwEN0WTvY7xgZTE2ZDE0NjAtNzYyYS00MTJlLWE1ZGQtZDA5MjcxNDc0ZDI1&hl=en

For 2009-2010,
14 national priorities for verification so far:

Valuation verification
1. Plastic household goods

Tariff Classification verification
2.Magnesium sulphates
3.Cotton yarn
4.Copper and articles thereof
5.Stone vs. articles of stone
6.Reclaimed rubber
7.Furniture parts
8.Gloves
9.Soap

Origin verification
10. Vegetable fats and oils
11. Articles of bedding and similar furnishings
12. Perfume and toilet water industry
13. Mattress upholstery
14. Electric generators

October 2009 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

October 2009 Edition

 LAND

Canadian farmland is still cheap by global standards but unlikely to stay that way for long. Large global funds are increasingly drawn to Canada and Australia as they seek agricultural investments. An hectare of arable land on the Canadian Prairies is worth about US$1,725. Comparable land in the UK goes for $17,100 and for $3,450 in Australia. In Ireland it would be worth $58,500, in France it would be $12,500 and in New Zealand $9,643. A hectare in Ohio is worth $11,000. While land can be purchased for less in developing countries, there are often complications that make ownership difficult.

WATER

Scientists have warned Asian countries that they face chronic food shortages and likely social unrest if they do not improve water management. They must spend billions of dollars to improve antiquated crop irrigation to cope with rapid population increases. Asia's population is forecast to increase by 1.5-billion people over the next 40 years with Asia's food and feed demand expected to double by 2050. The best bet for Asia lies in revitalizing its vast irrigation system, which accounts for 70 per cent of the world's total irrigated land.

COMFORT

A survey of 3,700 people about their comfort food preferences confirms that consumers are passionate about their comfort foods, many of which stem from childhood favourites. The overall food category preferred by all ages was candy but individual responses revealed a more generational and diverse portrait of comfort food preferences. For younger people, these now include: chicken soup, Vietnamese beef noodle soup, sushi, and Indian and Thai curries.

GAS

China's gas consumption is set to nearly triple over the next ten years, potentially rising to around 18-billion cubic feet per day by 2020 and making the country the world's No. 3 gas market after Russia and the United States. Australia and China recently signed the biggest trade deal ever worth US$41-billion under which China will purchase 2.25-million tonnes per annum of gas from a field off the coast of Western Australia, that contains resources of about 40-trillion cubic feet of gas. This deal will boost the government's gross domestic product by US$53-billion and add around 6,000 jobs.

SAVINGS

According to the National Funeral Directors Association in the U.S., Americans have cut their spending on funerals considerably compared to the previous year. The majority of undertakers surveyed said increasing numbers of people are choosing a cheaper coffin, or opting for cremation instead of a traditional burial. People have also been cutting back on the hiring of chapels, the amount of flowers and the use of limousines. There is also a new trend of some people buying coffins from the discount chain Costco.

VACANCIES

The global recession has led to an increase in empty office space in most big cities across the world. Beijing's office glut was already the worst of any large city but has since worsened and the vacancy rate is now 23 per cent. Vacant office space in Moscow has doubled in the past year. Occupancy has fallen even in crowded Tokyo but its vacancy rate of 5 per cent is still the lowest of any big city. Mumbai's vacancy rate has more than quadrupled from 2.9 per cent to 12.7 per cent.

COLLATERAL

One regional bank in Italy stores more than 15,000 tonnes of parmesan cheese which it keeps as collateral for loans. The bank holds about 440,000 wheels of parmesan worth US$204-million in two climate controlled warehouses. Each wheel holds the equivalent of 550 litres of milk, worth about 300 Euros. Each one is branded with a serial number so it can be traced if stolen. Thieves tunnelled under one warehouse earlier this year and made off with 570 wheels. Cheese producers use the loans to buy milk. There are 429 parmesan producers in Italy and the industry is worth $2.4-billion.

SUGAR

The price of raw sugar has increased to the highest level since 1981 as supply concerns grow. This is due to growing demand in Brazil for sugar to be turned into ethanol, coupled with a sharp fall in Indian production which dropped by 45 per cent last year because India had less rain in the monsoon season and it was also uneven, damaging a number of agricultural crops.

RENTAL

For the first time, U.S. auto rental companies are buying more foreign vehicles than domestic brands. Through the first six months of this year, only 48.8 per cent of the new vehicles going into rental fleets came from General Motors, Ford or Chrysler. Just three years ago, more than 8 in 10 vehicles sold to rental fleets came from the Big Three. Now, the lots are being filled with models from Hyundai, Kia, Toyota and Nissan. The Nissan Altima has edged out the Chevrolet Impala as the top-selling car in the rental market.

SUBSIDIES

The OECD estimates that its member countries spent US$265-billion on farm subsidies in 2008, more than a fifth of their farmers' total earnings. Handouts made up more than three-fifths of farmers' gross income in Norway and South Korea. In contrast, subsidies were less than one per cent of farm incomes in New Zealand and under ten per cent in both Australia and the U.S. The European Union was by far the biggest subsidiser, forking out $150.4-billion.

STOCKMARKETS

Just over 49,000 domestic companies were listed on the world's stockmarkets in 2008. Of these, 54 per cent were listed in rich countries. The number of companies in China and Taiwan more than doubled to 2,860 in the ten years to 2008. Corporate listings bear little relation to economic size. In 2008, India had 4,921 listed companies, second only to the United States. Swiss markets listed only 253 firms but their total value was more than that of India. Hong Kong had the most listed companies per head.

EXPORTS

Germany is set to lose its unofficial title of world's top exporter this year to China as the recession hits demand for its cars, machinery and chemicals. German exports are projected to slump by 17 per cent this year to US$1.16-trillion before recovering to register growth of four per cent in 2010.

TRAFFIC

In 2007, for the first time in 16 years, congestion in America's 439 recognized urban areas actually declined. Even though congestion dropped, it still forced urban Americans to travel for 4.2-billion extra hours and buy an extra 2.8-billion gallons of fuel. The cost of all these delays as estimated by the Texas Transportation Institute was US$87.2-billion, an increase of more than 50 per cent over 1997. The problem affects metropolitan areas of all sizes, but big ones--the country's economic engines--are in the worst shape.

VACATIONS

Europe's tourism industry is hurting. In the first five months of this year, the number of overnight stays by foreign visitors in French hotels fell by 15 per cent. The figure for Spain was 11.4 and in Italy, overnight stays were down 11 per cent, Many jobs are at risk. In 2007, France boasted nearly 200,000 hotels, pensions, campsites, restaurants, cafes and travel agencies which employed almost 900,000 people and took in some US$96-billion. Spain had about 293,000 firms with 1.4-million employees. Rome's hoteliers' association expects to shed 10,000 jobs this year.

CHANGE

As consumers abandon the dining table and eat meals on their laps in front of the television, knives could soon go the way of the napkin ring. According to one British retailer, sales of knives are on the decline. Four years ago it sold equal numbers of knives and forks but recently it has sold two forks for every knife. Experts fear that the trend could result in knives becoming an implement used only on special occasions.

COMMERCIALISM

Up to now, Vatican Radio has been wholly funded by the Roman Catholic Church at a cost of about US$30-million a year but the Holy See's finances are suffering. Now it is to start airing commercials for the first time in its 80-year history. The first company to run its commercials will be an Italian gas and electricity company.

AGE

Britain's oldest working television has been tracked down in a house in London. The 1936 Marconiphone has a 12 inch (30 cm) screen and is mounted in a wooden cabinet. The image from the cathode ray tube, mounted vertically inside the cabinet, is reflected onto a mirror. The few controls include volume and vertical hold but there is no channel changer as there was only one channel when it was made.

INSURANCE

The world's biggest insurance markets collected US$4.3-trillion in premiums in 2008. After adjusting for inflation, total premiums in life and non-life insurance markets fell by two per cent last year, the largest decline since 1980. Life insurance still provides about 60 per cent of total premiums. Britons bought the most insurance per person in 2008.

FAKE

Seizure of counterfeit goods being smuggled into the European Union more than doubled last year. Customs authorities seized 178-million fake items in 2008, up 125 per cent from 79-million in 2007. Pirate DVD and CDs were the most prevalent fake goods with 79-million disks detained. These were followed by cigarettes and clothing. Seizures of counterfeit medicines rose 118 per cent.

TRENDS

British supermarkets are offering pre-cooked eggs to shoppers who lack the skills to boil their own. The free-range eggs come cooked `to perfection,' shelled and packaged. One TV chef helpfully included tips on boiling an egg in one of her best selling recipe books after learning that many people lacked the knowledge. The eggs are available in packs of two or four. A four pack costs US$2.80.

CHOCOLATE

Dubai's Al Nassma, the world's first brand of chocolate made with camels' milk, plans to expand into new Arab markets, Europe, Japan and the U.S. The company aims to produce 100 tonnes of premium camels' milk chocolate a year. With 3,000 camels on its Dubai farm, the company sells chocolates through its farm-attached store as well as in luxury hotels and private airlines. The chocolates are produced without preservatives or chemical additives. Camel milk contains five times more vitamin C than cow milk, less fat, less lactose and more insulin, making it a good option for diabetics.

GIVING

The global recession has failed to dampen philanthropic spirit with many rich people increasing their charitable giving. Among 500 British and American individuals surveyed with at least US$1-million of investable assets, only education was considered a more important expense than charitable commitments. 31 per cent of entrepreneurs surveyed say they have increased their giving compared to 17 per cent who have reduced it.

SERVICE

PetSmart Inc., the largest U.S. pet-store chain with 1,137 stores, is considering expansion into in-home services including dog walking, backyard clean-up and aquarium set-up to distinguish itself from retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Wal-Mart is targeting the US$45.4-billion market for pet goods putting pressure on PetSmart as shoppers consolidate buying trips.

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