May 2015 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

May 2015 Edition

MUSTARD

Canada is a world leader in the production and export of mustard and Saskatchewan is responsible for 75 per cent of the country’s production. M More than a quarter of world mustard exports in 2014 originated in Saskatchewan. It is claimed that if Canadian farmers stopped using pesticides and GMOs, Canada would need another Saskatchewan, 37-million more acres, to grow the same amount of food that we do today.

DISASTERS

Some 12,700 people died as the result of natural or man-made disasters last year. Payouts from insurance companies fell by a fifth to US$35-billion but the number of natural disasters rose as thunderstorms caused damage in the US and Europe. Insured losses from storms have grown by an average of nine percent a year since 1990. The year’s biggest humanitarian disaster was caused by an earthquake in the Chinese province of Yunnan in which 731 people perished.

TRAFFIC

Traffic congestion in most major Canadian cities is getting worse according to a large GPS maker. Tom Tom’s fifth annual traffic index suggests that the average computer lost 84 hours in 2014 while delayed in traffic in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. Vancouver’s traffic is the worst in Canada with an overall congestion factor of 35 per cent which means an average trip would take more than a third longer than if that driver was unencumbered by traffic. During the evening rush-hour Vancouver commutes are 66 per cent longer. The main factor in Vancouver’s score is the “automatic bottlenecks” at the mouths of bridges leading to the downtown core. Istanbul topped the global ranking of 218 cities with 58 per cent overall congestion.

LUXURY

During the lunar New Year Chinese tourists thronged to Japan in record numbers. Many came home lugging a high-end Japanese luxury, a heated toilet seat complete with pulsating water jets, deodorisers and even music. Most popular was a new variety with hands-free lid opening. Chinese visitors bought more high-tech toilet seats costing around US$540 than almost any other Japanese product and some bought several including portable, battery operated ones.

SPEED

Ford is to sell a car in Europe that can read road signs and adjust its speed to ensure the vehicle is not driving too fast. The speed-limiting technology can be activated via the steering wheel and be briefly overridden by pressing firmly on the accelerator. The adjustable speed limiters use sensors mounted in a car’s wheels to detect how fast it is going. Once software detects the vehicle is at a maximum preset speed, it limits the amount of fuel that reached the engine, rather than applying the brakes. Drivers will be able to set the new system to let them speed at up to 5mph (8km/h) beyond the detected limit.

VEHICLES

The collapse in the price of oil is now impacting vehicle sales. Sales of pickups and commercial vans rose by double digits in the first two months of the year in Canada, while deliveries of more fuel-efficient entry level cars, trucks and crossovers dipped by 9 per cent. Sales of large vans soared 35 per cent and pickup trucks by nine per cent. Honda Civic has been knocked out of first place so far this year trailing the Hyundai Elantra and the Toyota Corolla.

SKYSCRAPERS

The world is in the middle of a skyscraper boom. Last year, nearly 100 buildings over 200 metres tall were built, more than ever before. This year China’s business capital will welcome the Shanghai Tower which will be the world’s second-tallest building. Saudi Arabia is building Kingdom Tower, which will be the world’s tallest (and twice the height of One World Trade Centre in New York, the tallest in the Americas).

RESOURCES

The value of Canada’s natural resource assets stood at C$744-billion in 2013, down 13 per cent from 2012.Energy resources accounted for 66 per cent of the value of all natural resource assets, followed by minerals (19%) and timber (15%), Energy resource assets consist of coal, crude bitumen, crude oil and natural gas and were valued at $494-billion. Reserves are defined by the amount of proven and probable stocks that are economical to extract using available technology.

DRONES

American farmers want the Federal Aviation Administration to relax proposed regulations on commercial drone so that the unmanned aircraft can be used over longer distances at any time of day or night. They also want to make sure farmers can register drones and qualify to fly them easily, quickly and safely. Agriculture is seen as a major beneficiary of commercial drones, which could help farmers to tend to crops more effectively as well as a range of other applications.

WINE

In South Africa, as in many other wine-producing countries, China represents the future. Squeezed by low margins and tough competition in Europe and North America, wineries are turning to a fledgling market that could expand swiftly as Chinese wealth increases and its consumer class grows. The strategy seems to be paying off as South Africa’s wine sales to China soared by 63 per cent last year. Last year, after several years of spectacular growth, China became the world’s biggest market for red wine, bolstered by the fact that red is the unofficial national colour and considered a symbol of wealth and good fortune. South Africa’s wine industry directly and indirectly employs about 290,000 people and contributes 1.2 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.

SHOPPING

Canadians are proving to be slow to switch to online purchase-and-delivery retailing. New research indicates that online sales are expected to account for just 4.8 per cent of all retail sales in Canada in 2015. That is a paltry number compared to similar projections of 12.7 per cent in the US and 8.4 per cent across Europe. The highest rate of per-capita online spending in Canada is found in the Yukon.

AIRPORTS

The Hong Kong government has given approval for a third runway at the Asian financial centres airport, aiming to meet surging growth in passengers and air cargo. The project will begin next year and cost US$18.2-billion. About 1,600 acres of land will need to be reclaimed from the sea for the runway and a new passenger building. It is expected to be completed by 2023. Last year, the airport handled 63.4-million passengers and 4.4-million tons of cargo. It is predicted that a new runway will allow it to handle 102-million passengers and 8.9-million tons of freight a year by 2030.

RAIL

The growth in oil-train shipments fuelled by the US energy boom has stalled in recent months, dampened by safety problems and low crude prices. About 1.38-million barrels a day of oil and fuels such as gasoline rode the rails in March versus an average of 1.5-million barrels a day in the same period a year earlier. Railroads have been a major beneficiary of the US energy boom as oil companies turned to trains to move crude to refineries from remote oil fields in North Dakota and other areas not served by pipe lines. Rail shipments of oil have expanded from 20-million barrels in 2010 to just under 374-million barrels last year.

PLASTIC

Large quantities of plastic debris are building up in the Mediterranean Sea. A survey found around one thousand tonnes of plastic floating on the surface, mainly bottles, bags and wrappings. The Mediterranean Sea’s biological richness and economic importance means plastic pollution is particularly hazardous. Plastic has also been found in the stomachs of fish, birds, turtles, whales, and very tiny pieces of plastic have also been found in oysters and mussels. Scientists are saying that marine plastic pollution has spread to become a problem of planetary scale after only half a century of widespread use. Though the Mediterranean represents less than one per cent of the global ocean area, it contains between 4% and 18% of all marine species.

QUOTAS

European Union milk quotas have been scrapped after more than three decades of efforts to prevent overproduction. The system, set up in 1984, is ending so EU dairy businesses can compete with international rivals in supplying fast-growing markets in Asia and Africa .The Irish Republic, the Netherlands and Germany are all expected to increase production sharply. UK farmers are worried that it may lead to further falls in the price they receive for their milk. Belgian and other EU dairy farmers have staged protests fearing the lifting of quotas will drive small farms out of business. They argue that the lifting of quotas helps only big food companies and the largest milk producers whose efficiency allows them to operate with slim margins.

DIET

Between 2000 and 2003, the number of US children eating fast food on any given day went down, and the calories from some types of fast foods have declined as well. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, in 2003, almost 39 per cent of US children ate fast food on any given day. That dropped to less than 33 per cent by the 2009-2010 survey. Calorie intake from burger, pizza and chicken fast food restaurants also went down Calories from Mexican foods and sandwiches did not change though they were minor contributors to total fast food consumption.

LUGGAGE

New rankings reveal there is an airport that has not lost a passenger’s bags since it opened in 1994. Kansai International Airport in Japan has been voted the best in the world for reuniting passengers with their luggage with a remarkable zero items of baggage going missing. The study covered 550 airports in 112 nations around the world using reviews from 13-million users to decide rankings in 20 categories. Asian airports took the top six spots for baggage handling, with Copenhagen in seventh followed by Munich and Zurich.

SERVICE

British hotels are struggling to shed their reputation for poor service according to a new survey. An analysis of more than six million reviews left on the website Hotel.info found that UK hotels achieved an average score of 7.92 for service, lower than any other European country except Russia. Budapest was the best capital city for service and the top nation for courteous hotel employees was Finland with Germany, Austria Hungary and Slovakia completing the top five.

WATER

The governor of California has implemented the first mandatory water restrictions in the state’s history. The order mandates a 25 per cent reduction in water usage for cities and towns across the parched state. Vast areas of government-owned lawns will be replaced by drought-tolerant landscaping and towns will be banned from watering ornamental grass. The new order will require university campuses, cemeteries, golf courses and other large landowners to make major cuts in their water usage. Snow in the mountains is at its lowest level since records began so water supplies from melting snow will be lower than usual in the coming months.

BULBS

A light bulb made with graphene, said by its UK developer to be the first commercially viable consumer product using the super-strong carbon, is to go on sale later this year. The dimmable bulb contains a filament-shaped LED coated in graphene. It is said to cut use by 10 per cent and last longer due to its conductivity. The light bulb was developed by a Canadian-financed company. The discovery of graphene by two Russian-born scientists in the UK earned the pair the Nobel Prize for Physics. A micro-thin layer of grapheme is stronger than steel and dubbed a “wonder material” because of its potential uses.

STORES

The Benetton family has sold its controlling stake in World Duty Free to Switzerland’s Dufry. The deal creates the world’s largest travel retailer with a market share of 25 per cent and projected annual sales of US9-billion. World Duty Free operates 495 stores in 98 airports. Based in Basel Dufry has 1,650 stores in more than 60 countries with around 20,000 employees. Retail spending at airports is expected to rise in the years ahead, particularly in Asia where more than 350 new airports are set to be built.

SCRAP

A former builder in the UK who bought a 12 tonne hoard of brass doorknobs for scrap has discovered that they have been valued at nearly US$3-million He bought the 12 tonne load of fittings, including light switches, hat stands and letter boxes for around $30.000 believing that they were worth around three times that for scrap.

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 2015 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

April 2015 Edition

SAND

For Singapore, territorial expansion is an essential part of economic development. Since independence in 1965 the country has expanded by 22 per cent, from 58,000 hectares to 71,000 hectares and the government expects to need another 5,600 hectares by 2030. Singapore’s need for sand is acute as it builds not just upwards but outwards adding territory by filling in the sea. Singapore is stockpiling vast amounts of sand to safeguard supplies as it long ago ran out of its own and has now become the largest importer of sand worldwide.

POWER

Plans have been unveiled in the UK to generate electricity from the world’s first series of tidal lagoons. The six lagoons, four in Wales and one each in Somerset and Cumbria, will capture incoming and outgoing tides behind giant sea walls and use the weight of the water to power turbines. Each will require massive engineering, in Swansea, the sea wall required to contain the new lagoon will stretch more than five miles and reach more than two miles out to sea. The Cardiff lagoon will include up to 90 turbines set in a 14-mile breakwater. The project is expected to be generating power by 2022.

COWS

Scientists in China have produced a herd of genetically engineered cows that are better able to ward off bovine TB infection. The long-term goal of the research is to avoid the need to cull livestock by breeding disease resistant cattle. Bovine TB is a risk in many areas, including New Zealand, England and Wales and parts of Africa and Asia. In 2013, over 26,000 cattle were slaughtered in the UK at a cost to taxpayers of US$200-million.

PAYPHONES

In a recent report, the CRTC stated that 32 per cent of Canadians had used a payphone at least once in the past year, despite the declining number of phones available and the ubiquitous adoption of mobile phones. However, payphone call volumes are falling by 24 per cent a year and phone companies are taking payphone out at an annual rate that will rise to 15 per cent a year by 2016. Next year there will be about 55,000 pay phones across Canada, about one third of the number in place in 2013. 636 pay phones had no usage at all over a 13-month period.

BANKING

An Alberta online bank is believed to be the first Canadian financial institution to deny online Internet service to Americans even to those living in Canada. The bank said the reason is partly based on the legal requirements of a US law that has forced financial institutions around the world to track accounts held by Americans for US tax authorities. A number of financial institutions in Europe and elsewhere are already balking at doing business with Americans. The regulations have caused extreme stress for hundreds of thousands of Americans and duel US-Canadian citizens, many of whom have never filed US taxes.

OYSTERS

Oysters need a balance of fresh and salt water to thrive. River flows regulate salinity and provide food and discourage predators. Since 1990, Georgia, Alabama and Florida have battled over water from two river basins and to complicate matters, the federal Army Corps of Engineers runs dams and reservoirs on the rivers. The Apalachicola River has long supplied almost half the fresh water to Florida’s west coast. Now, with dropping supplies of water, oyster production has suffered. One town that took three million pounds of oyster meat ashore in 2012, 89 per cent of Florida’s total haul and 9 per cent of the national harvest, saw the figure drop to one million pounds a year later and even less in 2014.

DEFENSE

Global defence spending increased by 1.7 per cent in 2014, after three years of decreases. More than half of this growth came from three countries: Saudi Arabia, China and Russia. Saudi Arabia’s spending was the most striking at more than 21 per cent. Spending in North America and Europe declined. While America remains the biggest military power, its share of the global expenditure total has dropped from 47 per cent in 2010 to 38 per cent in 2014.

FLOWERS

Dounan in China has become the country’s largest flower market with 1-million stems sold each day to destinations in China and beyond. In 1994 it had a mere 133 hectares devoted to flowers, by 2013 it had 67,400 hectares accounting for about a third of China’s blossom exports, helped by international air links. China now accounts for more than a quarter of land worldwide devoted to growing flowers and pot plants though its exports amount to only about four per cent of the world’s total flower trade by value. Over two-thirds of the blooms it sends abroad are sold in Asia. Myanmar is the biggest buyer. Freight costs are a barrier to the more lucrative markets of Europe and the US.

DONATIONS

The amount of charitable donations reported by Canadian tax filers in 2013 increased over the previous year while the actual number of donors fell one per cent. Total donations rose 3.5 per cent to C$8.6-billion. In 2013 21.9 per cent of all tax filers claimed charitable donations.

VALUE

Armed with a currency that buys 12 per cent more Canadian dollars than a few months ago, Chinese travellers and businessmen are clamouring for visas to cross the Pacific. In January, Chinese applications for visas to Canada climbed 53 per cent over the previous January to roughly 15,000 in a month that is typically the slowest. The Canadian embassy has asked Ottawa to send over enough temporary workers to boost its visa processing ranks by nearly 50 per cent.

PORTS

There are 29 shipping terminals on the west coast of the United States. The annual value of the cargo through these ports is US$2.1-trillion. 9.2-million jobs are supported by these ports and there are 128,800 port-specific jobs with the average annual pay of a longshoreman around $142,000.

MILK

Coca-Cola is coming out with premium milk that has more protein and less sugar than regular and it is hoping that consumers will pay twice as much for it. This is one way the world’s biggest beverage maker is diversifying its offerings as Americans continue turning away from soft drinks. Filters are used to separate the various components in milk. Then, more of the flavourable ones are added, while the less desirable ones are kept out. The result is a drink marketed as Fairlife that is lactose free, has 50 per cent more protein, 30 per cent more calcium and 50 per cent less sugar.

INCOME

Being a doctor in the US is lucrative but not evenly so. Rural medics make more because fewer doctors want to live in rural areas. Pay is lower in fashionable neighbourhoods: a doctor of general medicine in New York typically earns 64 per cent less than his peer in Alabama. The lowest pay is in Massachusetts which has four medical schools and a surplus of doctors.

GOLD

Global demand for gold is putting some of the most remote and pristine tropical forests at risk. Some 1,680 square kilometres of rain forest in South America was lost to gold mining from 2001 to 2013 and has become a major threat in countries such as Peru and Suriname. Satellite images show that forest clearance for gold mining accelerated after the international financial crisis of 2007 when it became profitable to mine in areas such as the soil beneath tropical forests.

SOLAR

Riverside County, California, is now home to the world’s largest solar power plant. The 550-megawatt project generates enough electricity to power 160,000 average California homes. In 2009, there were no traditional solar farms in the US larger than 100 megawatts, now, 17 such projects have been financed. The state’s three major utilities are on track to meet or exceed a 33 per cent renewable mandate by 2020.

APPLES

For the first time, all varieties of apples from the US have gone on sale in China. A deal was reached recently to grant access to all US varieties instead of just Red Delicious and Golden Delicious. The Washington Apple Commission which represents growers of the nation’s largest crop and most apple exports said China stopped buying US apples in 2012 because of concerns over a fungus. The deal culminates 20 years of efforts to send more varieties of apples to China.

SHOES

German researchers have built shoe-sized devices that harvest power from the act of walking. This technology could be used to power wearable electronic sensors without the need for batteries. There are two separate devices: a “shock harvester” that generates power when the heel strikes the ground and a “swing harvester” that produces power when the foot is swinging. Both devices generate power by exploiting the motion between magnets and coils. As the magnetic field of a moving magnet passes a stationary coil, a voltage is induced and an electric current generated.

EXERCISE

Results from the 2012 and 2013 Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) indicate that adults aged 18 to 70 accumulated an average of about 12 minutes per day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in bouts of 10 minutes or more, or about 84 minutes a week. As such, about only one in five adults achieved the recommended 150 minutes. The percentage of adults meeting the guidelines was lower in older age groups. The results also indicate that most school aged children are not getting enough physical activity.

APPLE

Never before has so much money been made by a single company in such a short period of time. In the last quarter of 2014, Apple made US$18-billion, beating the previous record of $15.8-billion reported by ExxonMobil in 2012. Apple’s profits stemmed largely from sales of its hugely popular iPhone which accounted for over two-thirds of its $74.6-billion revenue. On average, 34,000 iPhones were bought every hour of every day during the quarter, adding up to 74.5-million phones.

SPENDING

According to Statistics Canada, consumption patterns have changed in recent years. Canadians are spending more on mortgages, gardening, health insurance premiums and bank service fees, and a dwindling amount on reading materials and furnishings. Between 2010 an 2013, expenditures on hair grooming have increased by 98 per cent, vehicle repairs and maintenance by 118 per cent and 128 per cent on horticultural services. Declines have been noted in televisions/videos, 27 per cent, landlines, 16 per cent and photographic services, 27 per cent.

CARS

Carmakers in the US sold 16.5-million cars and light trucks in 2014, the most since 2006. The industry has been buoyed by falling gas prices and low interest rates. General Motors sold the most cars, ahead of Ford and Toyota. Fiat Chrysler saw its sales jump by 16 per cent and Americans are also falling in love again with SUVs which lost their appeal to motorists when gas prices were high.

OLIVES

A virulent pathogen that starves olive trees poses a serious threat to EU olive production. It is already affecting a vast area in Southern Italy and as it has numerous hosts and vectors, the bacterium is expected to spread further. Major consequences such as reduced yields and costly control measures will be the outcome if it spreads to other olive producing areas as well as increased prices. In Brazil, where the bacterium is a problem on citrus trees, it went from just a handful of infected trees to two million infected trees in just five years.

GYMs

In 2013, the number of times the average American gym member actually visited the gym was twice a week. Worldwide, the number of gyms has skyrocketed from 12,000 in 1993 to 32,150 today. The health club industry generates US$72-billion in revenue globally, $22-bilion of that in the US where the average monthly dues are $50. Sales of fitness trackers like Fitbit are expected to increase in the next three years from 19-million in 2014 to 57-million in 2018.

WEATHER

Botanists in the UK were stunned by the results of their annual hunt for plants in flower on New Year’s Day. According to the textbooks, there should be between 20 and 30 species in flower. This year there were 368 in bloom. This raises questions about the effects of climate change during the UK’s warmest year on record. The 368 species in flower is an unprecedented 15 per cent of the flowering plants in Britain and Ireland. The high count was partly due to the growth in the number of volunteers to do the count, but mostly because of climate change.

ENVIRONMENT

China’s love of fireworks is at least a millennium old but a Jan 1st law in Nanjing has banned all fireworks at all times which has resulted in the cleanest air in decades. More than 130 cities now ban fireworks entirely.

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 2015 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

March 2015 Edition

METAL

After losing a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling, China has scrapped its quota system restricting exports of rare earth minerals. Beijing imposed the restriction in 2009 while it tried to develop its own industry for the 17 minerals which are crucial to making many hi-tech products, including mobile phones. A WTO panel ruled that China had failed to show the export quotas were justified. China dominates rare earth production. The US, the European Union and Japan complained that China was limiting exports in a bid to drive up prices. CANALS Once hewn out of land during the Industrial Revolution, canals were once Britain’s main arteries of trade until the rise of railways and roads made them redundant. As these grimy factory areas have been improved, so have the 4,800km of canals that remain. In places like Birmingham and Manchester canal paths have been designated as bike routes. Between 2005 and 2014, the number of boats on the canals in England and Wales increased by a quarter to 32,000. In some areas, freight is making a comeback. The number of containers shipped on the Manchester ship canal increased from 3,000 in 2009 to 23,000 in 2013. Also, London’s soaring house prices have made living on the water more attractive. ONIONS Onions are eaten and grown in more countries than any other vegetables. The UN estimates that they are grown in at least 175 countries, well over twice as many as grow wheat, the largest crop by tonnage. Unlike wheat, the onion is a staple of every major cuisine and is the only truly global ingredient. There is little global trade in onions as about 90 per cent are consumed in their country of origin. China and India dominate production and consumption, between them accounting for about 45 per cent of the world’s annual production of more than 70-million tonnes. The onion belongs to the lily family. DUBAI The airport in Dubai only started appearing among the world’s 30 busiest airports in 2007, when 34.3-million passengers passed through. It is now the world’s busiest airport for international travelers. Last year, 69-million international passengers passed through Dubai airport compared to 67.8-million for London’s Heathrow airport. In 2008, the airport opened the Emirates Terminal 3, the world’s largest passenger terminal. The number of passengers arriving in the city since 2008 has increased twofold and the rapid increase shows little sign of slowing down. The airport is now the largest duty free retailer in the world with revenues reported of over US$1-billion. GOOD NEWS Last year when the Sony Corp. was hacked, the beleaguered entertainment company dug up old Blackberrys to use after Sony’s computers and landlines went down and company e-mail was unusable after the cyber attack. The emergence of the old devices as a haven for Sony executives has served as a free advertisement of sorts for Blackberry. Sony stated that Blackberry devices and servers are a lot more secure than other solutions out there that are commercially available. GADGETS European Union rules will oblige new networked devices such as modems and internet-connected televisions to switch themselves off when not in use. Many gadgets are connected to the internet 24/7, using 25-100 watts while their owners sleep. New devices will fall asleep, using a trickle of power when not in use which should save an average household about US$70 a year. This is part of the EU’s Ecodesign initiative which aims to cut costs, improve competitiveness and reduce carbon emissions. BABIES Japan’s birth rate slumped to a record low in 2014, dropping to 1,001,000 newborns in 2014, 9,000 fewer than in 2013.The fall is the fourth in consecutive years and comes as the estimated number of deaths continues to rise, at just under 1.3-million last year. Experts warn that the impact of the decline will harm Japan in various ways. By 2050 the population could be as low as 97-million, 30-million lower than now. A lowering of the number of people aged between 15 to 64 is predicted to lower potential growth and shrink Japan’s GDP. CHOCOLATE A new facility has opened in the UK to safeguard the future of chocolate. It is a bigger and better clearing house for all the world’s new cocoa varieties, which must be quarantined before they can be grown. Demand for chocolate is increasing faster than the global supply of cocoa, of which an estimated 30 per cent is lost each year to pests and disease. The new facility will consolidate the collection of 400 varieties into a single improved greenhouse and should make the quarantine process faster, cheaper and greener. WAGES Canada’s highest paid chief executive officers saw their incomes soar to pre-recession levels in 2013 according to a new survey. The top 100 CEO’s earned on average C$9.2-million in salary, bonuses and stock options, the second-highest level since 2007, the year before the global financial crisis hit. In comparison, the average Canadian earned $47,358. All five CEOs of Canada’s biggest banks were in the top 30. EUROS The new year meant a new currency for Lithuania; it is joining the euro, following its Baltic neighbours Estonia and Latvia. Some Lithuanians fear price rises but opinion polls point to growing optimism towards the euro. Officials believe that the euro will not only boost investment but will also bring deeper integration with the West. With Lithuania’s entry the eurozone now has 19 members. SOIL A new report warns that the health of Africa’s soil will lock the continent into a cycle of food insecurity for generations to come. Soil degradation is already hampering economic development costing the continent’s farmers billions of dollars in lost income. It is estimated that 65 per cent of arable land, 30 per cent of grazing land and 20 per cent of forests are already damaged. Degraded land leads to lower crop yields and increased greenhouse gas emissions. The average yield in sub-Saharan Africa is about one tonne per hectare. In India it is about two-and-a-half tonnes and in China, more than three tonnes per hectare. VENDING A Vancouver entrepreneur is taking convenience to a new level with his plan to install grocery vending machines in Metro Vancouver condos. The machines will be stocked with staples such as milk, eggs, bacon and coffee. Technology in the machines will tell when items are set to expire. If successful, the concept will be introduced across the country. BATTERIES Researchers claim that old laptop batteries still have enough life in them to power homes in slums. An IBM study analysed a sample of discarded batteries and found 70 per cent had enough power in them to keep an LED light on more than four hours a day for a year. The researchers say that using discarded batteries is cheaper than existing power options and also helps deal with the mounting e-waste problem. It is hoped that this concept could help the approximately 400-million people in India who are off grid. IBM research estimated that 142,000 computers are thrown away daily in the US. CALLING Under an agreement reached at the European Parliament, an emergency call system dubbed eCall will be installed in all new cars from March 2018. The system will send an automated call to emergency services in the event of an accident and could half response times, especially in rural areas. The system will give emergency services only basic information such as: type of vehicle, fuel used, time of accident and location. POLLUTION A New Zealand research team has warned of the threat posed by pharmaceutical products as well as soaps and cosmetics dumped in Antarctic waters by Antarctic research bases. It is likely that environmental conditions, including extreme cold, have contributed to the persistence of some compounds in seawater. Contaminants have been found in Antarctic waters in concentrations comparable to more urban areas elsewhere in the world. PASTA From hearty lasagne to creamy spaghetti carbonara, Britain’s love affair with pasta spans decades. But sales of the traditional Italian staple have recently plummeted with speculation that the trend away from carbohydrates and even towards gluten-free food might be to blame. Purchases of pasta are down over four per cent in the past year as high –protein diets see a resurgence. Sales of rice have shown a strong increase and are up by 3.6 per cent and are worth nearly US800-million annually. SAFETY Canada sits top of a list of countries ranked for their food safety systems, but has work to do in three key areas, according to the Conference Board of Canada. The country was tied with Ireland for first place in the study of 17 developed countries. However, the study noted some weaknesses in the Canadian system, including the ability to trace food through the processing chain, tests on the levels of pesticides and other chemicals and establishing acceptable levels of radiation in what we eat. TRENDS From introducing beer cafes to offering cooking classes, North American grocers are increasingly challenging the notion that customers should only visit their stores to purchase weekly staples. Some grocers are even organizing social activities such as wine tastings. Others have introduced “groceraunts”-in-store eateries, cafes and gourmet delis-in direct competition with restaurants. As more grocers pursue similar projects to turn their stores into destination spots, the lines between convenience stores, drug stores, restaurants and grocery stores are likely to continue to blur. TAXES Average tax revenue rose to 34.1 per cent of GDP last year in the OECD, a club mostly of rich countries, the highest tax take since 2007. As a percentage of GDP, the highest tax rate was in Denmark at 48 per cent, followed by France at 44 per cent, Italy, 42 per cent and Germany, 37 per cent. Mexico has the lowest tax take in the OECD at 20 per cent with revenues equivalent to less than a fifth of its GDP. BANKING With US$1-trillion in assets, Islamic banking is being hailed by British authorities and supported by Canada’s government, major banks and credit unions, leading business schools and influential Muslims across Canada. Islamic banking bans interest payments, pure monetary speculation and investing in such things as alcohol, gambling, media and pork. It is being touted as the next big thing in financing for Canada, which is home to just over a million Muslims. Some of the world’s largest Islamic banks, most of which are in the Middle East, Indonesia and Pakistan, are looking at rebranding to appear less religious and more open to Western investors. JUSTICE The European Court of Human Rights says that France violated the rights of Somali pirates who attacked French ships and has ordered France to pay compensation to them over judicial delays. The pirates will get thousands of euros because they were not immediately brought before a French judge. 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 2015 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

February 2015 Edition FOOD Prices in 2015 are expected to outpace inflation for the second straight year resulting in a possible increase in food prices of 2.4 per cent. Meat, seafood and vegetables are expected to lead the increase with gains of 3 to 5 per cent. Dairy and eggs and grains will rise by one per cent. Restaurant foods will rise by as much as 3 per cent. Weather and the drought in California will be important factors. Canada, mainly Ontario and BC, buy about C$5-billion a year from California, including tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber and fruit. GOLD Over 78 per cent of Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected an initiative that would have forced the country’s central bank to hold one-fifth of its assets in gold, a move that would have eroded its ability to conduct monetary policy. For the past three years, the bank has capped the Swiss franc at 1.2 per euro by purchasing huge amounts of the common currency, a policy designed to protect Swiss exports. The initiative, if passed, would have forced the central bank to buy gold every time it intervened in the currency market. WATCHES Sony has developed a watch made from electronic paper as part of an initiative to experiment with the use of the material for fashion products. The watch has a minimalist, monochrome design but falls short of the features offered by smartwatches. However, the battery of the e-paper watch could last longer with an estimated 60 days of use. The watch face and straps have an e-paper display, comparable to the technology used in e-book readers such as Amazon’s Kindle. The watch can alternate between several different styles of watch face and strap design. MOVIES Proposed plans to cap the number of foreign films shown in Russian cinemas by 50 per cent have been shelved by the country’s parliament. The bill was submitted earlier last year when relations between Russia and the West began to sour. Out of the top 20 grossing films at the nation’s box office last year, only two films were made in Russia, Foreign films are currently capped in China where the government introduced a strict quota of just 34 foreign films to be screened each year. A previous bill in 2013 which aimed to cap foreign films in Russia at 20 per cent was also unsuccessful. PATENTS Patents are a key measure of a country’s ability to turn research into viable products, and Canada is slipping. Per capita patent filing in Canada have been on a steady decline since 2000 according to a study of more than one million applications to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. The overall number of patent applications peaked at more than 41,000 in 2007, but had fallen to 39,000 in 2012. Ontario and Alberta are the top per capita patent performers and among industry sectors, technology, construction and utilities are the strong patent performers. SELFIE In South Korea, selling a “selfie-stick”, which is considered a telecommunications device that lets people photograph themselves, could mean a fine of up to US$35,000 if the gadget is unregistered. The stick may interfere with other devices using the same radio frequencies. DOMAINS Police forces across Europe have seized 292 web domains that were being used to sell counterfeit goods. The sites were selling luxury goods as well as sportswear, electronics, pharmaceuticals and pirated goods like movies and music. Visitors trying to reach the sites will now be shown a page educating them on copyright crime. Europol say the total number of domains seized in this way is now 1,829 since the initiative was launched in November 2012. SECURITY According to a new study, many Canadian companies are unprepared to deal with cyber-security attacks against new and expanding computer technology such as cloud-based computing. Only 40 per cent of about 500 firms surveyed had security strategies that take into account new technology. The smallest companies were the least prepared with less than ten per cent of businesses reporting any preparation for threats and just 35 per cent of firms with ten to 99 employees having a strategy in place. TRADE Australia has signed a free-trade deal with China, its biggest trading partner. The agreement cuts tariffs for most Australian agricultural imports, including wine but excluding rice and sugar, into China and eases the rules for Chinese investment in Australia. The deal is part of the Australian government’s effort to make the economy less reliant on commodities. This deal, when it goes into effect by the end of the year, will immediately give Australia a competitive edge over Canada. SLIMMING The Federal Trade Commission has approved two orders setting charges that two companies misled consumers regarding the ability of their caffeine-infused shapewear undergarments to reshape the wearer’s body and reduce cellulite. The companies are banned from claiming that any garment that contains any drug or cosmetic causes substantial weight or fat loss unless they can be substantiated by competent and reliable scientific evidence. The companies are also required to pay over US$1.5-million in refunds to consumers. CORRUPTION Anti-corruption investigators in China have confirmed the reported seizure of the equivalent of US$33-million in cash in an officials home, the largest such haul to date. Four out of 16 counting machines broke while counting the notes. China sentenced more than 13,000 officials found guilty of corruption in the first nine months of 2014. ADVICE British planning experts are heading to China to advise on building cities that do not wreck the environment. They will address mayors on the need to avoid Los Angeles-style sprawl by building dense cities with low carbon buildings and good public transport. Their visit follows a report warning that the road-based US model could make climate change impossible to contain. In China, many institutions are taking the climate more seriously than before. Two billion extra people are expected in Chinese cities in the coming decades. COMEDY A comedy club in Barcelona is experimenting with charging users per laugh, using facial-recognition technology to track how much they enjoyed the show. Each laugh is charged at 0.30 euros with a cap of 24 euros. Takings are up so far. WIRELESS There are estimated to be 47-million Wi-Fi hotspots around the world. By 2018 that number is expected to soar to 340-million. Mobile-network operators are increasingly reliant on these hotspots as a cheap way to reduce pressure on their cellular-data networks. Many people when close to a public hot spot switch off their mobile phone’s 3G/4G data network and join the internet courtesy of free Wi-Fi and download lots of data thus avoiding exceeding their monthly charges. Research shows that 42 per cent of mobile-phone traffic and 90 per cent of tablet traffic travels by Wi-Fi instead of the carriers’ own cellular networks. FOOD It is estimated that sales at Canadian farmers’ markets are over C$1-billion each year with a total economic impact of $3-billion. 98 per cent of Canadian farms are family owned and operated and their products are exported to over 190 countries. The food and beverage manufacturing industry contributes over $26-billion to Canada’s GDP. Canada’s annual chicken production is over 1-billion kilos, about 638-million birds. CARS The car-customization business in America is estimated to be worth around US$33-billion and is increasing by 4 per cent each year. Carmakers are hoping to capitalize by offering a range of variants on their basic models that will boost their brands and their profits. TRENDS More than 1.2-million vinyl records were sold in the UK last year. the first time that figure has been achieved since 1996. The figure marks a largely unexpected resurgence in an industry now considered to be dominated by digital. The difference between vinyl and other formats is that it’s viewed as an art form with the audio quality, the sleeve notes and the cover art. Only five years ago the vinyl business was worth around US$6-million annually, now it is worth about $40-million. TIME Last fall, Russia turned back its clocks for the last time and permanently adopted winter hours. It also increased its time zones from 9 to 11, from the Pacific to the borders of the European Union. For the last three years, Russia experimented with keeping permanent summer time, but it proved to be highly unpopular with many Russians. RAIL A recent report on railway customers states that freight services on North American railways have deteriorated significantly in the past year. More than three-quarters of shippers surveyed labeled service as fair or poor, compared with 32 per cent who gave the railways such a grade a year earlier. Analysts have attributed the widespread dissatisfaction to the impact of congestion and severe weather on deliveries the previous winter. Canadian National Railways received the most positive ratings of the six large railways in Canada and the US. CHOCOLATE A shortage of chocolate may soon be upon us according to experts. The planet is running out of the confection. In 2013, the world consumed about 70,000 metric tons more cocoa than it produced. The world’s biggest manufacturers of chocolate goods are warning that by 2020, the consumption-over-production number could increase to 1-million metric tons. Reasons for the shortage include drought and disease. Farmers are now experimenting with new strains of cacao. TREES Injecting trees in the UK with a concentrated form of garlic might help save them from deadly diseases. Widespread use of the injection process is impractical and expensive but it could potentially help save trees of historic or sentimental value. The experimental injection device is made up of a pressurized chamber and eight “octopus” tubes which inject the solution into the sap system. Garlic is one of nature’s most powerful antibacterial and antifungal agents. 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 2015 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

January 2015 Edition

CORRUPTION Canada is rated second among countries with the lowest business bribery risk in a new survey of 197 nations. Out of a maximum of 100, the higher the score the higher the risk, Canada got 22. Ireland is first with 20 while the US is in 10th place with 27. Other countries in the top ten are New Zealand, Hong Kong and Sweden all with 23, Finland, 24, Singapore and Japan 26 and Germany with 27. Nigeria is the worst rated country with 97. India was far down the list in 185th spot with a score of 80 with Brazil in 149th position with 69. China’s score was 66 and the Russian Federation 65. CYCLING Florida has been America’s deadliest state for bicycle riders for many years. In 2012, some 120 cyclists were killed in traffic accidents, three times the national average. The poor design of roads and cities is largely to blame. An official said that a fairer comparison would be to compare annual deaths relative to miles traveled which is done with automobiles but not bicycles. Deaths in Florida are far more than in California which has double the population. SECURITY Acknowledging security gaps that could leave airliners vulnerable to attack, the Canadian government is moving ahead with a new system that would allow shippers to screen cargo before it gets to the airport. Transport Canada says the system would bring air cargo screening up to the standards of key trading partners and result in a net benefit to Canadians of C$202-million over 10 years. In Canada, about half of all cargo is carried on passenger flights totaling more than 400-milion kilograms annually. FUEL Canada has roughly 173-billion barrels of oil reserves, of which 167-billion barrels are in the controversial oil sands. Exports of oil bring more than $C220-million a day in revenue. Oil and gas are a key part of Canada’s economy creating 550,000 direct and indirect jobs in 2013 and paying about $18-billion annually to all levels of government. NAVAJO The US government has agreed to pay US$554-million to the Native American Navajo tribe to settle a legal dispute. This is the largest payment ever made by the government to a single tribe. The Navajos are the largest Native American tribe with more than 300,000 members. About 14-million acres of Navajo land is leased out for purposes including farming, oil and gas production and mining. In 2012, the US reached a similar settlement with 41 tribes, agreeing to pay out about $1-billion. MYOPIA In 1970, fewer than a third of 16- to 18-year-olds in China were deemed to be short-sighted, now, nearly four-fifths are. The fastest increase is among primary school children, over 40 per cent of whom are shortsighted, double the rate in 2000. That compares with less than 10 per cent of this age group in the US or Germany. The incidence of myopia is high across East Asia, afflicting 80-90-per cent of urban 18-year-olds in Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. The problem is social rather than genetic. The biggest factor in shortsightedness is a lack of time spent outdoors. LOCOMOTIVES As railways try to keep pace with soaring freight volumes, they are facing a shortage of locomotives. One of the two US manufacturers is out of the market for two years until it can meet tougher emission standards in the US. The shortage is hampering efforts of railways to clear congested tracks and move the growing amounts of grain, oil and other goods. It is also spurring rail companies to repair and overhaul older equipment. GE has seen locomotive demand rise by 134 per cent in 2013 and has received orders for 1,000 of the lower-emission engines which cost as much as US$3-million each. TRAFFIC In general, video and audio streaming continues to eat up the greatest traffic on virtually every network. In North America, during the prime-time hours of 6pm to 10pm, Netflix and YouTube account for half of all internet traffic. By contrast, Amazon Instant Video garnered just 1.61 per cent of the traffic. SALT According the UN, about 2,000 hectares of fertile land are lost each day to damage caused by salt. The total area now affected is equivalent to the size of France, 62-million hectares, which has increased from 45-million 20 years ago. Salt degradation occurs in areas of dry irrigated land with little rainfall and where there is no natural drainage. The report suggests that tree planting, deep ploughing and the production of salt-tolerant crops and digging drains or ditches around the affected areas would help. The measures would be expensive, around US$23-billion, but the cost of inaction will be worse. In the Colorado River Basin, damage from salt could cost up to $750-million annually. GMO A majority of US packaged foods labeled as “natural” and tested by Consumer Reports actually contained a substantial level of genetically modified ingredients. Consumers Reports says that consumers are being misled by the “natural” label. They conducted a survey of 80 different processed foods containing corn or soy, the two most widely grown genetically engineered crops in the United States, to determine whether labeling claims for GMO presence were accurate. DATING In its first law enforcement action against an online dating service, the US Federal Trade Commission has reached a settlement that prohibits an England-based dating service from using fake, computer-generated profiles to trick users into upgrading to paid memberships and charging these members a recurring monthly fee without their consent. The settlement also requires the defendant to pay US$616,165 in redress. CARE According to Statistics Canada, in 2013 13 per cent of Canadians (3.7-million) aged 15 and over, reported providing end-of-life or palliative care to a family member or friend at some point in their lives. These caregivers helped the terminally ill with such tasks as personal or medical care, preparing meals, managing finances or providing transportation to and from medical appointments. Providing end-of-life care was most often a reality for those in their 50s and 60s. About one in five of these Canadians reported that they had provided palliative care to a parent, spouse, grandparent, other family member or friend. SCOTCH The Scots are famous for their whisky but will be licking their wounds after a Japanese single malt was recently named the best in the world. Yamazaki Single Malt was given the title by the 2015 World Whisky Bible. This year marks the first time in the book’s 12-year history that a Japanese whisky has landed the title. To add insult to injury, not a single Scotch managed to make the final five shortlist. LABELLING Serial numbers no longer need to be visible on the surface of devices such as smart phones or wearable technology such as smart watches in Canada, thanks to new electronic labeling technology. Previously, Canadian regulations required information such as serial or model identification numbers, registration numbers for terminal equipment devices and certification numbers for radio equipment to be printed directly on the device or attached with a sticker. This meant that some devices marketed in other parts of the world could not enter Canada. Now, high-tech devices with a non-removable screen can carry the information on an e-label. BATTERIES Engineers in the US have produced child-safe batteries with a special coating that stops them causing harm if they are swallowed. Small, button-shaped batteries can be easy to swallow and cause thousands of injuries each year, some fatal. The new coating only conducts electricity when squeezed, such as when a battery is inside its spring-loaded compartment. DRIVING Fleets of self-driving trucks could be tested on UK roads this year. The technology allows a convoy of trucks to travel just a few feet from each other, with only the driver at the front in control. The initiative will help cut fuel consumption. The technology still requires a driver to be in each vehicle in the event of an emergency, but for the most part drivers will be able to relax. Each truck will communicate via wi-fi, infrared cameras and laser sensors. AUCTIONS International art auction house Sotheby’s and eBay will create a web platform to allow viewers to bid on and buy art. Sotheby’s says the number of lots purchased on line increased 36 per cent in 2013 and online art sales are expected to reach US$13-billion by 2020. The venture will start with live auctions streamed from Sotheby’s New York headquarters which will allow real-time bidding from anywhere in the world. Last year, Amazon announced it would sell works of art on its website. CONSTRUCTION The forest industry’s vision of pushing wood-structure buildings higher in Canada is to get a major boost. The federal body that establishes the standards for building codes is preparing to raise the cap on wood-structure heights from four storeys to six storeys. The decision will help vitalize a moribund forestry industry seeking to reach into innovative products and conquer new export markets. The sector’s goal is to build 10-storey structures by 2020 and says 30 floors are not out of the question one day. DENGUE Thousands of mosquitoes have been released in Brazil with a dengue blocking bacteria. The hope is they will multiply, breed and become the majority of mosquitoes, thus reducing cases of the disease. The initiative is part of a programme also taking place in Australia, Vietnam and Indonesia. Dengue re-emerged in Brazil in 1981 after an absence of more than 20 years. Over the next 30 years seven million cases were reported and 800 deaths were reported in the 2009 to 2014 period. SMUGGLING Venezuela’s western border is a smuggler’s paradise. Everything from rice to cement finds its way over the frontier into Colombia. The most lucrative trade is gasoline. It is estimated that the equivalent of 100,000 barrels of oil a day is smuggled out of the country. Gasoline is so cheap in Venezuela because of state subsidies and price controls, that to fill a 50-litre car tank costs well under US$1.00. Over the border the gasoline is $1.20 a litre. In an attempt to plug the leaks, the Venezuelan government has begun nightly closures of its 2,200 kilometre border with Colombia. IMMIGRANTS A new study shows that immigrants to the UK from 10 countries that joined the EU in 2004 contributed more to the UK than they took out in benefits. They added US$8-billion more in taxes in the years to 2011 than they took out in public services. Immigrants who arrived since 2000 were 43 per cent less likely to receive state benefits or tax credits, and seven per cent less likely to live in subsidized housing. WINDOWS Momentum continues to grow for the construction of planes without windows. A new design has drawn up plans for the creation of a plane that would feature flexible screens wrapped into the interior of the cabin. The screens would be covered in Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technology which could broadcast film or television footage, be used for video conferencing and presentations or display images of the views surrounding the plane transmitted via cameras on the aircraft’s exterior. Reducing windows on a plane would significantly reduce their weight and improve aerodynamics, resulting in quicker flights, lower fuel costs and cheaper tickets. CREDIT Recently, President Obama’s credit card was declined at a New York restaurant. Fraud was expected as the card is rarely used. Fortunately, First Lady Michelle Obama had a card which was used to pay for the meal.

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 2014 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

December 2014 Edition AFRICA From the safari industry to the agricultural and mining sectors, much of Africa’s economy is taking a hammering from the Ebola crisis, and the damage is continuing to rise. The heaviest toll is being suffered in the three main Ebola-afflicted countries in West Africa, but the spill over effect is crossing borders and hitting other regions. And as Ebola cases reach the United States and Europe, foreign anxieties are hurting investments in Africa and wreaking havoc in vulnerable sectors such as tourism and trade. While most of Africa’s economy is not directly affected by the Ebola epidemic, the impact on some sectors and countries is serious enough to hurt the continent’s overall economy, dampening prospects in a region that had been among the world’s fastest-growing. POWER America’s electricity grid is a mess. For one thing, it is two large and three small grids, rolled into one. Two types of organizations, independent system operators and regional transmission bodies control their own parts which may cover several states, each having its own utility laws. Nobody knows the true state of the national grid until something goes badly wrong as it did in October 2012 when Hurricane Sandy left some 8-million people powerless, some for weeks. The number of big outages, defined as those affecting more than 50,000 people, has more than doubled in the past ten years. MONEY Millions in suspicious transactions flowed through four of Vancouver’s casinos in a recent three month period, mostly in C$20-bills, a currency frequently used in street level drug transactions. In other cases patrons showed up at the doors with plastic or brown paper bags filled with cash in wads held together by rubber bands. In some cases, patrons bought in and cashed out without even playing. Casinos are required to identify and report any suspicious activity to the provincial government as well as all cash transactions of $10,000 or more. Police were rarely contacted. INSURANCE With a typical American wedding costing in the region of US$25,000, wedding insurance is now catching on, with many venues requiring couples to take out liability insurance. It was introduced in Britain in 1988 but there were few takers until it caught on in the States. Now, a fifth of couples buy it. Common causes of payouts include the venue or caterers going broke after having taken a big deposit. Extreme weather, a spouse being deployed by the armed forces and an absent priest can all trigger payouts. TRADE For the third time, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled against the US’s meat labelling laws requiring grocery stores to list the origin of meat products, which discriminates against both Canada and Mexico. Canada has warned that unless the US ends the blatantly protectionist regulations, it will strike back with punitive duties on 38 iconic US products ranging from California wine to ketchup and cornflakes. It is estimated that the US regulations cost the North American cattle and hog industry more than US$1-billion a year. EUROPE In the 1990’s Europe produced more than 15 per cent of the world’s microchips. Firms headquartered in Europe now account for only 8-9 per cent of global semiconductor revenues which was worth US$315-billion in 2013. Microprocessors and memory chips are mass-produced mainly in Asia and America these days, as the cost of building a “fab” as chip-fabrication factories are called, is too high for all but the largest scale endeavours. However, overall, Europe does provide 20 per cent of the world’s electronics industry’s equipment and materials, 12 per cent of subsystems such as boards and modules and 16 per cent of stand-alone and embedded systems. DOLLS Sales of Mattel’s iconic Barbie fashion doll fell a staggering 21 per cent in the third quarter of this year contributing to a 22 per cent drop in profits and an eight per cent decline in sales for the toy maker. Barbie sales have fallen double-digits in each of the past four quarters. The 55-year-old doll has fallen out of favour with young girls who have gravitated to other dolls manufactured by Mattel such as Monster High and more recently, dolls based on the hit Disney movie Frozen. LOANS Around the world, student debt is a financial burden for millions, and in the US, a growing number of senior citizens are still repaying the cost of their education into retirement age. In 2005, older adults owed US$2.8-billion in federal student debt. By 2013, that figure had ballooned to $18.2-billion. According to a General Accounting Office study, the number of individuals whose Social Security benefits were offset to pay student loan debt increased from about 31,000 to 155,000 between 2002 and 2013. In total, outstanding student loan debt in the US amounts to $1-trillion. SHOPPING Cross-border shopping by Canadians in the US rose between 2006 and 2012, but even with these increases, purchases from the US were between 1 per cent and 2 per cent of total Canadian retail sales. Cross-border shopping by Canadians was an estimated C$4.7-billion in 2006. Since then, annual increases, with the exception of a decline in 2009 have taken the total to $8-billion in 2012, 73 per cent higher than in 2006. The annual amount brought back grew from $370-million in 2006 to $844-million in 2012 while the total from overnight visits doubled from $1.8-billion to $3.6-billion. MOVIES Chinese box office revenues surged 32 per cent in the first nine months of this year. Takings have reached C$3.89-billion, nearly equalling the $3.92-billion total for all of 2013. The best performing movie of 2014 so far has been the Transformers which has taken in $356-million. China is the second biggest film market in the world and last year became the first international market to gross more than US$3-billion. China’s boom comes at a time when the US box office has slumped over the summer season to its lowest point in eight years. ORGANISMS Scientists in the UK are warning that an army of species from Turkey and Ukraine is poised to invade Britain’s waterways. One organism, the quagga mussel, was discovered in a river near London just weeks ago. At least 10 others are established in the Netherlands and there is a critical list of them entering the UK. Researchers are concerned that the invaders, including the killer shrimp, will spread rapidly and devastate native species. Researchers say that as well as ballast water from ships, the species often travel in ornamental plants. Damage from the quagga mussel could cost the UK economy in excess of US$2.5-billion annually. MILKING Genomic analysis, that is the examination of the DNA, could allow B.C. dairies to predict which calves will become elite milkers, with the promise of huge savings for farmers who will not have to raise inferior cows that will ultimately be made into hamburgers and bologna. Now, dairy farmers have to raise young cows for a little over two years at a cost of about C$2,500 each before they can determine which animals can produce milk with superior volume, fat content and protein. The result of a genomic test can identify poor producers as young as two months of age. INFORMATION An app which allows healthcare professionals to share photos is being rolled out across Europe. It is designed to enable doctors to share pictures of their patients, both with each other and with medical students. So far, more than 150,000 doctors have uploaded case photos with the patient’s identity obscured. Patients’ faces are automatically obscured by the app but users must manually block identifying marks like tattoos. Each photo is reviewed by moderators before being added to a database. DRUGS A new study has found that Canada is still paying far more than other industrialized countries for generic drugs despite recent efforts by the provinces and territories to cut costs by bulk-buying six particularly costly medications including those for high blood pressure and high cholesterol. The study shows that while Canadians are saving some money under the bulk-purchasing schemes, they are still paying much more than people in the UK, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden and the US. The six medications account for about 20 per cent of publicly funded spending on drugs. YOGURT New York recently signed Bill 6695 designating yogurt as the official state snack. As the United States’ top yogurt producer, New York State pumped out 336-million kilograms of it in 2013 trouncing the 268-million produced by runner-up California. Dairy manufacturers in New York accounted for about 9,500 jobs with total wages of US$513-million in 2013. BORDER Frustrated by costly delays at the Canada-US border, the business community is urging the governments to seek solutions from private-sector whiz kids. They are being pressed to adopt a model popularized by high-tech start-ups during the original dot.com boom in the 1990s: gather a bunch of software engineers in one room, give them a problem to solve and promise them a prize. They call it a “hackathon.” Business groups are requesting a hackathon for the border, unsatisfied by the pace of progress following years of government efforts to reduce wait times. RENOS In the 12-months to June of this year, more money was spent renovating homes in Canada than building new ones. Renovation spending was C$48.4-billion as against $46.3-billion for new builds. Also, prices for higher-priced homes are rising faster than prices of lower-priced homes in cities such as Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa and Edmonton, making it harder for homeowners to trade up to a bigger or better home. Over the past five years, spending on home renovations as a share of total residential investment averaged close to 46 per cent, by far the largest share on record. TRENDS Staff at the JTI Gallaher cigarette company in County Antrim, Ireland, has been told the plant is to close permanently by 2017. The firm has manufactured tobacco in Northern Ireland for 15 years. It is the last remaining tobacco factory in the UK. KOREA The Canada-South Korea free trade agreement is now in effect and should help Canadian companies boost sales to the East Asian country’s 50-million citizens, many of whom have plenty of disposable income. The agreement will eventually put Canada on an equal footing with the US and the European Union which already have trade pacts with the country. South Korea is Canada’s seventh-largest trading partner with two-way commerce of about C$10.8-billion in 2013. FLYING Buffalo Niagara International Airport, which garnered almost half its passenger traffic from Canada last year, is seeking to attract even more Canadian. The taxes and fees airlines add to Canadian tickets, congestion around Toronto Pearson Airport, and the additional time it takes to get through security and customs helped push Canadian traffic to about 46 per cent of the 5.5-million passengers using the Buffalo airport last year. That compares with 26 per cent in 2006. A family of four flying to Orlando can save as much as C$500 travelling through Buffalo. COMMERCE Pope Francis recently allowed the Sistine Chapel to be rented out for Porsche to entertain 40-high-paying tourists. It is the first time the Chapel has been rented out for a corporate function. 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