May 2012 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

May 2012 Edition

WATER

Acceding to the United Nations, the Millennium Development Goal for access to clean water has been reached, ahead of the target date of 2015. Now, 89 per cent of the world have access to improved water supplies, up from 76 per cent in the base year of 1990. Access to clean water has not been even however, 40 per cent of those still without access to improved drinking water live in sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide, 800-million still drink dirty water, but in the past 20 years, two billion people have gained access to improved drinking water.

SCOTCH

The Scotch industry is enjoying a tremendous period of growth around the world to meet surging demand from Asia, Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The value of Scotch exports over the first nine months of 2011 totalled close to US$4.7-billion, up 23 per cent year-to-year. While the U.S. and France remain the largest market for Scotch whisky, tiny Singapore recently became the third-largest with export values jumping 51 per cent in the first nine months of 2011 to $347-million.

PROGRESS

According to the latest census in India, due to the rise in cellphone ownership, 63 per cent of households had telephones. However, only 53 per cent of households have access to a toilet in their own home.

SUGAR

The price of sugar has been rising for weeks on concerns that poor weather conditions in Brazil will squeeze supply. In Europe, shortages have already disrupted food manufacturing. Recently, the price of sugar per pound was over US$25.00; two years ago it was about $15.00. The European Union is expected to import an additional 1-million tonnes to stem shortages. So far, production by Brazilian sugar mills is down by six per cent over last year.

WINE

Italian wine exports reached a record US$5.75-billion last year with the biggest markets in the United States, Britain and Germany. Exports by value grew 12 per cent last year compared with 2010 and exports by volume grew by nine per cent to 24-million hectolitres. Italy's share of the global wine market was 22 per cent. Increasingly, smaller producers are finding an export market alongside bigger winemakers.

ENCYCLOPEDIAS

In yet another sign of the growing dominance of the digital publishing market, the oldest English-language encyclopedia still in print is moving solely into the digital age. The Encyclopedia Britannica, which has been in continuous print since it was fist published in Scotland in 1768, is ending publication of its printed editions and will continue with digital versions available online. The company will keep selling print editions until the current stock of around 4,000 sets run out. The number of articles in the 2009 Britannica was about 65,000 with 120,000 articles available in the online edition. The number of articles in Wikipedia was 3.59-million.

GROWTH

As Somali pirates rain terror along Africa's eastern seaboard, capturing trade ships and holding crews for ransom, a remarkable development is taking place under water. Tuna and marlin populations are surging. It turns out that the pirates have scared away commercial fishing trawlers as well as tankers dumping toxic waste, both of which formerly devastated the coastal fisheries.

UAVs

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are no longer the prerogative of the armed forces and were recently used by environmental activists to track down Japanese whaling vessels. Police around the world are keen to use the small pilotless aircraft that help nab fleeing criminals. The price tags are a little more, and sometimes less, than the US$40,000 for a patrol car. A new generation of microUAVs is being recruited to replace police helicopters costing $1.7-million and up. Earlier this year, estate agents in Los Angeles were banned from using drones to take aerial photos of properties they were selling.

WOMEN

Only 13.7 of board members of large firms in the European Union are women, up from 8.5 per cent in 2003. Female presidents and chairwomen are even rarer: just 3.2 per cent of the total now compared with 1.6 per cent in 2003. Women account for 60 per cent of new graduates in the EU and enter many occupations in roughly equal numbers with men. Plenty of research suggests that companies with lots of women in senior positions are more successful than those without. Some European countries have now introduced quotas for women on boards.

COCOA

The price of cocoa reached US$2,376 a tonne earlier this year, an increase of 13 per cent. This increase has been caused by the political turmoil in the Ivory Coast, the world's biggest grower. It is estimated that the Ivory Coast will produce 1.39-million tonnes of cocoa this season. There are 2,300 calories in 454 grams of chocolate, including 140 grams of fat. The record price for cocoa was $3,775 a tonne in April of 2011.

COMICS

A collection of comics, including some of the most prized issues ever published, recently sold in New York for about US$3.5-million. The owner died in 1994 but relatives found the 345 well-preserved comics while cleaning out his wife's home. The most recent sale price of Action Comics No 1 from 1938 when Superman first appeared was $299,000 and Detective Comics issue No 27 of 1939 when Batman first appeared sold for $523,000.

FORECLOSURES

Banks are foreclosing on America's churches in record numbers as lenders increasingly lose patience with religious facilities that have defaulted on their mortgages. Since 2010, 270 US churches have been sold after defaulting on their loans. In 2011, 138 churches were sold by banks. This compares to just 24 sales in 2008, before the economic downturn. The foreclosures have hit all denominations across the U.S., black and white, but with small to medium size houses of worship affected the most. The hardest hit areas are in California, Georgia, Florida and Michigan.

AGRICULTURE

Strong demand for British Columbia's premium food products at home and abroad is expected to propel the annual value of the province's agricultural output from C$10.5-billion to $14-billion over the next five years. Fruits, seafood, niche products such as grass-fed beef and value added products such as wine have strong growth potential. The value of packaged and processed food and beverages produced in B.C. has grown by more than 30 per cent over the last decade. B.C. now exports about $1-billion worth of seafood each year, a figure growing by $10-million annually.

SEABIRDS

About half of the world's seabird populations are thought to be in decline, with 28 per cent of species considered to be in the highest categories of risk. Though seabirds make up just a small proportion (just 3.5 per cent) of the world's bird species, they are considered to be an important indicator of the health of the oceans. Conservationists are particularly concerned about the albatross family. Threats to birds include commercial fishing and damage to breeding colonies caused by rats and other invasive species. Of 346 species, 47 per cent are known to be in decline.

COLAS

Coca-Cola and Pepsi are reported to be changing the recipes for their drinks to avoid being legally obliged to put a cancer warning label on the bottle. The new recipe for caramel colouring in the drinks has less than 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI)- a chemical which California has added to its list of carcinogens. The change to the recipe has already been introduced in California but will be rolled out across the US.

CONSTRUCTION

Last December a 30-story hotel in Changsha, China was erected in two weeks. A time-lapse video shows the prefabricated building being assembled on site which has been visited by more than five-million viewers and has left Western architects speechless. The speed of the construction is a startling illustration of the building boom in China where an exodus from the countryside to the cities has swelled the urban population by almost 400-million since 1990.

BONUSES

The average cash bonuses paid by Wall Street firms to their employees in the city of New York, has fallen by 13 per cent to US$121,050 according to the state comptroller. Slightly fewer employees shared the cash bonus pool in 2011, but the total pool was also 14 per cent smaller, at $19.7-billion. The decline corresponds with the fall in profits of broker-dealer firms on the New York Stock Exchange. The average pay for Wall Street workers in 2010 was still 5.5 times greater than for other private-sector workers in New York.

FENDER

The maker of the legendary Fender guitars, used by the likes of Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, has filed papers for a US$200-million initial public offering. Founded in 1946 by Leo Fender the company created the iconic Telecaster and Stratocaster guitars in the 1950s. The Fender brand is closely associated with the birth of rock 'n roll. With sales in 85 countries, Fender believes revenue will get a boost from growing interest in guitar-based music in emerging markets such as China, India and Indonesia. Fenders profits were $19-million in fiscal 2011.

TOURISM

Australia plans to target China's rapidly growing second-tier cities to boost tourism revenue. China is already Australia's fastest growing tourism market, worth more than US$2.6-billion in 2011. A record 558,600 Chinese visited Australia in 2011. Attractions such as the Sydney Opera House and the Great Barrier Reef were listed as the most desired places to visit in a recent survey.

VACATIONS

The Swiss, concerned about endangering their economy have turned down a minimum six-week paid vacation a year. It is presently four weeks annually, the standard used in Germany, Russia, Italy and some other European nations. One Swiss union which represents about 300,000 Swiss businesses estimated that the increased holidays would have added about US$6.5-billion a year in labour costs to the economy. Two-thirds of voters in the national referendums rejected the holiday proposal.

FRAUD

America still leads the world in credit card fraud. The U.S. accounts for 47 per cent of global credit and debit card fraud, even though it is responsible for only 27 per cent of the total volume of purchases. Though accurate figures are hard to come by, the amount of fraud based on stolen card numbers in the U.S. is around US$14-billion a year. While the rest of the world is embracing more secure "smart cards", the U.S remains the only major country that still relies on antiquated payment cards that encode their sensitive data in a magnetic stripe on the back.

YOGURT

As the Greek economy continues to dominate the headlines, another story has emerged, the rise of Greek yogurt. It has risen from a niche dairy curiosity to a triumph of marketing. The product, which is strained through cheesecloth to produce a thicker, cream yogurt has been around for centuries, but in just three years, Greek yogurt has captured 13 per cent of the U.S 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.

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April 2012 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

April 2012 Edition

EXPORTS

Germany's trade surplus reached US$209-billion in 2011 on record exports that rose 11.4 per cent to top US$1.35-trillion. Imports also rose 13.2 per cent to $1.2-trillion. German exports to countries outside the 27-nation European Union showed the strongest growth.

COLOMBIA

In 2010, Canada imported C$23.5-million worth of roses from Colombia. In fact, almost a third of all cut flowers sold in Canada are imported from Colombia, our number one supplier, including $14.1-million worth of carnations and $9.6-million worth of chrysanthemums. For local growers, who cultivate $1.4-billion worth of flowers annually, the bloom fell off roses long ago. Colombia's equatorial climate, with warm days and cool nights allows roses to grow year-round. Roses are very durable and can be shipped without water or soil and last for a week after harvesting.

AGRICULTURE

Crop insurers paid out a record US$9.1-billion in indemnities on 2011 U.S. crops and the total could reach $10-billion when all claims are settled. The claims are due to damage from drought, flooding and freezing weather. The previous record was $8.7-billion in 2008. Crop insurance, which is subsidized by the government, is expected to be a key point in the pending overhaul of U.S. farm law. The program's cost has doubled in a decade.

WIND

A British electricity national network grid paid out US$20-million to wind farms in 2011 to compensate them for switching off turbines when the grid overloaded on stormy days. The highest sum paid on a single day was $2.66-million as 14 wind farms were compensated for turning off 4,650 megawatt-hours of power.

TRANSPORT

A tiny revolutionary fold-up car designed in Spain's Basque region as the answer to urban stress and pollution was recently unveiled before hitting European cities in 2013. The "Hiriko" the Basque word for "urban" is an electric two-seater with no doors whose motor is located in the wheels and which folds up like a child's stroller for easy parking. It can run 120 kilometres without a recharge and its speed is electronically set to respect city limits.

TRENDS

The Automobile Association in the U.K. has launched a new insurance policy which uses sat-nav technology to track driver performance. The system will allow better drivers to receive cheaper premiums and involves the installation of a small black box into the driver's car which records how they drive. The measures include measuring speed, braking severity, cornering and the types of roads used during certain times of the day. This information is transmitted remotely to the insurers and can also be accessed by users via a website which gives information on overall performance, warning them if they are likely to be moved to a higher premium.

MANUALS

The U.S.Air Force is rumoured to be buying as many as 18,000 iPads or similar devices in what would be one of the military's biggest orders of computer tablets. They would be used to lighten the loads of flight crews and the goal is to replace the bag of manuals and navigation charts carried by pilots and navigators which often weigh as much as 20 kilograms. The airline industry is already way ahead of the military and most major airlines have switched to tablets.

PAKISTAN

Despite the misery bought on by the massive flooding of the past two years, Pakistan is one of the world's most arid countries. The average rainfall is just 240mm, and the total availability of water per person has fallen from about 5,000 cubic metres per person in the 1950s to about 1,100 now, just above the 1,000 cubic-metre-per-person definition of "water scarce." A recent study forecasts that by 2025, Pakistan's annual water supply will fall short of demand by around 100-billion cubic metres.

DOWNLOADS

London, England, has topped the illegal downloads chart in 2011, with Adele becoming the most pirated artist. She was also the highest selling artist last year and she also became the first artist to break the Apple iTunes one million sales barrier in Europe. Manchester was the second UK city where illegally downloading was most popular, however, in London the activity was three times more prevalent.

TRAINS

It takes both skill and courage to control huge locomotives laden with mineral ore as they wind up and down the Andes mountains, making Peru possibly the toughest country in the world to be a train driver. The trains travel from sea level to the mines at Cerro de Pasco, at 14,200 feet. The ascent on some of the steepest tracks in the world is a slow grind but the real skill is in bringing fully loaded 200 metre trains back down to the Pacific Coast. Up in the mountains the railway tracks have few signals or even safety barriers to guard against the sheer drop.

LASER

Scientists have shown off the smallest ever laser. They are just one-fifteenth the size of the light waves they produce. Lasers are ubiquitous in daily life, from supermarket checkouts to CD players, but the quest for smaller lasers has been underway for years. The principal application for the tiny lights would be in computing and telecommunications. Laser beams can, in principle, carry vast amounts of information faster than traditional semiconductor electronics.

FISHING

Overfishing of the European Union fisheries is estimated to be costing US$4.2-billion a year and 100,000 jobs, according to a recent report. It added that overfishing is the single most destructive force in the marine environment. In just 43 sample stocks, the cost of overfishing is five times higher than the value of EU subsidies. Restoring the 43 fishstocks to their "maximum sustainable yield" (the largest catch that can be maintained over the long-term) would result in an additional 3.5-million tonnes of fish reaching markets, enough to meet the demand for almost 160-million EU citizens.

RUBBER

10.8-million tonnes of rubber was consumed globally in 2010 of which 1.1-million tonnes were consumed in North America. China consumed 35 per cent of global rubber consumption. Though the price of rubber declined 35 per cent in 2011 the price recently jumped 20 per cent in one month as Thailand, the world's largest producer, intervened with a massive buying program. Whether higher prices can be sustained will depend on the strength of the global economy and growth in China and India's automotive sectors.

CIGARETTES

China's tobacco industry is both owned and regulated by the government. It makes and sells more than two-fifths of the worlds' cigarettes, 2.4-trillion in 2011, three per cent more than in 2010. The government says the industry took in profits and tax receipts of US$119-billion in 2011. As a signatory to a World Health Organization tobacco-control treaty, China is meant to reduce smoking. About one-million Chinese die each year from smoking-related illnesses.

DIETING

A bizarre new cutlery set has gone on the market in the UK to aid in weight loss. The Eat Fit Cutlery set attaches dumbbells to knives, forks and spoons. The hefty chrome knife and fork weigh 1 kilogram each, the equivalent of a bag of sugar. The spoon weighs twice as much at 2 kilograms, heavier than a complete 32-piece set of cutlery.

WATCHES

Swiss watch exports hit a record of US$21-billion in 2011, growing 19.2 per cent from a year earlier. Watches in the $2500 price range make a strong showing. All this at a time when the Swiss franc was making a particulary strong showing. Except for a major downturn in 2010, growth in the past 20 years has been consistently high.

TOURISM

Toronto tourism had a record year in 2011 with the number of hotel-room nights sold topping nine million for the first time. 1,118 new hotel rooms were added in 2011 and there was a 9.2 per cent increase in travellers to Toronto from Brazil over 2010 and 6.7 per cent from the U.S. The fastest growing sector was from overseas with a 6.2 per cent growth. Overseas visitors tend to stay longer and also visit other parts of Ontario and Canada on the same trip.

CRUISING

The images of a sinking Italian cruise ship have scared off some cruise passengers, at least temporarily. Bookings for this year are down significantly as passengers are fleeing over safety concerns. This drop is across all cruise lines. Nearly 11-million Americans took a cruise last year.

TUNA

A bluefin tuna caught off north-eastern Japan recently sold for a record $736,000, this translates to $1,238 a pound. Bluefin tuna is prized for its tender meat. Japanese eat 80 per cent of the Atlantic and Pacific bluefins caught, the most sought-after by sushi lovers. However, Japanese fishermen face growing calls for tighter fishing rules amid declining tuna stocks worldwide. The bluefin fishing quota in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean was recently cut from 13,500 to 12,900 tonnes annually.

CATTLE

A devastating drought, record feed costs and intensifying competition with cash crops for land are accelerating a five-year decline in the U.S. cattle herd. The herd is now estimated to be around 91.26-million head, the smallest since 1952. The shrinking inventory may keep beef and cattle supplies tight for months, or years, even as beef exports are booming.

TRADE

Brazil's trade with the Arab world soared more than 28 per cent in 2011 to reach US$25.13-billion and is expected to grow a further 15 per cent this year. Brazil registered a trade surplus of $5.15-billion with the 22 countries making up the Arab League last year.

TIMBER

Current tropical timber practices are not sustainable and nations are advised that the standard cutting cycle of 30-40 years is too short to allow trees to grow to a volume required by commercial loggers. For a decade the government in the Solomon Islands, where the industry is a major source of government revenue, has been warned that the volume of timber annually harvested from native forests is too high and if unchecked the timber stocks would be depleted by this year. The problem is compounded by that of global illegal logging. Interpol estimates that globally an area of forests equivalent in size to that of Austria are illegally logged each year.

CAMERAS

Eastman Kodak, the inventor of the hand-held camera, plans to stop making digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames in the first half of this year in a bid to cut costs. The 131-year-old company at its high point churned out film for cameras across the continent at a rate of 350 kilometres of 35-mm film every day. The company will continue to offer photo and desktop printing.

AIRLINES

According to the Telegraph newspaper, the shortest scheduled flight in the world is one and a half miles long (2.4 kilometres) from Westray to Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. The journey takes one minute 14 seconds to complete.

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 2012 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

March 2012 Edition

TECHNOLOGY

Tablet computers are taking the wait out of waiting tables. In one San Francisco restaurant, a Presto tablet computer now takes orders, predicts when the diners' food will arrive, acts as a personal sommelier, provides self-check-out, splits cheques, and calculates the tip. It can either e-mail a receipt or a server can bring a paper one. Restaurants in Europe and Japan are experimenting with similar tablets and some American white tablecloth establishments have begun listing their wines on an iPad.

ECONOMIES

Brazil has overtaken Britain as the world's sixth largest economy. Brazil's population of 200-million is three times that of Britain. The Brazilian economy grew 7.5 per cent in 2010 but the growth expectancy for this year has been cut to 3.5 per cent. It is predicted that the British economy will overtake France, ranked fifth last year, by 2016 and that India, the world's 10th biggest economy in 2011, will move up to fifth by 2020. The U.S. economy is still the biggest, followed by China,and Japan.

VEHICLES

The age of vehicles in the U.S. hit a record high last year raising a critical question for auto makers trying to rebound from the recession. Will Americans replace them and when? The average age rose to 10.8 years in 2011 the tenth consecutive year that U.S. vehicles have got older. U.S. sales peaked at about 17-million vehicles in 2005, but tumbled to 10.4-million in 2009. The forecast is for sales of about 13.5-million this year rising to 16-million by 2015. The level of U.S. sales is critical to Canada's auto industry as about 80 per cent of the two million vehicles made in Canada annually are sold in the U.S.

DEVICES

Tablets and e-readers were extremely popular gifts over the Christmas holidays, in fact the number of people owning them nearly doubled between mid-December and January. A new report shows that 29 per cent of Americans owned at least one tablet or e-reader as of January, up from 18 per cent in early December. Men and women were equally likely to own tablets but women were slightly more likely to own e-readers.

HOUSING

Vancouver is now the world's second least affordable major city in which to buy a house according to the most recent International Housing Affordability Survey. It measures the markets using something called the "median multiple" which is the median house price divided by gross annual median household income. The least affordable is Hong Kong. Vancouver is followed by Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, San Francisco and London. Ironically, Canada was considered the third most affordable market, but it all depends upon where you live.

RESEARCH

America's National Science Foundation is warning that the U.S is losing ground fast to Asian rivals, especially China. The ten largest economies in Asia now spend roughly US$400-billion a year on research and development (R&D), as much as America and well ahead of Europe's $300-billion. China's investment leapt 28 per cent last year, propelling it past Japan to become the world's second biggest spender.

WATER

Over the past quarter of a century, the amount of water used in the United States has remained stable at around 210-billion gallons (795-million cubic metres) a day. While household consumption has tripled since the 1950s, the amount of water used to irrigate agricultural land and feed industry has declined. Farmers have embraced more efficient sprinkler systems, put more crops under glass, planted more drought-resistant varieties and profited from selling their surplus water to nearby towns. On the industrial side, the use of thermo-electric power, with its need for cooling water, is declining and is now below its 1970 level.

DEMOGRAPHICS

China has just passed a remarkable milestone. In 1980, fewer than a fifth of Chinese lived in cities, a smaller urban population than India or Indonesia. But by the end of 2011, the National Bureau of Statistics reports that more than half of China's 1.35-billion people now live in cities. The country is keen to avoid the pitfalls encountered by other urbanizing places, such as India, Brazil and Africa, which has seen the slide of megacities into megaslums.

PAY

Canadian workers are feeling optimistic about 2012, with most expecting to see their wages rise by year's end. A new survey found that 62 per cent of Canadians think it will be a better year for their employers and that 58 per cent expect to have a bigger pay cheque. But less than half (47 per cent) think their employer's benefits will improve. The survey, which covered 29 countries, found that workers in other parts of the world are also very optimistic. In Europe the mood is grimmer with only one-third expecting an improvement.

DETROIT

At this year's Detroit auto show, there was a lot of excitement over the fancy new electric cars and hybrids. Less-noticed has been the fact that auto makers are shifting to smaller and lighter vehicles. This is by far the easiest way to boost gas mileage. A car's weight is responsible for about two-thirds of the energy required to move it, so slimming cars and SUV's down is a simple way to boost fuel economy. Lighter steel and better designs have been bringing the weight of cars down dramatically without hiking the price tag.

ENERGY

Global investment in clean energy hit US$260-billion in 2011, up five per cent from 2010. Solar investment led the way, up 26 per cent to $136.6-billion, benefitting from a 50 per cent drop in the price of photovoltaic panels.

WI-FI

A large mobile operator, O2 is to provide free internet to millions of residents and visitors to London by launching Europe's largest free wi-fi zone. The service will be rolled out across the boroughs of Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea during 2012. It will be powered by a system installed on street furniture, such as lampposts. Westminster welcomes over a million tourists a day, is home to 250,000 residents, employs over half a million people and sees 4,000 business start-ups each year.

MALTA

This rocky, sun-drenched island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea is cashing in on low taxes, cheap labour and an address inside the European Union to lure hedge funds. Only fund managers headquartered within the EU can market funds within the bloc. There were 500 hedge funds located on Malta at the end of 2011, compared to 165 in 2008. Malta has a population of just 414,000 and is concerned that it will have enough accountants and financial analysts to keep up with demand.

FEES

The European Commission plans to lower retailers' costs for accepting debit and credit cards in a renewed challenge to dominant players such as Visa and MasterCard. Bigger card companies generally charge retailers more for their fees which cover costs such as authorizations for transactions. The EU believes that lower fees will increase online commerce and it is consulting with the industry and vendors to establish how much the present fees should be lowered.

CRIME

Organized crime has tightened its grip on the Italian economy since the economic crisis making the mafia the country's biggest "bank." Organized crime now generates an annual turnover of about US$179-billion and profits of $127-billion. Extortionate lending has become an increasingly lucrative source of income, alongside drug trafficking, arms smuggling, prostitution, gambling and racketeering. It is estimated that about 200,000 businesses are tied to extortionate lenders.

FINES

British universities have raised almost C$50-million from fining students for overdue library books in the past six years. With fines as little as 10 pence for each day a book is overdue, it shows that students are returning thousands of books late each year. More than 300,000 books remain unaccounted for. The University of Westminster does not fine students for returning books late. Instead, students are banned from using the library for the length of time that the books are overdue. Some universities bar students from graduating until they pay their fines.

ORANGES

Never mind oil, gold, copper or even corn, the commodity that's really surging these days is lowly orange juice. Futures have climbed nearly 40 per cent since last September, reaching prices not seen since the 1970s. Cold weather in Florida and a drop in production has fuelled much of the recent runup. That could change as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering banning imports of Brazilian oranges because farmers there use a fungicide that's not permitted in the U.S. Brazil is the world's largest producer of oranges, having surpassed Florida some years ago.

SURFING

An English company that advises mobile phone operators tracked 1.1-million users for a 24 hour period. It found that just one per cent of Web surfers generated half of all bandwidth traffic worldwide. About one third of the "extreme users" access the internet on smartphones, a number that will surely grow as so far only 13.2 per cent of the globe's 6.1-billion cellphones are smartphones.

BRIDGES

The world's highest cable-stayed bridge has been inaugurated in Mexico. The 1,321 foot tall Balaurte bridge spans a deep ravine in the Sierra Madre mountains in the north. It is part of a new highway crossing some of Mexico's most rugged terrain, from Mazatlan on the Pacific Coast to Durango in the interior. The bridge is so tall that the Eiffel Tower would easily fit under its central span.

LENDING

Over the past few years China's big banks have been criss-crossing the globe signing a plethora of billion dollar deals with some of the world's poorest countries. Last year, China provided more loans to the developing world than did the World Bank. As the lender to go to for credit-poor governments, China's yuan is replacing World Bank dollars as the cash behind new roads, power stations, hospitals and other infrastructure. In 2010, the World Bank agreed loans of US$11.4-billion to 36 African countries. China granted loan facilities of $13-billion just to Ghana.

CUBA

A plan has been launched to subsidize the construction and repair of private homes in Cuba, an effort the government hopes will lead to better use of limited funds. Citizens will be eligible for as much as 80,000 Cuban pesos (US$3,300) in aid to build a family home, though most will get far less. Those whose homes have been damaged by hurricanes or other natural disasters will get priority.

PAWNBROKERS

The debt crisis in Europe is reverberating in an unlikely quarter. As credit tightens, formally wealthy Britons are turning to pawnbrokers. Diamond rings, Rolex watches, Fender electric guitars, Porches, even a Henry Moore sculpture are languishing at high-end pawnbrokers as business booms in the sector.

GOVERNMENT SPENDING

Ottawa's National Capital Commission installed seven new ice shacks along the Rideau Canal for skaters to lace up in. Each shack cost C$750,000. By comparison, the average house price in Ottawa is $360,000.

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 2012 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

February 2012 Edition

TICKETS

By next Christmas, all Canadian airlines will be required to advertise the full price of airfares. For consumers, it means online promotions and print advertisements of seat sales will have to list the final cost of the ticket, including all taxes and surcharges. Today, the total cost can typically be 50 per cent more than the advertised base fare. Similar legislation has been in effect in Europe since 2008.

DEFAULTS

Among companies rated by Standard & Poor (S&P), there were just 44 corporate defaults around the world in 2011, down from 81 for the whole of 2010 and far below the record 265 in 2009. Most are in America (home to around half the companies tracked by S&P). Seventeen of the defaults came from missed interest or principal payments and 11 from bankruptcy filings. Consumer goods and service industries accounted for the most defaults followed by transport. After making up a quarter of defaults in 2009, only five media and leisure companies defaulted in 2011.

CLEANING

Efforts to create self-cleaning cotton fabrics are bearing fruit in China. Engineers have created a chemical coating that causes cotton materials to clean themselves of stains and remove odours when exposed to sunlight. Researchers say the treatment is cheap, non-toxic and ecologically friendly. Retail experts say the innovation could be a hit with clothing manufacturers. The substance is already used in self-cleaning windows, odour-free socks and stay-clean kitchen and bathroom tiles.

AIRSHIPS

A Yellowknife (NWT) airline and a UK hybrid vehicle company have signed an agreement in principle to develop and bring in the first specially adapted airships to the land of bush planes and ice roads. For years, it has been proposed that airships could be used to haul equipment and supplies which would change the economics of development in remote areas. Airships require neither ice roads or runways and use far less fuel than planes while having a massive lift capacity.

EMISSIONS

The tiny super-rich Gulf state of Qatar will host the U.N. climate negotiations in 2012. Qatar has the world's highest per capita carbon dioxide emissions. At more than 50 tonnes per head, emissions are seven times those of the U.K and more than triple those of the U.S.

TRADE

Mexico's Senate has approved a free-trade agreement with Peru that aims to double trade between the nations, valued at US$1.46-billion. The agreement will give Mexican producers of wheat, beans, corn seeds, beer and tequila immediate access to Peru while Peruvian farm goods and textiles will gain greater access to Mexico. The accord covers over 12,000 products. An existing Mexico-Peru trade deal signed in 1987 covers 765 products. The agreement will increase Mexican exports to Peru to $2.7-billion per year.

COCOA

Prices for cocoa are suffering their longest period of decline in a half-century as more beans pile up in West African ports than distributors can sell. Forecasters see no end in sight for the glut in the face of weaker-than-normal global demand. The Ivory Coast output of cocoa increased by 16 per cent in 2011 while prices have declined by nearly 20 per cent creating a global surplus of over 300,000 tonnes.

AIRLINES

The merger of two major Latin American airlines, Brazil's TAM and Chile's LAN, has created the largest carrier in the region. The new airline LATAM is valued at about US$14.5-billion and will represent six per cent of global air transport. Last year, the two airlines flew more than 45-million passengers and 755,000 tonnes of cargo. The new airline will fly to 115 destinations in 23 countries with a workforce of 40,000.

CHAMPAGNE

The French industry expected a bumper holiday season, a significant recovery from just two years ago when it slashed production in the face of the global economic downturn leaving tons of grapes rotting in the fields. By the end of September 2011 the champagne industry had shipped 192-million bottles and the festive fourth quarter is always the strongest accounting for a third to half of annual sales. In 2008, sales fell to below 300 million bottles for the first time in five years. Last year the industry shipped 320-million bottles worth US$5.5-billion and may have shipped 340-million bottles by the end of 2011.

SHOWERS

A survey, using innovative technology, has offered an insight into people's showering habits in the UK. The survey, that recorded 2,600 showers by 100 families over a ten-day period, found that the average shower lasted eight minutes, much longer than previous studies suggested, using almost as much water and energy as the average bath. An eight-minute shower uses 62 litres of hot water compared with an average bath's 80 litres.

DOCTORS

Canada has saved nearly C$400-million by poaching doctors from Africa, while the African countries that trained those doctors have lost billions of dollars as a result of the medical brain drain. Wealthy countries like Canada are benefiting significantly from those African losses as thousands of doctors continue to emigrate from African countries. More than 22 per cent of Canadian physicians are foreign trained. In Saskatchewan, more than half of practising doctors are foreign-trained. It is estimated that Canada, Britain, the U.S. and Australia have saved more than $4.5-billion by recruiting doctors from just nine African countries.

HISTORY

Last summer, archaeologists clearing the way for a new mining project in the Yukon unearthed a 17th-century Chinese coin providing further proof of a trade route hundreds of years old linking First Nations peoples with Chinese markets and seagoing Russian merchants. The coin was minted between 1667 and 1671, northwest of Beijing. This is the third coin found in the Yukon and were often sewn into armour worn by Tlingit warriors. Visiting Russian merchants offered First Nations traders such goods as tobacco, glass beads, tea, kettles and coins in exchange for sea otter, fox and beaver, furs that in turn appeared for sale in China.

PHARMACEUTICALS

Rich countries spend a lot of money on health, 9.6 per cent of GDP in 2009. In 2009, OECD countries spent US$700-billion on drugs, nearly one-fifth of all health spending. Without drugs, health costs might have been even higher as drugs can prevent costly hospitalizations. The average American shelled out $947 for drugs in 2009. The figure for Canada was $692 and for Mexico $249.

DEBT

British Columbians have more consumer debt than anyone else in the country. The average B.C. resident has C$36,588 in non-mortgage debt, 43 per cent higher than the Canadian average of $25,594. High debt levels in B.C. and Alberta are a reflection of the two provinces' robust economies and higher standards of living. More and more people now rely on lines of credit, with 42 per cent of all non-mortgage debt held in line of credit. 18.5 per cent of non-mortgage debt is in instalment loans and 15 per cent in revolving loans.

MONGOLIA

The world's largest ice-making experiment has been launched in Ulan Bator, capital of Mongolia in an attempt to combat the adverse effects of global warming. The geoengineering trial aims to "store" freezing winter temperatures in a giant block of ice that will help to cool and water the city as it slowly melts during the summer. Scientists hope the process will reduce energy demand from air conditioners and regulate drinking water and irrigation supplies. If successful, the model could be applied to other cities in the far north.

WEALTH

Zhang Yin was the eldest of eight children of a Red Army officer. Today she is one of the world's richest self-made women with an estimated fortune of US$1.6-billion. In the early 1980s working in a paper mill she noted that the waste paper her superiors so casually discarded was actually worth something. Nine Dragons paper, which she founded with her husband in 1995 is now one of the world's largest paper recyclers. Seven of the 14 women identified in Forbes magazine's list of self-made billionaires are Chinese.

COINS

Loonies and toonies may be popular in Canada, but in the U.S. the presidential dollar coin has fallen victim to Washington's cost-cutting efforts. Production of the coins, which carry the likeness of every deceased president has been discontinued. In 2005, Congress passed an act which mandated the U.S. produce four new coins each year from 2007 to 2016. But there has been little demand as most people prefer to carry the one-dollar bill instead of the heavier coin. The U.S. mint has been producing between 70- and 80-million per deceased president but 40 per cent of those produced have been returned to the mint.

TRENDS

The Somerset Council in England has taken action to halt the epidemic of metal thieves by introducing plastic manhole covers. A total of 19 manhole and drain covers made out of wrought iron were stolen in just 48 hours last March. The new plastic anti-skid covers cost about US$640 each and last for 15 years. The metal ones cost $176 but needed replacing every five years. The plastic ones have no scrap value.

MAIL

The letter business is dying a slow death around the world as texting, online billing and e-mail are making the letter go the way of audio cassettes and Polaroid cameras. Addressed mail generates more than half of Canada Post's revenue and every year there is less of it. First-class mail in the U.S. drops by a quarter every five years. In Britain, the Royal Mail will have delivered 62-million letters a day in 2011 versus 80-million five years ago. By 2016, volume will shrink to 46.5-million pieces.

GAS

According to the industry, over the next 25 years, natural gas activity in Canada is expected to yield C$285-billion in personal income, corporate and indirect taxes across Canada from Western Canadian natural gas production. Royalties from natural gas in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan should yield $98-billion and earnings by natural gas employees, mainly in B.C., will be $339-billion. Contributions by natural gas to Canada's GDP will be around $1.6-trillion.

FEARS

A BBC World Services survey covering 11,000 people in 23 countries suggests that unemployment is the world's fastest-rising worry. Corruption and poverty still ranked the highest, but unemployment was mentioned by 18 per cent, six times the rate citing it in the first survey in 2009.

WORLD TRADE

With the Doha round of the global free trade talks dead, Canada and dozens of other countries are forging ahead with a deal to open up government purchases, worth as much as US$100-billion a year. More than a decade in the making, the landmark World Trade Organization agreement opens access to potentially lucrative contracts for Canadian suppliers of transportation, telecommunications and financial services. In exchange, Canada will allow foreign companies to bid on billions of dollars worth of purchasing by Crown corporations and provincial governments.

TENDERING

When Scottish police forces published an "invitation to tender" for sandwiches for the force, the description ran to 45 pages and 10,000 words. Their needs can be described in three words: sandwich, chips and drink.

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 2012 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

January  2012 Edition

TRADE

The Canadian government is showing interest in joining the emerging Trans-Pacific Partnership trade group, although the attempt to join is being resisted by some countries. Canada's supply management system for its 20,000 dairy and poultry farmers is proving to be a major impediment.

PRICES

Polysilicon is a material used to make solar cells and computer chips. In 2008 polysilicon was worth C$475 a kilogram. Today the price hovers around $33 a kilogram. The price has tumbled as manufacturers increased production for the solar panel industry. A supply glut is expected to bring down solar panel costs but unlikely to affect the prices of semiconductors significantly. 25 per cent of the cost of a solar panel comes from polysilicon whereas it is only five per cent of the cost of a computer chip.

VEHICLES

The lifespan of vehicles on Canadian roads has grown in recent years as durability improves. There has been a 20 per cent increase in the past five years in the number of vehicles on the roads that are 16 years or older and a 29 per cent increase in vehicles on the roads that are between five and 10-years old. The oldest vehicles are in Saskatchewan while the province of Newfoundland and Labrador had the youngest fleet. Pickup trucks are most popular in the Prairie provinces, where they make up 56 per cent of registered vehicles. Quebeckers lead the country in imported vehicles.

GAMES

The number of illegally downloaded video games has gone up nearly 20 per cent in the past five years according to new research. It also suggests that the top five games from 2010 were pirated online almost one million times. Industry experts worry that these figures mean that a generation of people will expect to get games for free. Piracy is costing the industry hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars annually.

FIRES

A new study has shown that human-made fires are influencing the evolutionary process of some plants species' seeds. Scientists have found that seeds that were less rounded and coated in thicker protective hair were more likely to survive fires used to clear scrub. The study which was carried out in China indicated that fire is a selective pressure that shapes seeds' traits and has more of a defining influence than other environmental factors like drought.

THAILAND

The recent flooding in Thailand is likely to slow significantly the global production of personal computers well into 2012. Thailand has a huge hard-disk drive industry, the most critical component in personal computers, which supplies about 40 per cent of the world market. There may be a 20 per cent reduction in PC shipments in the first quarter of the year which will affect smaller PC vendors and lower priced products the most.

RUSSIA

A major hurdle has been cleared towards opening up Russia's huge oil-driven economy that would allow it to join the World Trade Organization, after an 18-year effort. The deal is expected to quickly inject over US$5-billion a year into the ailing European economy by boosting EU exports. The 27-nation bloc is Russia's biggest trading partner for its agriculture, fuels, mining and manufacturing. The EU nations imported $216-billion worth of goods, mostly oil and gas from Russia last year, while exporting about $117-billion worth of machinery, cars and farm products.

PHONES

Africa continues to be the world's fastest growing mobile phone market and will soon have 735-million people using their phones for everything from transferring money to tracking animals for wildlife studies. Subscriber levels have grown by almost 20 per cent for each of the past five years. Users in South Africa can now receive text messages any time on their their bank account or credit card activity. Many African consumers, particularly in rural areas, often lack easy access to bank branches.

VALUE

The average value of a Canadian home has doubled in the past decade. In 2000, the average value of a home was C$163,951. In 2010, the figure was $339,030. Between 2000 and 2010, the value of residential building permits issued nationally was $340-billion, while the estimated amount spent on renovations was $450,000 billion. Condominiums have changed the urban landscape over the past decade, especially in B.C. and Alberta, where they comprise 25 per cent to 50 per cent of residential sales.

WINE

When France's wine producers finished picking the last of their grapes at the end of October, it is estimated that the output of wine will have climbed to a five-year high. The volume of wine produced could rise 11 per cent to over 50-million hectolitres.

GROWTH

The value of Russia's trade with China in 2011 was expected to be around US$80-billion having already reached $53-billion in the first eight months of the year. This trade is expected to grow to over $200-billion. In 2010, the value of the trade was $59-billion.

ARGENTINA

The discovery of a huge amount of shale oil in south Argentina could boost its energy reserves by 44 per cent and mark a massive potential windfall for the country and the mining industry. A Spanish company has identified 927-million barrels of oil while exploring 428 square kilometres in the Loma La Lata area, which is about 3.5 per cent of the 12,000 square kilometres it owns in the area.. The find is about three-quarters crude and one quarter natural gas. Argentina has vast shale potential ranking third in the world behind China and the U.S.

WATER

According to the Levi Strauss, a typical pair of blue jeans consumes 919 gallons of water during its production cycle, or enough to fill about 15 spa-sized bathtubs. The company wants to reduce that number any way it can and not just to project environmental responsibility. It fears that water shortages caused by climate change may jeopardize the company's very existence in coming decades by making cotton too expensive or scarce. Levi Strauss has helped underwrite and champion projects in India, Pakistan, Brazil and West Africa to teach farmers the latest in irrigation and rainwater-capture techniques.

CAMELS

A dead camel in Australia my soon pay off in carbon credits. Feral camels run rampant in the rangelands producing massive amounts of methane and the government is now proposing a camel cull to help combat climate change. There are 1.2-million feral camels in Australia and with few natural diseases and no natural predators, the population is expected to grow to two million by 2020. One camel emits an estimated 45kg of methane a year, the equivalent of a metric tonne of carbon dioxide. Camels were first introduced to Australia in the late 1800s to work in the outback.

CABS

A licence to drive a New York city taxi is not only worth more than its weight in gold; investing in a yellow cab has become more lucrative than gold. The cost of a New York licence has increased more than 1,000 per cent since 1980. The individual "medallion", the transferable aluminum plate on the hood of all cabs, sold for US$678,000 last July up from $2,500 in 1947. New York cabs move about 240-million people a year, more than the population of Brazil.

BEES

The value of crop pollination by bees each year according to the U.S. agriculture department is around US$70-billion. There are an estimated 210,000 bee hobbyists in the U.S. with $110-120 being the cost of a nucleus hive with a queen, worker bees and a starter brood. There are about 3,500 live bees to a pound and a pound of bees costs about $80.

RENT

Hong Kong has now overtaken London to become the world's most expensive city in which to rent office space. Measured in dollars, office rents in Hong Kong increased by 32 per cent in 2011, while those in London increased by 19 per cent. Mexico City offers the cheapest space in the 22 cities surveyed. Hong Kong rates are about US$1,700 a square metre while London costs $1,600 a metre.

TIME

The atomic clock in the UK's National Physical Laboratory has been declared as having the best long-term accuracy in the world. Studies of the clock's performance show it to be twice as accurate as previously thought, losing or gaining just one second in 138-million years. The international race for higher accuracy is always on, so the record may not stand for long.

PETS

As the middle class stops buying pets for security and starts doting on them, spending on pets in Latin America has taken off. In the past five years, spending on pet food and knick-knacks has risen by 44 per cent to US$11-billion according to market research. Chile now has more pet dogs per person than any other country. Rising incomes allow Latinos to treat dogs as members of the family and more young people are living alone and putting off marriage and choosing pets for company instead.

BEER

Consumption of beer in the UK has been falling for seven straight years and neighbourhood pubs are closing at a rate of 29 per week. Brewers are now scrambling for new markets and one of them has rolled out a new beer in the UK and Ireland directly aimed at women who currently account for just 17 per cent of sales. The beer contains four per cent of alcohol by volume and comes in three flavours: clear filtered, crisp rose and zesty lemon. Research shows that women in the UK rarely drink beer because they view it as being high in calories.

AUCTIONS

Greece has completed an auction of high-frequency mobile telephone licences to the country's three main operators for US$524-million. The sale is part of a privatization drive pledged by Athens in return for bailout loans from the European Union. The state originally aimed to raise $4-billion by the end of last year and $36-billion overall by 2015 but has fallen way behind schedule.

LAND

Britain plans to sell public land worth an estimated US$15-billion to address a chronic housing shortage and help erode its record budget deficit. All government departments with significant land holdings have been asked to identify land suitable for homes. This will be used to build 100,000 homes over the next three to four years, in a scheme that is expected to support as many as 25,000 jobs.

CABLES

In the high-speed world of automated trading, milliseconds matter. In fact a savings of just six milliseconds in transmission time is all that is required to justify the laying of the first transatlantic communications cable for 10 years at a cost of $450-million. The seabed survey work for the 3,741 mile Hibernian Express fibre-optic link is already underway off the east coast of the U.S and the trading firms and banks in the City of London and New York are already queing up to use it. The last cables laid were funded by the dotcom boom.

OLYMPICS

When the UK last held the Olympics in 1948 shortly after the end of the Second World War, the organizers asked athletes to bring their own food, towels and soap.

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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December 2011 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

December 2011 Edition

 FISH

Consumer Reports has revealed a scam that leaves millions of U.S. consumers clueless whether the fish they think they are buying is the fish they are actually getting. The world's largest independent product testing organization has revealed that 22 per cent of seafood it tested at supermarkets, restaurants, fish markets, gourmet stores and big box stores in three states was either mislabelled, incompletely labelled or misidentified by employees. Americans spent US$80.2-billion on seafood last year, up $5-billion from 2009. The investigation took place in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut where samples were DNA tested by two outside laboratories.

DEBRIS

A wave of debris from Japan's March tsunami will hit Hawaiian shores by 2013. More accurate forecasts are now being prepared after a Russian ship found tsunami debris including a refrigerator, a TV and a damaged 20-foot fishing vessel in the Pacific Ocean between Japan and the Midway Atoll. It is likely that debris will now hit the western U.S. and Canadian coasts by 2014 before bouncing back towards Hawaii for a second impact. It is estimated by the Japanese government that between 10- and 25-million tons of debris, including houses, tires, trees and appliances were washed out to sea.

LAND

Since 1700, the amount of cultivated land on the planet has increased from 7 to 40 per cent. When you look at a globe, more than a third of what you see that is not water or ice, has gone from neighbourhoods for wildlife to croplands for humans or grazing lands for our livestock.

POLYMER

The look and feel of Canadian money has changed. Starting in November, the Bank of Canada introduced polymer-based bank notes beginning with the C$100 bill. The new $50 will be introduced in March 2012 and the remaining notes by the end of 2013. Polymer notes are printed on a smooth, durable film. Currently there are over 30 countries that print some or all of their denominations on polymer, including Australia, Mexico and Romania. The leading edge security features of the notes are easy to verify and the notes are expected to last 2.5 times longer.

CARS

Typical family cars have become more than a foot wider and almost double the weight over the past 50 years as manufacturers struggle with the world's obesity crisis. BMW has recruited 800 volunteers, ranging from slim to obese, for a study to gauge how obesity affects mobility while driving. Mercedes has unveiled plans to strengthen grab handles above its doors, in part to help heavier passengers support themselves. Porche meanwhile is installing powered steering columns which will rise when the engine is switched off. Honda has widened its seats by up to 2-inches over the past decade.

STEALING

Move over Kobe beef and aged whisky, it now turns out that cheese is the most stolen food in the world. A UK retail research group surveyed 1,187 retailers representing more than 250,000 retail outlets across 43 countries which showed that four per cent of cheese went missing from store shelves. Much of the theft is for resale and a lot of this cheese will be resold into other markets or to restaurants.

MEAT

Canada's meat industry says it stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year unless Ottawa moves more quickly to sign a free-trade agreement with South Korea. Recently, the U.S. signed such a trade deal which will mean its beef and pork producers will face much lower tariffs than their Canadian counterparts. South Korea is one of Canada's largest pork markets and was once Canada's fourth largest beef market.

NEWSPAPERS

Worldwide daily newspaper circulation declined by 1.7 per cent in 2010 to 519 million. In the past five years the industry has suffered from global economic turmoil and the migration of readers online. Newspaper advertising revenue fell by 23 per cent between 2006 and 2010. Publishers in mature markets have cut jobs and costs and raised cover prices to stay in print. Newspapers reach 2.3-billion people every day, 20 per cent more readers than the internet. However, globally, the number of daily newspaper titles increased by 200 last year to 14,853.

MANUFACTURING

In 2010, manufacturing productivity increased in all 19 countries surveyed by America's Bureau of Labour Statistics. The previous year, 12 of the countries experienced falls. Taiwan achieved an impressive increase of 15 per cent and was one of the six countries with gains above 10 per cent. In 2008-09, productivity in Japan, Italy and Britain fell by more than 3 per cent but have since recovered lost ground.

FIRES

A series of tens of millions of fires detected worldwide from space since 2002 show how fire affects our environment according to NASA. Data shows that Africa has more abundant burning than any other continent with about 70 per cent of the world's fires. Fires are comparatively rare in North America, making up just 2 per cent of the world's burned area each year.

SCOTCH

As Africans grow richer, they drink more Scotch. They bought US$147-million of it in the first six months of this year, an increase of 34 per cent over last year. Sales of Johnnie Walker doubled in east Africa in 2010 to 790,000 litres and is predicted to rise even more this year, not only in east Africa but in west and southern Africa too.

SAMSUNG

This company began as a small noodle maker in 1938. Since then it has swelled into a network of 83 companies that account for a staggering 13 per cent of South Korea's exports. The biggest company is Samsung Electronics which started out making transistor radios but is now the world's biggest technology firm, measured by sales. It makes more televisions than any other company and may soon displace Nokia as the biggest maker of mobile-telephone handsets. In the next decade Samsung will invest US$20-billion in the fields of solar panels, energy saving LED lights, medical devices, biotech drugs and batteries for electric cars.

TOURISM

Dubai is significantly expanding its cruise ship port in an effort to attract more seafaring tourists to the city's Persian Gulf shores. A second cruise ship terminal at the downtown Port Rashid will be opened by the end of 2012. Up to five cruise liners will be able to dock at a time, compared with two now. Plans call for seven in the future. 120 cruise ships docked at Dubai in 2010 carrying 390,000 passengers. 625,000 passengers are expected by 2015. In 2010, 3.3-million cruise passengers past through Port Everglades, Fla.

COOLING

Facebook Inc. plans to build a server farm in the Swedish town of Lulea, 100 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle, using the northern air to cool its equipment. It will be the first server farm built outside the U.S. by the social networking giant. The average temperature in Lulea is 2 degrees centigrade. As cloud computing becomes the norm, more and more companies, including Google and Apple, are expanding their server farm facilities, many of which are the size of several soccer stadiums and contain thousands of servers. Cooling the servers is a significant cost of operations.

FUEL

The Spanish airline Iberia Lineas has flown the country's first commercial flight using a blend of fuel made from the inedible camelina plant. Last July, airlines won approval from ASTM International, the U.S. technical standards body, to fly planes using fuel made from inedible plants and organic waste mixed with petroleum-derived fuel. Approval allows for blends of up to 50 per cent biofuel. Since July, airlines including Air France-KLM Group and Finnair have flown using such blends.

LIGHT

A new type of "smart" window that switches from summer to winter mode has been made by South Korean scientists. The window darkens when the outside temperature soars, and becomes transparent when it gets cold in order to capture free heat from the sun. This type of light control system may provide a new option for saving on heating, cooling and lighting costs through managing the light transmitted into the interior of a house.

CORK

After a decade of soaring growth for screw caps, bark has begun to beat back the assault. Now, the use of bark is up again as plastic stoppers are disparaged for letting too much air into wine bottles. Over the past 16 months, shipments in cork wine stoppers from Portugal, which supplies the majority of the material to the industry, grew by 19.4 per cent, mainly reclaiming market share from plastic "corks," and also gaining on screw tops.

ARCTIC

Russia has predicted that Arctic shipping routes along Russia's northern coast will soon rival the Suez canal as a quicker trade link from Europe to Asia. Russia plans to revive the Soviet-era shipping lane as polar ice cover recedes to near record levels. This could speed energy deliveries to China and boost business for cargo suppliers. This route is almost a third shorter than the traditional southern one.

RUBIES

While the price of gold continues to climb, growing numbers of investors are also venturing farther afield into gemstones such as rubies, sapphires and emeralds. Dealers say that prices for high-quality rubies are up by 50 per cent this year and the same applies to sapphires. In a recent auction to wholesalers, African emeralds sold for more than 63 per cent per carat than higher-quality stones fetched last December.

TESTING

A technology company is building a US$200-million desert ghost town 20 miles square for testing smart city technologies, such as traffic control, smart power grids, cyber security and self-driving vehicles.

VOLUNTEERING

Having volunteer work in your resume has the potential to make you more attractive to employers, a new survey suggests. The survey of 1,200 professionals in Canada found that 84 per cent have had personal experience doing volunteer work, such as fundraising and organizing charity events. 46 per cent of hiring managers said they consider such volunteer work equally as valuable as paid work experience when evaluating candidates.

WOUNDS

A would dressing that glows to indicate an infection has been developed. Scientists at Sheffield University have produced a gel containing molecules that bind to bacteria and activate a fluorescent dye. The dressing emits a pinkish glow under ultraviolet light when harmful levels of bacteria are present.

GASOLINE

A British insurance firm has compiled a list of gasoline prices around the world. These are the five countries where gas is least expensive. Bahrain, 21 cents a litre; Turkmenistan, 19 cents; Libya, 14 cents; Saudi Arabia, 13 cents and Venezuela, 4.7 cents.

RESTAURANTS

A restaurant owner in Saudi Arabia is cracking down on food wastage by fining diners who don't eat everything they order. The owner says customers often order large quantities of food as a status symbol at his establishment in order to impress the people around them and to boost their social prestige. The owner calculates the fines based on the amount of food left over and says that he has received support from other Saudis for his idea.

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

November 2011 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

November 2011 Edition

HISPANICS

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the boom in the Hispanic population is spreading beyond traditional areas such as California and Texas to reach every corner of the country, including the Deep South and the Midwest. The report shows the biggest increases in Hispanic population in the past decade were in places such as South Carolina, Alabama, Maryland and South Dakota. Latinos accounted for 16.3 per cent of the population in 2010, up from 12.5 per cent in 2000.

DISENGAGED

Half of all Canadian employees surveyed are disengaged from their work according to a recent poll. Thirty six per cent of the 2,000 workers surveyed said they are seriously considering leaving their organization, up sharply from 26 per cent the last time the survey was done in 2006. Another 22 per cent said they are indifferent about leaving but are increasingly dissatisfied with their employers. On a positive note, employees credit their employers for being better in providing feedback, with 54 per cent saying they had a formal performance appraisal or review in the past 12 months compared with 46 per cent in 2006.

WASTE

During the recent summer heat in Tokyo ordinary consumers were trying to conserve energy offsetting shortages from the nuclear plant outages. Meanwhile, luxury boutiques were snubbing their noses at such practices by propping their doors wide open in the belief that their air-conditioned cool air will increase foot traffic as the frigid air is allowed to stream wastefully onto the sidewalk. Among the companies are many that claim to be "green" and environmentally friendly.

YACHTS

China's seemingly insatiable appetite for luxury is a boon for yacht-builders, and other makers of luxury goods, at a time when traditional markets in Europe and the U.S. are struggling. One UK builder recently sealed a massive deal to supply five yachts worth US$33-million to a mainland Chinese customer. But yacht builders are facing emerging competition from local upstarts keen to get a slice of this potentially lucrative market. However, high taxes, onerous regulation and a lack of suitable marinas and berths may limit the industry's expansion.

REPLICAS

An exact replica of an Austrian town is being built in China's Guangdong province. Chinese architects have already designed a number of fully inhabitable towns in variety of European styles. Near Shanghai, Thames Town looks like a traditional English village, complete with fish and chip shops. Others are modeled on Barcelona and Venice. These towns are, in essence, huge real-estate developments based on an architectural theme.

EMPLOYMENT

In most of the OECD mainly rich member countries, immigrants fare worse than native-born workers in the job market. In Belgium, the unemployment rate for immigrants is two-and-a-half times that for those born in the country. Workers in Spain have a jobless rate of 18 per cent while 30 per cent of immigrants are out of work. In the U.S. where the labour market has been unusually slow, the pain is being shared fairly equally among native-born workers and immigrants.

PHONES

Women in developing countries are 21 per cent less likely to own a cell phone than men. This amounts to about 300-million fewer female subscribers. Closing this gender gap represents a US$13-billion revenue opportunity for cell phone operators, an amount that will increase to $29-billion a year by 2014. It is estimated that 38 per cent of women and 48 per cent of men have cell phones in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

WINE

Whereas counterfeit art has been around for centuries, wine forgery is relatively new. It started in the late 1970s when the prices of the best wines, especially those from Bordeaux, shot up. Today, with demand from China fuelling a remarkable boom, counterfeiting is rife. By some estimates, five per cent of fine wines sold at auction are not what they claim to be on the label. The simplest technique is to slap the label of a prized recent vintage on that of a less-divine year. Another is to bribe the sommelier of a fancy restaurant to pass on empty bottles that once held fine wines to be refilled with inferior wines.

NUCLEAR

France has bucked the anti-nuclear trend following Japan's disaster by pledging US$2-billion of investment in atomic power. The announcement confirming France's commitment to nuclear power came as neighbouring Germany drew up plans to shut all its nuclear stations by 2022. Switzerland has also decided not to replace its five existing nuclear reactors which supply 40 per cent of its energy. All 143 working nuclear power plants in the EU's 27 member countries are facing new safety tests in the wake of the Japanese disaster.

INNOVATION

Canada's Science Council reports that Canada is now a mid-level player in the global innovation race, passed by rising powers China and South Korea in some categories and falling behind long-time rivals such as the U.S., Germany, Norway and Sweden. Canada's performance has slumped on most key measures in the two years since the last report Among other things, the country is spending less per capita on Research and Development, business R&D is down, venture capital relative to GDP is down, government spending on R&D has fallen and the ranking of Canadians in high-school test scores is lower.

FUEL

Dutch airline KLM is using recycled cooking oil as biofuel to power 200 flights between Amsterdam and Paris, in a move aimed at cutting carbon emissions.

WEALTH

The number of millionaires worldwide grew to 10.9-million in 2010 despite a slowdown following the financial crisis. Canada remained in seventh place in the ranking of rich people by country and the U.S. held on to the top spot. Men made up 73 per cent of the wealthy worldwide and 83 per cent were more than 45 years old. For the first time, Asia was home to more millionaires than Europe. This tiny percentage of the world's population controls US$42.7-trillion of global resources, $2-trillion more than before the 2008 crash.

SHIPS

The Vale Brazil, biggest iron-ore carrier ever built, is capable of hauling 400,000 tonne cargoes. This is enough iron ore to make about 261,000 tonnes of steel, three and a half times that used to build the Golden Gate Bridge. The Vale Brazil is the first in a fleet of 19 such vessels planned by the world's largest iron-ore producer to transport freight between Brazil and China. The ship spans the length of five Airbus 380s. It is estimated the new fleet will cut freight costs by 20-25 per cent.

LABOUR

Germany hopes to attract doctors and mechanical and electrical engineers from abroad by scrapping restrictions that made it more difficult for them to find work, as part of a plan to increase the nation's skilled labour force. The government has agreed with industry and union leaders to a long-term concept that includes changing immigration laws to allow companies to more easily hire from abroad.

FONTS

Ford Motor Co. plans to use larger and bolder fonts for the text on many of its interior vehicle controls in order to make the characters easier to read, especially for aging baby boomers. Starting in 2012, Ford will use fonts 40 per cent larger. This results from a study Ford did showing that even small changes can make the words in its interior graphics easier for everyone to read, regardless of their age.

AEROSPACE

Montreal ranks third globally as an aerospace centre, after Seattle and Toulouse, France. Those employed in the 200 Montreal-based companies total 40,000 with annual sales of C$11-billion. Quebec's aerospace industry accounts for 70 per cent of total Canadian R&D spending.

LOGGING

It is estimated that there are an estimated US$1-2-billion worth of dead trees on land flooded during the construction of Ghana's Akosombo hydroelectric dam in 1965. A new sawmill has been built on the shores of Volta Lake and will soon be cutting logs of valuable odum, ebony and mahogany from some 36 tropical hardwood species native to the region. They will use floating, chainsaw-equipped harvesters that combine the technology of forestry and deep-sea oil drilling, to reach up to 100 feet below the surface. Nearly eight years in the making, the massive salvage operation will take 25 years and harvest 350,000 hectares of forest.

LOADS

A UK company has developed an innovative Load Weight Monitor system to maximize the safety and efficiency of loading operations. According to statistics from the Transport Research Laboratory, more than 500 commercial vehicles roll over each year in the UK, resulting in 40 per cent of all fatalities in the trucking industry. The system is currently undergoing trials with a UK supermarket chain.

INDIA

Major big-box retailers have been lobbying the government of India for years to allow them into the country to sell products to India's 1.2-billion people. Now, a panel is recommending allowing foreign companies to own up to 51 per cent in multi-brand stores with a minimum investment of US$100-million. This may pave the way for stores like Wal-Mart, Paris-based Carrefore and Tesco in the UK to open supermarkets. Retail sales in India are expected to almost double to $785-billion in 2115 from $396-billion in 2011.

BEEF

Cattle futures are expected to rise in the next few months because of dwindling U.S. herd sizes, now at their lowest level since the 1950s. There were 4.3-million head of cattle in Canada in January of this year on 83,000 cattle farms and ranches. The industry contributes C$20-billion to the economy.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Many emerging economies are in a favourable position with respect to their demographic transition, where the share of population in their working years is rising, boosting economic growth. The East Asian economies have reaped the most dramatic dividends. The share of the working-age population has soared from 47 per cent in 1975 to 64 per cent in 2010. The working-age population in East Asia will peak this decade and fall to 57 per cent by 2050. In South Asia, in contrast, the working age population will continue to rise until 2040.

TOYS

The European Union has introduced tighter safety measures for children's toys, which could hurt Chinese imports which account for 80 per cent of all EU toy imports. The new rules target toys that contain phthalates, a plastic softening chemical linked to hormone disruption in children. They are also targeting flame retardants in some toys that may hinder child growth. Surveillance at EU borders and within the 27 member states will be tightened but manufacturers, importers and distributors will also be responsible for identifying these hazards.

DOGS

Plagued with pets that do their business, a Florida condo development is making residents supply mouth swabs of DNA samples for their dogs. Any droppings found will be sent to a laboratory and if the poop matches a registered dog, the owner may be fined US$1,000.

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

October 2011 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

October 2011 Edition

CLIMATE The destructive forces of climate change are already being felt in the world's biggest wine-producing regions, California, Europe and Australia, as the steady rise in global temperatures scorches vineyards and depletes water supplies. As a heat wave gripped Ontario this summer, warmer temperatures radically changed the dynamics of the industry. Hotter summers can cause heat stress for grapes which threaten whites such as Chardonnay and Riesling. In 2009, Ontario's wine industry was worth C$575-million in sales. But as in B.C., the Niagara industry could also be threatened by pests that are normally killed off in the winter. EARNINGS The wealth gap between whites and minorities in the U.S. has reached the widest in a quarter century. The median wealth of white households is 20 times greater than that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanics. Plummeting house values are the principal cause. Many Hispanics live in regions hardest hit by the housing bust, Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada. FOOD There are 230,000 Canadians employed in the food manufacturing sector. In 2009, Canada ranked fourth globally in agriculture and agri-food exports. Food now represents 15 per cent of total manufacturing sales, up from 10 per cent a decade ago. Canada is first globally in exports of canola, peas, lentils, mustard seed and linseed. EXPLORATION China plans an ultradeep dive by a manned submersible beneath the Pacific that will propel it past the U.S. in a race to explore potentially vast mineral resources in the deepest parts of the world's oceans. The first dives, between North America and Hawaii will be to a depth of 5,000 metres. There are only four other countries that can explore the ocean below 3,500 metres--Japan, Russia, the U.S. and France. If the current mission is successful, China will attempt a dive next year to 7,000 metres which would allow China access to 99.8 per cent of all the world's seabed. PANAMA This country's smart banks, open economy and long lineups of boats at its ports have many comparing it to Singapore on which it models itself. Though Panama is not even one-fifth as rich as its Asian model, from 2005 to 2010 its economy expanded by 8 per cent each year, the fastest in the Americas. The IMF expects it to grow by six per cent each year over the next five years. In 2010, the canal revenues were US$2-billion. Its business-friendly regulations have spawned big insurance, finance and legal industries and Panama's import tariffs are among the lowest in Latin America. CYCLING For the first time, cyclists outnumbered motorists on some the United Kingdom's busiest commuter routes during the rush hours. On Cheapside, a street in the City of London, cycles make up more than 50 per cent of commuter traffic and account for 42 per cent on Southwark Bridge across the Thames. In one Bristol suburb, more than one in four people cycle to work. TAXES 324 households in Athens declared ownership of swimming pools for tax purposes. Satellite photos have detected 16,974 pools. PORTS India aims to pour US$60-billion into ports by 2020 under a drive to spur the fastest growth in more than two decades and ease bottlenecks. The target is part of a planned $1-trillion revamp of choked transport and power networks. To date there has been insufficient investment in infrastructure which has left the world's most populous democracy trailing a Chinese economy which is now three times larger. TVs The size of the average British television set has surged to nearly 36" in the past year. The demand for 40" to 47" TVs has increased 93 per cent against the previous year. The average size is now 35.9", up from 32.9" this time last year. The increase is the result of a fall of nearly one third in prices. However, the advent of 3D and internet-ready Smart TVs has got consumers increasingly opting for extra large 42" models and above. TRADE The U.S. trade deficit with China widened 11.8 per cent through June of this year. At the current rate, the trade gap will surpass US$305-billion by the end of the year. The top Chinese exports to the U.S. in this period were: computers; wireless communications equipment; audio and video equipment and games and toys. The top U.S. exports to China in the same period were: waste and scrap; soybeans; automobiles and light-duty motor vehicles; semi-conductors and aircraft engines, equipment and parts. DISEASE A new survey reports that more than half of Americans have at least one chronic disease. Some 55 per cent of people in the U.S. said that they were diagnosed with one or more chronic conditions compared to 41 per cent of people in the UK and 52 per cent of Canadians. The international survey which quizzed people in 12 countries also found that more Americans rated their overall health as "excellent" or "good" than any other country. PATENTS Apple has applied for a patent on a mobile phone safety feature that would deploy an airbag if the device falls. The patent also suggests using a laser or even radar to determine the distance between the phone and the ground. Other suggestions for protecting a falling phone include springs that would be released from the casing to ensure the phone safely bounced on hitting the ground. The application also suggests that a gyroscope or jets of compressed air could be used to alter the angle of the device in the air. LAND Russia is offering agricultural land to Southeast Asian nations to grow crops and help secure reliable food supplies, part of a wider effort to foster trade and investment ties in new markets. In Africa, Mozambique is inviting Brazilian soy, corn and cotton growers to introduce their farming expertise on its savanna. Brazil has been successfully growing crops on its centre-west plains which has similar climatic and soil conditions to Mozambique. CHOPSTICKS A shortage of chopsticks in China has become so acute that a U.S. company has begun exporting millions of pairs to the country. A Georgia company is producing two million sets of the traditional eating utensils each day. It is operating around the clock to keep up with demand and hopes to be exporting 10-million pairs a day by the end of the year. Amid a shortage of wood in China, the abundant poplar and sweet gum trees in Georgia were found to be perfect. VENDING Parisians can now buy fresh baguettes from coin-operated machines which could sound the death knell for the bakeries Francophiles hold so dear. And, if the quality is compromised, it may kill off the baguette too. The vending machine is described as "the bakery of tomorrow" as the machine heats up a part-cooked loaf and delivers it piping hot. TOURISM The Canadian tourism industry is ramping up its efforts to target the blossoming Chinese market. Other countries like the U.S. and New Zealand have been able to capitalize on Chinese outbound tourism for years. It wasn't until June, 2010 that Canada finally received approval destination status from China. There has already been a 26 per cent increase in tourists this year and it is estimated that the Chinese market could generate $300-million a year in revenue by 2015. HAIR The growing desire for glossy, long locks is fuelling a multi-million dollar global trade in human hair, with demand for hair extensions surging by 160 per cent over the previous year in Britain. It is estimated that this industry is worth US$110-million annually. Britain was the third largest buyer of human hair behind the U.S. and China. SHOPPING Giant posters on Shanghai's subway system now allow commuters to do their weekly shop on the way home simply by taking pictures of the items they desire with their mobile phones. The posters at the commercial capital's busiest stations depict several rows of a supermarket shelf stacked with 80 or so daily groceries with everything from raw meat to juice and diapers. Commuters photograph a barcode beneath each item they wish to purchase. Orders are delivered to their door within hours and are charged by weight. AGING The Ueshima coffee shops that dot Tokyo seem like any other chain. But if you look closely you see the aisles are wider, the chairs sturdier and the tables lower. The food is mostly mushy rather than crunchy. Helpful staff carry items to the customers' tables. The menus are written in traditional Japanese, rather that Western lettering and are in a large, easy to read font, and it is no coincidence that the chain is full of elderly people. Ueshima is not advertised as a coffee shop for the elderly but it targets them relentlessly. Fully a fifth of the Japanese population is now over 65. FUEL Major U.S. car makers have agreed new fuel efficiency standards proposed by the U.S. Administration in an effort to end the dominance of gas guzzlers. They have agreed that by 2025, cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. will drive on average 54.5 miles per gallon (mpg) of fuel, compared with 27 mpg today. It is estimated that this will lower the country's oil use by 2.2-million barrels a day over the next 15 years and save consumers almost US$2-trillion in fuel costs. WHEAT Canadian revenue from the export of wheat in 2010 was C$5.2-billion of which 48 per cent came from Saskatchewan. 90 loaves of whole what bread can be made from a bushel of wheat or 210 servings of spaghetti. HOLIDAYS Germans work hard but they also enjoy the most generous holiday time in the European Union taking an average of 40 days annually including paid leave and public holidays. Only Danes are afforded as much time off. In Greece and Portugal the average is 33 days each year and in Romania it is 27 days. DAMAGE When a container fell off a forklift recently, 462 cases of the top-rated Australian 2010 Mollydooker Velvet Glove Shiraz were smashed. Just one case survived the impact. Each bottle was valued at C$191. The wine had been headed for the U.S. for its formal launch. SIGHT In the early 1970s, 25 per cent of Americans were near-sighted; three decades later the rate had risen to 42 per cent, and similar increases have occurred around the world. There is significant evidence that the trait is inherited but the genes are not the only factor. The rapid increase appears to be due to a characteristic of modern life: more and more time spent indoors under artificial light. ORGANIC A new poll has found that the majority (58 per cent) of consumers prefer organic food to conventional food. This preference is particularly strong with those with higher education and those of a younger demographic. Sixty-three per cent of respondents under age 35 choose organics when possible. Among those preferring organic foods, the primary reasons were: supporting local farms, 36%, avoiding toxins, 34%, environmental health 17% and taste 13%.

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