Sept 2011 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

Sept  2011 Edition

SOFTWOOD

 May of this year saw British Columbia's lumber sales to China eclipsing those to the United States for the first time. Producers sold US$120-million of softwood lumber to mainland China, triple the level of a year earlier and more than the $119-million in sales to the U.S. The States has always been the biggest customer for the province's sprawling forests of spruce, pine and fir. The higher Chinese sales may not last as America's depressed new housing market eventually recovers. Total sales to China to the end of June have reached $446-million, up 178 per cent over last year, compared with $661-million to the U.S.

JUNK FOOD

The Association of National Advertisers, a Washington D.C. based lobby group is urging the White House to curb its enthusiasm for more restrictions on advertising many food and beverage products to children. The so-called Sensible Food Policy Coalition, which is made up of advertisers, media sales organizations, and food and beverage manufacturers, say that the proposed restrictions could result in lower sales of about US$30-billion and the loss of about 74,000 jobs over the first year.

PARKING

According to Colliers International, Calgary is now second only to New York as the most expensive city to park in North America, and 21st in the world. The average monthly rate in Calgary is US$472.50, up 4.2 per cent in the past year. Toronto is $332 down 1.2 per cent and Vancouver $288, up 7.9 per cent. Internationally, the City of London and London's West End are nearly $1100 per month, up over 16 per cent from a year earlier. Zurich is $822 a month and Hong Kong and Tokyo are tied for $744 a month.

VIEWING

The receivership of DVD rental chain Blockbuster is one of the latest signposts along a road that has seen DVD sales and rentals on a steady decline in the U.S. since 2007 and the growth in popularity of online streaming services. DVD revenue in the U.S. in 2010 was US$14-billion, an 11 per cent decline from a year earlier. At the same time, there was a 19 per cent increase in streamed and downloaded sales and rentals.

CHARITY

Canada has about 85,000 charities and they must disclose to Revenue Canada how much their 10 highest-paid workers earn. There are about a million charity workers in Canada and 6,000 of them earned above C$120,000 last year. Another 12,000 workers made between $80,000 and $120,000. A few hundred earned over $350,000. Charities defend the high pay saying they have to pay top dollar for the brightest talent. One major cancer foundation paid its 156 full-time and 30 part-time workers nearly $13-million last year.

SOLAR

The first solar park in Wales will soon be converting sunlight into electricity in Pembrokeshire. Almost 10,000 solar panels have been imported from the U.S. and are placed in 12 lines in a six-acre field which is expected to double eventually. The panels are thin film particularly suited to the local climate of largely cloudy skies.

COUNTERFEIT

U.S. Customs estimates the global value of counterfeit and pirated products to be US$600-million rising to $1.7-trillion by 2015. U.S. agencies made 19,959 seizures in 2010 compared with 3,600 in 2001. 66 per cent of the goods seized in the U.S. originated in China, the single largest source. The largest category was footwear, 24 per cent of the total.

HEMP

Canada's hemp sector is small but growing quickly, with an increase in exports of 500 per cent over the past four years. Hemp can be used for products as varied as pasta, textiles, building products and car parts. Industrial hemp and marijuana are both members of the cannabis plant family. Health Canada issued 296 licences to grow industrial hemp to June of 2011, up from 184 in 2009. A total of 3.98-million kilograms of hemp products worth C$10.38-million were exported in 2010, up from $8.09-million in 2009.

LABOUR

Following in the controversial footsteps of Arizona's lawmakers, Georgia also introduced beefed-up immigrant legislation this spring. As a result, farm workers are bypassing Georgia, causing a massive labour shortage in the state and sending the US$1.1-billion industry into a tailspin. Farmers are experiencing labour shortages of up to 50 per cent and it is estimated that up to a quarter of Georgia's crops will go unharvested, representing $300-million in lost revenue. Despite the economic ramifications, the governments of Alabama and South Carolina are considering similar legislation.

TRASH

Air France is to ask passengers to clear their seats and take trash with them when leaving the plane as they seek to cut costs and stem the advance of airlines such as Easyjet and Ryanair in its home market. Cabin crews have refused to assume cleaning duties at a low-cost operation it is introducing in a push to claw back traffic at provincial airports. Ryanair is now the fifth largest passenger carrying airline in the world.

DISPUTES

After a 17-year dispute, the U.S. and Mexico have signed a deal to allow their trucks to use each other's roads. The 1994 NAFTA called for Mexican trucks to have full access to U.S. highways, but were kept to a border buffer zone because the U.S. cited concerns about the ability of Mexican trucks to meet U.S. safety and environmental standards. In 2009, Mexico imposed higher tariffs on dozens of U.S. products in response.

POTATOES

Scientists in Scotland has decoded the full DNA sequence of the potato for the first time. The breakthrough holds out the promise of boosting harvests of one of the world's most important staple crops. It should soon be possible to develop improved varieties of potato much more quickly. The genome of an organism is a map of how all its genes are put together. Each gene controls different aspects of how the organism grows and develops.

INSURANCE

After two years of decline, the global insurance industry returned to growth in 2010. Overall, insurance premiums rose by 2.7 per cent to US$4.3-trillion in 2010. Rich countries dominate, but growth was concentrated in emerging markets. In the U.S., which accounts for more than a quarter of the world market, premiums rose slightly to US$1.116-trillion. Canadian premiums were worth $115-billion and Japanese premiums $557-billion.

MARITIMES

Time was when the economies of the four Atlantic provinces were virtually indistinguishable, depending on the fortunes of fish, farming and forests. But Newfoundland and Labrador's remarkable oil and mining boom is creating a new gap between the haves and have-nots of Atlantic Canada. Its economy is powering ahead while those of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island languish, waiting for a national recovery. In Newfoundland, workers are increasingly scarce because mining, oil and government sectors are all in full expansion, raising concerns that there will be a shortage to bring a series of new projects on stream.

CIRCUITS

Scientists in the U.S. have created a roller ball pen that can be used to draw functioning circuit boards. They have used conductive silver ink to sketch electrical circuits on paper, wood and other flexible surfaces. Similar pens have been available for a number of years, but their ink tends not to be bendable when dry. Most of the work in this area is focused on developing inkjet printers capable of creating circuits.

PUMPS

Canadians already paying steep gas prices have also been paying out money for gas they didn't receive. Government data shows that six per cent of all gas pumps tested over the past 2 1/2 years failed to dispense the right amount of fuel. The loss adds up to an average of a couple of dollars for every 50 tankfuls. An inaccurate pump in their tests equals a discrepancy of more than 100mL, over or under for 20 litres of gas. Saskatchewan rated the highest for overcharging at 83 per cent.

TIRES

China's insatiable demand for commodities has prompted a tripling in the price of mining truck tires, making them more expensive than a Porsche 911 or a condo in Miami. Prices for 3.5 metre tires used by Caterpillar trucks have touched US$100,000. Demand from China, the world's biggest metals buyer, has driven copper, iron ore, gold and coal to record prices this year, forcing companies to compete for the equipment and labour needed to mine them.

FORMULA ONE

Some of the most sophisticated data-acquisition and analysis equipment is found on F1 cars allowing them to shave fractions of a second off lap times. Now the technology pioneered in motor racing is being applied to sailing, another discipline where split seconds provide an edge. Sailing teams for the Olympics have adopted the technology as have several competitors in the America's Cup allowing them more accurately to measure wind speed, yaw, rudder angles and other factors.

GREENHOUSES

Statistics Canada reports that there were 22.9-million square metres of greenhouses in Canada in 2010, up from 22.4-million. There was a 3 per cent increase in the sales of greenhouse products to C$2.5-billion. Sales of fruit and vegetables increased by 10 per cent to surpass $1-billion. Sales of nursery products were $644-million and sod was worth $147-million.

PAPERS

Between 2005 and 2009, the average circulation decline in newspapers in Japan was 50 per cent. In Britain it was 15.9 per cent. In the United States the decline was 13.3 per cent and in Germany 19 per cent. However, in the same period, readership rose by 6 per cent in South Africa, 109 per cent in China, 8 per cent in Brazil and 110 per cent in India. In the same period the number of paid-for daily newspapers in India increased by 44 per cent to 2,700 and the total number of papers increased by 23 per cent to more than 74,000. In 2008, India overtook China to become the leader in paid-for daily circulation with 110 million sold each day.

RETIREMENT

In Greece, the retirement age is 62 except for those who labour in "hazardous professions" such as hairdressing where the retirement age is 50 with full pension.

SIZE

China has opened the world's longest cross-sea bridge which stretches five miles further than the distance from Dover to Calais. The Jiaozhou Bay bridge is 26.4 miles long and links China's eastern port city of Qingdao to the offshore island Huangdao. The bridge is 110ft wide, cost nearly US$2-billion and took four years to build. It will hold the record for only a few years as the government has announced the construction of a even longer bridge to link southern Guangdong province with Hong Kong and Macau. To be completed in 2016, the bridge will be 30 miles long and cost over $10-billion.

WATER

In many countries around the world, access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities is still limited. Researchers now say that contaminated water can be cleaned much more effectively using a novel, cheap material. Dubbed "super sand", it could become a low-cost way to purify water in the developing world. The technology involves coating grains of sand in an oxide of a widely available material called graphite, commonly used as lead in pencils.

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

Aug 2011 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

Aug 2011 Edition

REFUGEES

The UN defines a refugee as a person who flees their country due to a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. There are an estimated 11-12 million refugees in the world today, a dramatic increase since the mid-1970s when there were less than three million. However it is a decrease since 1992 when the refugee population was nearly 28-million due to the Balkan conflicts Approximately 70 per cent of the world's refugee population is in Africa and the Middle East.

RESEARCH

A deal has been announced which will see Google and the British Library make available about 250,000 books. Internet users will be able to consult texts dating from 1700 to 1870 which have been digitalized by Google. The works are all out of copyright. The costs of digitalizing all 40-million pages have been borne by Google, which has entered into similar partnerships with Stanford and Harvard universities in the U.S., as well as in the Netherlands, Italy and Austria.

EMPLOYMENT

The Economist reports that the outlook for employment in the third quarter of this year is positive in 34 of the 39 countries and territories covered by Manpower, an employment-services company. At 47 percentage points, the net balance of employers expecting to increase the size of their workforce is highest in India. Along with Germany, Canada and Argentina, India is among the countries where the prospects are brightest. In Italy and Spain however, more employers say they intend to cut the size of their workforce than say they plan to augment it.

SITES

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has announced that websites will no longer be limited to endings such as .com or .org. There are now 22 top-level domains such as .net and .travel, and .com is the most popular with almost 26-million addresses. There are also 250 country-specific domains, such as .can and .uk. Non-Latin characters such as Arabic and Chinese will be allowed in domains for the first time.

BEER

The brewing of beer stretches back to the Bronze Age in China and the Middle East. Now, archaeologists have uncovered evidence that the occupants of southeastern France were brewing beer during the Iron Age, some 2,500 years ago. Barley grains have been found on a paved floor near an oven and hearth of a home dated to the 5th Century BC, and in a ceramic vessel and a pit that were near storage containers. Scientists speculate that the finds were part of a home-brew process that needs no specialized equipment.

WATERMELONS

A prized Japanese watermelon fetched nearly US$4,000 at auction recently. The rare Densuke watermelon, a solidly black, smooth-as-a-bowling ball gourd is lauded for its crispy texture and extra sweet fruit. Grown exclusively in Hokkaido, there are only about 65-70 of the stripeless watermelons available each year. The highest-ever price was in 2007 when one sold for $8,100. A average watermelon sells for about $30.

ELEVATORS

The 102-floor Empire State Building in New York is to upgrade its elevators. without disrupting its thousands of office workers and tourists that visit each day. The plan is to replace and modernize the building's 68 elevators to bring them into the computer age and reduce passenger wait times. The cost of the final renovation project which will include upgraded lighting, heating and cooling and other systems is about US$550-million. This is the biggest modernization in the building's 158-year history.

CIGARS

Production of Cuban cigars and tobacco leaf are on the rise after falling on hard times due to smoking bans and the international financial crisis. The dextrous fingers of Cuba's cigar makers rolled out 81.5-million of the sought after smokes last year compared with 75.4-million in 2009. But this is still well below the 100-million cigars which were exported in 2008. The partial recovery is due largely to a growing demand in Asia, particularly China, where the new rich are keen for the largest and most expensive cigars.

CHIPS

Driven by the success of the iPhone and iPad, Apple Inc. has now become the world's largest buyer of chips for computers and phones. Apple bought US$17.5-billion worth of chips last year surpassing computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. as the largest consumer. This was an increase of 80 per cent from the year before, reflecting Apple's continuing sales surge. An iPhone contains about $80 worth of chips. Apple sold 48-million iPhones last year, up 89 per cent from the previous year. The next biggest buyers of chips were Samsung, Dell and Nokia.

ROYAL MAIL

Tens of thousands of Royal Mail workers in Britain face the threat of losing their jobs after the company reported a C$180-million loss in its letters and parcels business following a huge slump in the number of people using the post. Daily postal deliveries have fallen from 80-million pieces five years ago to 62-million, a decline of 20 per cent, with further declines of 5 per cent each year predicted. The number of mail centres is to drop from 64 at the start of this year to 32 over the next few years. Each centre employs from 500 to 1,000 workers.

CLOTHING

New research shows that the average British woman buys 62 pounds of clothing, or about half her body weight, in a single year. The growth of "fast fashion" which means "buy it, wear it and chuck it" has led women to buy four times as many clothes as they did 30 years ago. It also implies that they are also dumping a similar amount of clothing each year. The calculation of 62 pounds comes from studying textile imports.

SERVICE

A Consumer Reports survey indicates that Americans are fed up with poor customer service with 64 per cent walking out of stores due to poor assistance and 67 per cent hanging up on a call before their problems are even addressed. The most annoying complaint is not being able to get someone on the phone, followed by a rude salesperson.

GUTS

Some industrious companies have devised clever ways of taking the inedible parts of animals like cows, pigs and sheep and using them to make popular consumer items. One UK firm, collects cows' intestines by the bucketful from local abattoirs and turns them into the kind of natural gut strings favoured by many of the world's top tennis players. It takes about four cows' guts to string the average tennis racket. The process takes six weeks from start to finish but is worth it. With a synthetic string, once hit by a ball, it remains stretched but a gut always returns to its natural form.

CLOTHES

China still dominates the business, supplying nearly half of the European Union's garments imports and 41 per cent of America's. However, more orders are shifting to lower-wage economies such as Cambodia and Vietnam, where garment factories are mushrooming. Vietnam is already the second largest supplier of clothes to the U.S. They still have to import fabrics from China so their transport costs are high.

DISTRESS

A lifeboat was launched after a distress call was received four miles off the Welsh coast. After a three hour search for the SOS message, the signal was traced to an anti-theft device on a BMW on a cross-channel ferry.

RESERVES

According to the oil company BP, the world's known reserves of oil rose by 6.6-billion barrels during 2010, as increases in reserves in Brazil, India, Russia, Colombia, Uganda and Ghana outstripped declines in Mexico and Norway. This brought the amount of oil that could, in theory, be extracted under existing technological and economic conditions to 1.38-trillion barrels. Over half the world's reserves are in the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia having just under a fifth of the global total. If China continues to pump out oil at the rate it did last year, its reserves will be exhausted in under a decade.

ROAMING

In a recent report issued by the OECD, Canada was found to have the highest data roaming fees out of all 34 countries surveyed. For IMb (megabyte) of data sent from a cellular roaming zone, less than the size of one high-resolution photograph, Canadians pay an average of US$24.61. That is more than double the overall average cost of $9.48 to transmit a single megabyte of data. That is more than five times the $4.17 per megabyte charged in Greece which has the lowest average roaming fees.

SEAS

Russia and Norway have agreed a deal to divide up their shares of the oil-rich Barents Sea. The accord will allow companies to explore for oil and gas in the 68,000 square mile area.The region has become more accessible recently as global warming has caused much of the ice to melt making significant exploration feasible for the first time. The US Geological survey estimated in 2008 that the Arctic was likely to hold 30 per cent of the world's recoverable, but yet to be discovered, gas and 13 per cent of its oil.

WINE

Exports are booming for California winemakers. Foreign shipments rebounded to a record US$1.14-billion in 2010, up 25.6 per cent from 2009. The previous Governor was a big grape crusader for the state appearing in TV ads and going on trade missions. The surge is also attributable to the economic recovery and favourable exchange rates that make the wine more affordable in key markets such as Canada, which accounts for about a quarter of foreign sales. Australia, a much smaller producer exports almost twice as much wine in dollar terms as the United States and even smaller New Zealand has been aggressive in foreign markets exporting about $800-million worth of wine, almost as much as California.

SUNSCREEN

By next year, help will be on the way for North American consumers who are confused by the maze of sun protection numbers and other claims on sunscreen. Staring next summer, bottles and tubes will carry the label "broad spectrum" which consumers can feel confident will lower their risk of skin cancer. These sunscreens will have to filter out the most dangerous types of radiation to claim they protect against cancer and premature aging.

WINDOW SHOPPING

Shoppers will soon be able to "try" on the latest fashions from the sidewalk outside some stores. Researchers in the UK are developing new technology that will recognize people from information stored on their cell phones as they walk by a store and will produce a life-size image of them on a screen outside, dressed in clothes from the store. The electronic likeness is created using body measurements that individual consumers have registered and asked for the information to be stored on the retailers central computer.

RENTAL

The Bloor Street shopping district in Toronto is the priciest in Canada at US$291.66 a square foot, making it the only Canadian city to make the global top 50. Saskatoon saw the biggest percentage jump last year with Broadway Avenue space rents up 25 per cent. The world's most expensive strip of storefronts is in New York, along Fifth Avenue, where a square foot of space rents for $2,150, almost $700 a foot more than the previous year. Hong Kong, London and Zurich are the next most expensive cities.

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

July 2011 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

July 2011 Edition

TANKERS

A surplus of supertankers competing to haul Middle East crude oil has swelled, hindering owners' chances of making charters to Asia profitable. There are now 18 per cent more very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, than there are likely cargoes. Returns from VLCCs on the industry's benchmark Saudi Arabia to Japan route have fallen around six per cent to US$4098 a day.

TURNOVER

According to Booz & Company consultants, 11.6 per cent of the world's 2,500 biggest publicly listed companies got new CEOs in 2010. The CEO turnover rate fell below 12 per cent for the first time since 2003 and was substantially lower than the 14.3 per cent rate in 2009. The highest turnover rate, at nearly 19 per cent, was in Japan but much of this was because of retirements. Companies in Brazil, India and Russia changed bosses nearly as often as the Japanese did. Nearly 30 per cent of CEOs who left office in those three countries were forced out.

EXPECTATIONS

Despite decades of apparent gains towards workplace equality, Canadian women starting careers still expect to earn considerably less than men and wait longer for promotions a sweeping new study has found. A review of 23,000 university students across Canada found that women expected an average initial salary 13.5 per cent lower than young men aiming for equivalent jobs. And women expected to wait an average of 12 per cent longer than men to get their first promotion. There was an average gap in expectations of 17.5 per cent after five years on the job in all types of work. The average initial salary expectation for women was C$40,421 compared to $46,727 for men.

BOOKS

Until now, Amazon Inc. has been a pusher of paper. But the Seattle-based company recently announced that it is now selling more e-books than books printed on paper. This has happened on a temporary basis in the past, for instance at Christmas, when Kindles were being given as gifts. But the company is now consistently selling 105 Kindle books for every 100 physical books, which suggests that the growth of digital books is now being sustained.

TRENDS

Booming lumber sales from British Columbia to China (in March sales tripled from a year ago) is creating its own transportation problems as lumber is piled up at west coast ports ready to be shipped to China. Now, four major BC producers have partnered to charter a ship for a year to give them more control over the movement of their products. Lumber and pulp fill about half of all containers exported from Vancouver which has strained the availability of containers. Seven round-trips are planned for this year which will bring a total of 175-million board feet of lumber to China, more than the total amount of wood BC shipped to China in 2005.

DEMOGRAPHY

According to the UN, the world's population will surpass 7-billion at the end of October, a few months earlier than had been expected. The global total will continue to rise slowly until 2100, when it will flatten out at 10.1-billion During the period of fastest growth, in the late 1980s, the world's population was rising by over 88-million a year. Now, annual growth is down to 75-million and by 2050 will be only 40-million. Today, Nigeria with 158-million people is the world's seventh largest country; by 2100 it will be the third largest with 730-million people.

CHONGQING

An explosion of manufacturing and construction activity draws as many as 500,000 new residents to this Chinese inland mountain city each year. The municipality of Chongqing covers an area the size of Switzerland with a population of 33-million. Since Chongqing's creation as a stand-alone economic zone in 1997, the gross domestic product has increased by 300 per cent; industrial output has risen 1,000 per cent and financial income has jumped by 1,460 per cent. The GDP growth target for the city for 2011 is 13.5 per cent, the highest of any other Chinese municipality.

ROADKILL

Globally, road accidents were the ninth leading cause of death in 2004, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), they could be the fifth by 2030, above HIV/AIDS and lung cancer. The WHO has now launched a "decade of road safety," with a plan to save 5-million lives and prevent 50-million serious injuries by 2020. Poor and middle income countries account for more than 90 per cent of road deaths but just 48 per cent of the world's registered vehicles.

OUTSOURCING

With the pay for factory workers soaring in many countries overseas, some companies are increasingly rethinking their manufacturing operations. Caterpillar, maker of heavy equipment, is moving some of its excavator production to Texas from abroad; Sauder, a U.S. furniture maker is moving production back to the States; NCR has returned production of cash machines to Georgia from low-wage countries and Wham-O has restored half of its Frisbee and Hula Hoop production to America from China and Mexico.

AID

Japan is set to make the traumatic leap from being one of the worlds's most generous aid donors to one of its biggest aid recipients as it begins the mammoth task of cleaning up the wreckage left by the March earthquake. According to the World bank, the total cost of the recovery will be US$235-billion which would make it the world's most expensive disaster. Until a few months ago, Japan was the world's fifth biggest aid donor, lending or giving away, $9.5-billion a year. The disaster has transformed it into a leading destination for charity.

INFRASTRUCTURE

The Democratic Republic of Congo has started a five-year, US$600-million renovation of rail lines in the southeast of the country to boost trade, lower prices and develop its mining industry. The project is being funded by the World Bank and the government, with $200-million coming from a minerals-for-infrastructure accord signed with China in 2009. The rehabilitation of 700 kilometres of track in the mineral-rich region will help boost the agriculture and mining industries, encourage the development of isolated communities and help fight poverty.

DROUGHT

The Yangtse River, the longest waterway in Asia and China's most important shipping route has been closed to navigation by the worst drought in 50 years that has left cargo ships stranded and 400,000 people without drinking water. Water levels have fallen as low as three metres in the main shipping lane of the 6,300 kilometre river and it is 50 metres narrower in key sections than it was last year. About 87,000 square kilometres of farmland have been damaged and some dams do not have enough water for optimal power generation.

BORDERS

The Danish government is reinstating guards along borders with Sweden and Germany and is conducting spot checks designed to fight crime and illegal immigration. Although the move falls short of full reinstatement of border controls, it is the latest in a series of small steps reversing hassle-free travel across European Union frontiers. Worries about illegal immigration have mainly been concentrated in Italy and France which have received the majority of a recent influx of 25,000 North African refugees. The two countries want the EU to change its rules to allow them to restore some border controls.

MUSIC

Since 1999, when the file sharing website Napster appeared, global sales of recorded music have collapsed from US$27.3-billion to $15.9-billion. But in some countries, buying music has persisted. Last year the Japanese and British spent the most on music, as a proportion of GDP. It was much lower in Italy and Spain where piracy is entrenched. The weakest markets were in emerging Asia. China, the world's second-biggest economy, is not even in the top 20 for music sales.

BRANDS

Apple has overtaken Google as the world's most valuable brand, ending a four-year reign by the Internet search leader, according to the latest annual study by global brands' agency Millward Brown. The iPhone and iPad maker's brand is now worth US$153.3-billion, up 84 per cent from 2010. Next is Google at $111.5-billion; IBM at $100.9-billion; McDonald's at $81-billion and Microsoft at $78-billion. The total value of the top 100 brands rose by 17 per cent to $2.4-trillion. Research in Motions's Blackberry was No.25 and the Royal Bank of Canada, number 39.

LEGO

After nearly going under eight years ago, Lego, the plastic brick maker, now has 5.9 per cent of the global toy market, up from 4.8 per cent at the end of 2009. That makes it the world's fourth-largest toy maker. It is doing especially well in the U.S. where sales last year surpassed US$1-billion for the first time. Worldwide sales in 2010 were up by 37 per cent to $2.8-billion.

RICE

Scientists have shed new light on the origins of rice, one of the most important staple foods. A study of the genome suggests that the crop was domesticated only once, around 8,200 years ago rather than at multiple times in different places and that the two sub-species, japonica and indica, split apart from each other about 3,900 years ago. This is consistent with archaeological evidence for rice domestication in China's Yangtze valley about 8,000 to 9,000 years ago and the domestication of rice in India's Ganges region about 4,000 years ago.

BLIMPS

The Goodyear Tire Co. plans a 21st century makeover for its fleet of iconic blimps. The company will team up with Zeppelin, a German company, to build three new blimps beginning in 2013. The first will go into operation in 2014. Each of Goodyear's three North American blimps will be replaced. They will be built by teams at Goodyear's airship hanger near Akron. Goodyear has been making airships since 1919 and Zeppelin since 1900.

CHEESE

For years, inferior cheese masquerading as the finest from Switzerland has snuck onto the shelves of stores around the world. However, cheese detectives are now on the case. Swiss experts are now scouring stores and cheese producers at home, throughout Europe and even North America, tracking down fakes of one of their most beloved varieties, Emmentaler, best know as Swiss cheese. When they find a suspicious block, they will ship it back to Switzerland for DNA testing. It is estimated that 3,000 tonnes, or 10 per cent, of Emmentaler is fake.

DEBT

Statistics Canada reports that about one-third of retired Canadians are in some form of debt and the median amount owed is C$19,000. The study shows that 34 per cent of retired individuals aged 55 or over, whether single or married, held mortgage or consumer debts in 2009. Among retired people with debt, 25 per cent owed less than $5,000, 32 per cent between $5,000 and $24,999, while 26 per cent owed between $25,000 and $99,999 and 17 per cent owed over $100,000. Retirees with debt had a median annual household income of $42,000 and a net worth of $295,000.

LAND MINES

Watermelons have been exploding by the score in eastern China after farmers gave them an overdose of growth chemicals creating what the media have called fields of "land mines." There have also been reports of "yard-long" beans resulting from the usage of these chemicals.

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

June 2011 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

June 2011 Edition

 REVENUE

U.S. Internet advertising revenue jumped 15 per cent to US$26-billion in 2010, setting a record high and proving that more companies are trying to reach people online. The most popular form of advertising was search, which represented 46 per cent of revenue and increased 12 per cent from 2009. Digital video ads accounted for 5 per cent of total advertising dollars spent.

WORK

A study of 29 industrialized countries released by the OECD shows that workers in Mexico work the longest days while Belgians work the shortest. Mexicans toil for 10 hours each day on average, in paid and unpaid work, such as household chores. Belgians work just seven hours, an hour less than the average of most other OECD countries. Canadians clocked in at 8.6 hours worked each day while Americans work 8.2 hours each day.

CARS

Men prefer their cars beefy, while women go for lower price tags and better fuel economy according to a new survey which studied data from 8-million purchases in the U.S. BMW AG's Mini had the highest percentage of female buyers at 48 per cent while 93 per cent of buyers for Fiat SpA's Ferrari were men. There were 12 brands with more than 40 per cent female buyers. The top selling model for women with a minimum of 1,000 retail sales was the Volkswagen New Beetle at 61 per cent while for men it was the Porsche 911 at 88 per cent.

COPPER

Last February the price of copper reached a record high of US$10,000 per tonne. This is leading to a surge in stealing which is disrupting rail traffic in Europe. There have now been 10,000 hours of train delays in Europe due to copper-wire thefts. 30,000 kilometres of copper cable lie along tracks in France and 50 police helicopters are now monitoring tracks for thieves. In 2010, there was 30-million euros of damage to French railways because of copper theft.

PHONES

According to a new Oxford University study, British consumers are spending US$7-billion too much on cell phone contracts because they wrongly estimate how many minutes and text messages they use each month. It was found that three-quarters of all cell phone users were on the wrong contract and that the average consumer could save at least $275.00 each year. The average cell phone bill in the UK is $615.00 annually.

AID

The Development Assistance Committee of the OECD reports that rich countries provided a record amount of US$128.7-billion in foreign aid in 2010. America, Britain, France, Germany and Japan were the biggest donors in absolute terms. Relative to the size of their economies, however, Norway and Sweden were the most generous. Most rich countries now give a larger fraction of their GDP in aid than they did in 2005, but few countries have reached the UN's goal of at least 0.7 per cent of GDP.

OIL SANDS

The majority of Americans surveyed, while admitting they are not familiar with Alberta's bitumen deposits, believe their government should enact legislation that supports the Canadian oil sands and that the U.S. should increase the amount of crude it imports from its northern neighbour. Only 26 per cent said they were familiar with Canada's vast oil sands. Despite this, 86 per cent want policies that support the use of oil sands. Americans, while wildly underestimating the amount of Canadian crude exported to the U.S., believe Canada should send four million barrels south each day, which would double Canada's exports.

GENETICS

Wales is set to be the first country to produce a DNA barcode for every one of its native flowering plants. The project will aim to catalogue all 1,143 species of native flowering plant based on each plant's unique gene sequence. This would mean that the tiniest fragment of grain or pollen grain could be used to identify any plant in Wales. As well as leading to a better understanding of plants' genetics, it will help biologists to track the status of pollinating insects, such as bees. The data could also be used to test the authenticity of Welsh products including honey.

HAZARDS

Massive floating islands of houses, cars, and even bodies, almost 70 miles in length from the Japanese tsunami are causing chaos in the shipping lanes of the Pacific Ocean as they head west to the coast of North America. Cars, tractors, boats and the occasional entire house have been spotted floating on the surface of the Pacific. The largest island of debris stretches 60 nautical miles in length and covers an expanse of more than 2.2-million square feet. Experts estimate it could take two years for the debris to reach Hawaii and three to get to the West Coast.

SYRUP

Villages in Quebec have created a Strategic Reserve of over 10-million kilograms of maple syrup. Producers are preparing for what they expect to be a banner year for exports to Asia due to surging demand from countries like Japan, China and South Korea. Those markets are increasingly important to the people who make maple syrup, mostly in Quebec, but also in Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The biggest market continues to be the U.S. but the country spent 15 per cent less on maple syrup and maple sugar in 2010 than it did the year before, dropping to US$143-million from $169-million.

AUSTRALIA

The twin natural disasters that hit Australia early this year will cost its economy around US$9.4-billion. This is a substantial increase on the earlier estimate of around $5.5-billion.The Australian states of Queensland and Victoria were hit by floods and a cyclone in January and February. The biggest effect will be on the coal industry with output down about a fifth. Lost coal production could cost the country about $6.0-billion while damage to crops is about $2-billion and the loss in tourist activity about $400-million.

BREAD

White bread, the mainstay of Britain's diet for decades, has fallen from favour for the first time as more consumers switch to brown bread. Industry sales figures indicate that sales of white bread fell one per cent last year while brown bread rose by six per cent and seeded bread products by nine per cent. For much of the last two centuries, brown bread has been considered an inferior product, eaten only by those who could not afford white bread. The white bread market in the UK is worth US$1.4-billion a year in sales while the brown bread market is worth $423-million.

CITATIONS

Science is becoming bigger and more global. Britain's Royal Society, the world's oldest scientific academy, states that emerging scientific nations are gaining influence, as measured by how often their researchers get cited in peer-reviewed journals. China and Spain with 4 per cent and three per cent of global citations respectively in 2004-2008, pushed Australia and Switzerland out of the top ten for the previous five years. The U.S. and Britain retain the most clout with 38 per cent of global citations, but this down from 45 per cent in the previous five years.

LOSSES

The recent U.S. census shows that Detroit is dying, having lost a quarter of its population, 273,500 people, from 2000 to 2010. After New Orleans, which lost 29 per cent of its population after Hurricane Katrina, Detroit's loss is the largest percentage drop in the history of an American city with more than 100,000 people. Just 10 years ago, Detroit was the tenth-largest city in the country. Up until 1950, during the auto boom, Detroit was the fourth biggest city in the U.S.

DRINKING

Whisky drinking has increased worldwide despite the global recession, or perhaps because of it. The Scotch Whisky Association reports 2010 was a record year with total shipments valued at US$5.37-billion, making it one of the U.K's top exporting industries. The U.S. is by far the largest market for whisky but exports to many regions, notably emerging markets, grew last year. Exports to Russia increased by 61 per cent last year; by 46 per cent to India and by 24 per cent to China. There has been a 60 per cent increase in global exports of Scotch whisky since 2000.

DAIRIES

Nearly half of China's 1,176 dairies are being shut down after failing to obtain new licences resulting from a government safety audit. The announcement comes as China tries to shore up its milk industry after the baby milk health scandal in 2008 when at least six babies died and another 300,000 were made ill by drinking infant formula tainted with melamine. Only 114 of 145 companies making milk powder have had their licences renewed.

CADMIUM

Effective January 1, 2012, it will be illegal to sell children's jewellery in the state of California that contains more than 0.003 per cent (300 parts per million) of cadmium. The new law applies to those that manufacture, ship, sell or offer jewellery for sale for children ages six years old or younger. Cadmium is alleged to cause delayed brain development, cancer, kidney problems and bone damage. Ironically, cadmium has been used as a replacement for lead to avoid these very issues.

SEAFOOD

The U.S imports 83 per cent of its seafood. These imports were worth US$14.2-billion in 2008 of which Canada earned a 22 per cent share. The lobster market was worth $1.1-billion with Canada supplying 67 per cent of the total. Restaurants in the U.S. are responsible for 70 per cent of seafood sales in the U.S. While Canada has the largest share of U.S. seafood imports, a trend towards cheaper seafood products has eroded that share in favour of China in recent years.

TRENDS

Thousands of shops in the UK are getting ready for the roll-out of a new technology which could allow shoppers to use cell phones to buy things. It's called Near Field Communications (NFC) technology and some of the biggest retailers think it is the wave of the future. One estimate suggests 40,000 businesses could be using it by the end of the year. The technology isn't new but it has never been tried on such a large scale. Cell phone operators and manufacturers, banks and retailers are all investing millions to make the technology a success.

PANAMA

Construction of the Panama Canal expansion, which will enable vessels twice the size to navigate the passage, will likely finish in 2014. The new canal will allow the world's largest ships, called post-Panamax vessels, which are up to 366 metres long and 49 metres wide, to use the passage. An expanded canal will have ripple effects for global trade , boosting activity for east coast U.S. ports and reducing it in the west, where unloaded cargo has to continue by rail to the east.

GROWTH

While many analysts are focused on opportunities in Brazil, Russia, India and China, the best of the US$300-trillion rise in the world GDP between now and 2050 will occur in a new set of emerging markets. For instance: Nigeria is forecast to have a 8.5 per cent growth in its GDP; Iraq, 7.7 per cent; Bangladesh, 7.5 per cent. Vietnam, 7.5 per cent and the Philippines, 7.3 per cent. The lowest growth will occur in Japan, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

CHLORINE

A budget-conscious council in Austria is asking swimmers to stop swallowing water to save money. They estimate bathers are drinking 5,000 litres of chlorinated water daily.

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

May 2011 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

May 2011 Edition

SIZE

The Subway sandwich chain has now surpassed McDonald's as the world's largest restaurant chain by units. McDonald's is still largest in sales. High unemployment and economic uncertainty have battered the restaurant industry in the U.S. and chains are increasingly looking overseas for growth, particularly in Asia. Subway has 33,749 restaurants worldwide compared to McDonald's which has 32,737. Subway has 24,000 outlets in the U.S. and 1,000 in Asia. Subway's revenue was US$15.2-billion last year compared with $24-billion for McDonald's.

AFRICA

Consumer spending in Africa was US$860-billion in 2008, a figure which is estimated to grow to $1.4-trillion by 2020. Africa has a total population of one billion and has 100 companies with annual revenues over $1-billion. 37 per cent of Africans currently live in cities, a figure expected to grow to 50 per cent by 2030. In 2008 the net foreign investment in African was $29-billion, up from $6-billion in 2000. Sub-Saharan Africa in particular is emerging as a top destination for foreign investment.

MAGAZINES

Canadians have drastically reduced their spending on magazines over the past few years. Consumer purchases of magazines decreased by 22 per cent between 2001 and 2008, dropping from C$801-million to $623-million. In 2008, 46 per cent of Canadian households spent money on magazines. In 2001 that figure was 54 per cent. The lowest average expenditure per household was in Newfoundland and Labrador with $86, while Saskatchewan was the highest at $112 per household.

CARDS

The Amex corporation has introduced the Amex Centurion which is a charge card, so monthly balances must be paid in full. The card is made from a sheet of titanium and names have to be etched into it. The annual fee for this card is US$2,500 with an initiation fee of $5,000. Clients get access to a personal concierge, who can arrange anything from flights and hotels to golf times around the world, Insurance, retail protection and emergency assistance and an extensive rewards program that can take customers to Wimbledon or backstage at the Oscars.

AIRPORTS

Beijing became the world's second-busiest airport last year eclipsing London Heathrow and narrowing the gap to Atlanta. The same Chinese growth also pushed Hong Kong to the top spot for air-freight volumes. Bejing's passenger total jumped 13 per cent to 73.9-million and Heathrow dropped to 65.9-million, as a sluggish UK economy and cancellations after a volcanic eruption hurt demand, putting it fourth. As recently as five years ago, Beijing's airport was 14th in the world with 41-million passengers.

ACCIDENTS

Grain bin accidents, a little-known peril of the workplace in farming country have risen in the U.S. Last year, 51 men and boys were engulfed by grains stored in towering metal structures that dot rural landscapes, and 26 died. In less than 10 seconds, a man who steps into flowing corn can sink up to his chest, becoming immobilized. In another 10 seconds he'll be completely submerged and unable to breathe and essentially drown in the corn.

PRICES

The U.K.'s official statistics agency has updated the contents of the "typical" shopping basket of about 650 items it uses to calculate the consumer price index. In are: iPhone apps, sparkling wines, on-line dating agency fees, oven-ready pork joints and TV's bigger than 32 inches. Out are: ring tones, rosebushes, mobile phones, wallpapers, pork shoulders and vending machine cigarettes.

TOURISM

Kenya's overseas tourist arrivals hit a record 1.1-million in 2010, short of a 1.2-million target, but up from 950,000 in 2009. Last year, Kenya changed its strategy to open new markets such as China, Russia and India which has paid off. Earnings from tourism, Kenya's top source of foreign currency, soared 18 per cent in 2010.

MALLS

Two of Canada's top shopping centre developers are squaring off over plans to bring U.S.-style premium outlet malls to Canada. The first two will be just outside Toronto and will feature high-end U.S. retailers, many of them not yet in Canada. The race to build factory outlet centres underscored the growing appetite among U.S. retailers and developers to operate in the Canadian market. At stake for Canadian developers is getting a piece of a potentially lucrative business as growth in traditional malls and big-box centres reaches a saturation point.

MANUFACTURING

Last year China topped the U.S. as the world's largest manufacturer for the first time, accounting for 19.8 per cent of global manufacturing. However, by measure of productivity, China remained far behind the U.S. with U.S. manufacturing workers generating more than eight times the value per person than China's. Put another way, the U.S. manufactures the same output with 11.5-million workers than China does with 100-million workers.

GPS

Scientists are warning that the U.K has become dangerously reliant on satellite-navigation systems. Use of space-borne positioning and timing data is now widespread in everything from freight movement to synchronization of computer networks and it is felt that too many applications have little or no back-up were these signals to go down. The European Union has estimated that about 6-7 per cent of Europe's GDP, about 800-billion euros is dependent on GPS signals.

TECHNOLOGY

People stuck for a stamp in Denmark can now send a text message to pay the postage on a letter. The Danish post office has introduced The Mobile Postage service that does away with stamps for standard sized letters. Instead, people send a text to the post office and get back a code they write on the envelope. Codes must be used within seven days of purchase. Sweden is considering a similar system for letters as well as small parcels.

FUNDS

The total assets held by pension funds in the 13 biggest markets were worth more than US$26-trillion at the end of 2010, 12 per cent more than a year earlier. Taken together, these countries accounted for 85 per cent of the holdings of the global pension industry. Funds in America, the world's largest pension market, had assets of $15-trillion. Canada's were worth $1.1-trillion. South Africa was the fastest growing big market last year with assets up 28 per cent from the previous year.

LIVING

For the fifth straight year, Vancouver has topped the Economist's list of the world's most livable cities. Australian and Canadian cities dominated the top ten places in the annual survey. Vancouver scored 98 per cent on a combination of stability, health care, culture,and environment, education and infrastructure. Second was Melbourne followed by Vienna, Toronto and Calgary. Pittsburgh was the top U.S. city at 29th. The top Asian city was Osaka, tying Geneva at 12th.

SHIPPING

A Danish shipping company has ordered ten colossal vessels from a South Korean shipyard at a cost of US$1.9-billion with an option to order 20 more. Each will carry 18,000 containers, 2,500 more than the biggest container ships now in service. The new vessels will use 50 per cent less fuel per container than the present average. The new ships will ply the routes between Asia and Europe.

POWER

Iceland is considering building the world's longest sub-sea electric cable to allow it to sell its geothermal and volcanic energy to Europe. The project is currently in the research stage and a final decision will likely come in about four years. After taking a hit last year when a volcano paralysed European skies, Iceland is seeking instead to draw benefits from its geology with the cable which would allow it to sell energy extracted from volcanoes and geysers.

TOBACCO

China is starting to wake to the health-care costs of its citizens' enthusiastic tobacco habit. Profits from producing cigarettes, the country makes and consumes more than any other nation, will not be enough to pay the eventual cost of smoking related diseases. There are 300-million smokers in China which produces 800 brands of cigarettes. 2.3-trillion cigarettes were produced in 2009 and one million Chinese die from tobacco-related diseases each year. The government collected US$75-billion in tobacco taxes in 2010.

INSURANCE

The European Union's highest court has declared illegal the widespread practice of charging men and women different rates for insurance. The judgement, which can't be appealed, has vast implications and will set in motion an overhaul of how life, auto and health policies are written across Europe.

SNOWBIRDS

Between 2000 and 2008, the number of Canadian snowbirds travelling to the United States have increased 102 per cent. They contribute US$3-billion annually to the economy of Florida and $520-million to that of Arizona. 75 per cent of snowbirds go to Florida, 15 per cent to Arizona and 5 per cent each to Texas and California. It is estimated that Canadians bought $5.6-billion worth of homes in the U.S. in 2008 at a median price of $205,800.

GM

The area of the world's farmland used for growing genetically modified crops grew by about 10 per cent last year. GM use grew fastest in Brazil but fell in Europe. Virtually all GM strains used were engineered for just two traits, disease resistance and herbicide tolerance. It's estimated that more than a billion hectares have been cultivated with GM crops since their introduction in 1996 and that more than 15-million farmers are involved in GM agriculture.

ARMS

India has overtaken China to become the world's largest importer of arms. India accounted for nine per cent of all weapons imports between 2006 and 2010. With a defence budget of US$32.5-billion, India imports more than 70 per cent of its arms. China has dropped to second place with six per cent of global weapons as it develops its domestic arms industry.

NEWSROOMS

Nearly three-quarters of top management jobs in news media across the world are held by men, as are two-thirds of reporting jobs. In a study of 170,000 people in 522 news companies, women were best represented in Europe and worst in Asia. Across the entire newspaper, radio and television work force studied, the survey found 65 per cent of jobs were held by men compared to 35 per cent by women.

JOBS

Almost three-quarters of 4,500 Canadians responding to a survey said they would be willing to make a move for the right job, with many even prepared to leave Canada. The most mobile workers were the youngest, aged 18 to 29. 48 per cent would move within the country and 22 per cent to another country.

TOOTHPASTE

There has been an explosion of specialized pastes and gels that brag about their powers to whiten teeth, reduce plaque, curb sensitivity and fight gingivitis. Last year, 69 new toothpastes hit the store shelves.

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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10,000 Shipping Containers Lost At Sea Each Year

Right now, as you read this, there are five or six million shipping containers on enormous cargo ships sailing across the world’s oceans. And about every hour, on average, one is falling overboard never to be seen again. It’s estimated that 10,000 of these large containers are lost at sea each year, and our understanding of what happens to them afterwards is scant at best.

Read the full article here.

April 2011 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

April 2011 Edition

 LUMBER

While Japan remains a weak market for B.C. lumber and the U.S. housing market is stalled, the bright spot is the Chinese market which saw exports from B.C. double in 2010 to US$668-million. B.C., in a joint effort by industry and government has scored success in China in wooden roof trusses for concrete apartment buildings as well as early signs of momentum for small wood-framed apartment buildings The country builds primarily with concrete and steel and had previously only imported cheap low-grade wood for concrete construction and manufacturing, including furniture.

ORGANICS

The U.K government has been criticized in a new report for not doing enough to support and promote organic food and farming. The Soil Association has said that sales continue to grow in other European nations during the recession while U.K sales fell by 13.6 per cent. Many European countries see organic farming as crucial for rural development, biodiversity and also for combatting climate change. Austria has already reached 20 per cent of their land area in organic farming and Switzerland is not far behind.

ETHANOL

Switchgrass, the prairie plant that once fuelled the buffalo herds of the American Great Plains, may one day fill automobile tanks in a bioengineered form that's cheaper and yields more ethanol than the original variety. Researchers have showed that by manipulating lignin, a compound that stiffens plants, they were able to produce a variety that resulted in 38 per cent more biofuel with lower pretreatment costs. The U.S. will produce 14- billion gallons of ethanol in 2011. Modified switchgrass required 4 to 5 times less cellulase, an enzyme used to break down fibre. Nearly half of U.S. gasoline contains up to 10 per cent ethanol to boost octane or meet air quality requirements.

DIAMONDS

A 78-carat diamond, described as the finest ever found in Canada and dubbed the Etaki Spirit, sold recently in Antwerp for US$6.1-million to an anonymous bidder. The diamond is potentially the most valuable stone to come from the Etaki mine in the Northwest Territories over its 13-year history. Diamonds were first discovered in the region in 1991, sparking the largest staking rush in North American history. There have been larger stones dug from the mine but of lesser quality.

CANALS

Columbia has announced that it is negotiating with China to build an alternative to the Panama Canal. The proposed transport route is intended to promote the flow of goods between Asia and Latin America. The plan is to create a "dry canal" where the Pacific port of Buenaventura would be linked by rail, across Columbia to the Atlantic Coast. Trade between Columbia and China increased from US$10-million in 1980 to more than $5-billion last year. China has been increasing its involvement across Latin America to feed a growing need for raw materials and commodities.

FORESTS

The Food and Agriculture Organization, a UN body, estimates that although the world as a whole continues to lose forests, the annual rate of deforestation over the past decade was about half that between 1990 and 2000. Some large countries, including China and India, increased their forest cover between 2000 and 2010. Norway and Sweden have also added forests over the past decade. Nigeria has been chopping its forests down at a rate of 3.7 per cent a year and by last year only one-tenth of its land remained forested.

SOCCER

In 2009-10, for the sixth year, Real Madrid headed the Football Money League a ranking of football clubs' revenues. Real's revenues rose by 9.3 per cent to US$537-million with earnings just short of $400-million. Barcelona was again in second place followed by Manchester United, Munich, Arsenal and Chelsea. The top ten clubs earned a combined $3.7-billion.

COAL

The biggest floods in years in Queensland, Australia, are turning into a windfall for U.S. coal mining companies anticipating record profits and the highest exports in 15 years. Shipments from the U.S. are poised to rise 8.8 per cent this year to about 86.5-million tons, the most since 1986. Demand for American coal is increasing after floods devastated an area of Australia twice the size of Texas. Queensland's combined output of steelmaking and thermal coal may be reduced by 23-million metric tons. The biggest challenge for the U.S mining industry will be getting coal from the mines to the trains and moving it to the ports as railroads struggle to meet increased demand.

IMMIGRATION

The Canadian government intends to reduce the overall number of visas it grants to overseas immigrants by five per cent this year, mainly by cutting back on family reunification visas. The government will issue about 11,000 family reunification visas for parents and grandparents overseas, down from more than 16,000 last year. There are already 140,000 applications in the queue meaning a parent could wait 13 years for a visa if he or she were to apply today.

WELLS

China is launching a massive well drilling operation to save the crucial wheat crop stricken by the worst drought in decades. The plan is to drill 1,350 wells across eight northeastern provinces at a cost of about US$1-billion. China is the world's largest wheat growing nation and expected shortages of the crop in China have already pushed up prices for the commodity. 17 million acres of crops have been affected by the drought and nearly three million people are short of drinking water.

STORAGE

Mankind's capacity to store the colossal amount of information in the world has been measured by scientists. The study, in the journal Science, calculates the amount of data stored in the world as 295 exabytes; that is equivalent to 1.2-billion average hard drives. Computer storage has traditionally been measured in kilobytes, then megabytes, and now usually gigabytes. After that comes, terabytes, petabytes, then exabytes. One exabyte is a billion gigabytes.

BORDER

A new poll shows that Canadians overwhelmingly favour co-operating with the U.S. to increase border security while easing obstacles to cross-border trade. 86 per cent of those surveyed supported shared intelligence gathering. 84 per cent of respondents supported harmonizing food safety regulations while 70 per cent favoured creation of a bilateral agency to oversee the building of a new border infrastructure.

SIM CARDS

Some 400 high-tech South African traffic lights are out of action after thieves in Johannesburg stole the mobile phone Sim cards that some contained. The thieves ran up bills amounting to thousands of dollars by using the stolen cards to make calls. The cards were fitted to let the government know when the traffic lights were faulty.

CASSAVA

This plant is also known as tapioca or manioc and is the world's fourth-largest calorie provider and is Africa's second most important crop in terms of calories. It grows in hot, arid regions where other crops will not thrive. It resists drought and climate change better than cereal crops like rice. Cassava has one amazing advantage, it can keep in the ground for years making it a perfect security crop. Presently, two diseases are devastating cassava crops in Africa. In areas of Africa where the diseases are prevalent, farmers get about 8.5-tonnes a hectare. In Vietnam the yield is 17 tonnes and in India 26 tonnes.

CRICKET

Last February, 14 teams, including Canada competed in the International Cricket Council's World Cup in India. Broadcast rights earned by the Council for an eight year stretch, including the 2011 World Cup, exceeded US$1.2-billion. It is estimated that there are 100,000 cricket fans in Canada, one million in the U.S. and 100-million in India. The five best-paid players in the Indian Premier League, the world's richest league, all earn in excess of US$1-million annually. It is estimated that $300-million was wagered during the England-Australia test matches in 2010.

WEALTH

With a population of only 33,000 the GDP per capita of Monaco, the two-kilometre square sovereign principality surrounded on three sides by France, is US$210,000. With no income tax, a glitzy casino, and 300 days of sunshine each year, Monaco is the wealthiest place in the world. The average price of a 400-square foot apartment is $2.3-million. 18,857 companies use a single address in the Cayman Islands, a five story building called Ugland House. The Cayman Islands is the current king of offshore banking, with an estimated $1.8-trillion in assets booked through its 262 banks.

DEPORTATION

The cost to arrest, detain and deport a person from the United States is US$12,500. Immigration and Customs deported almost 393,000 people from the U.S. in 2010 at a cost of almost $5-billion. An estimated 11-million people are in the U.S. without proper documentation.

AQUAFARMING

The UN estimates that in 2009 the world produced over 145-million tonnes of fish. About 38 per cent of this came from aquaculture, or fish farming, the rest consisted of fish caught in the wild, mostly at sea. In 2008, over three-fifths of the farmed fish came from China. India was the second largest producer but its output was just a tenth of China's. Myanmar produced only 7,000 tonnes of farmed fish in 1990; by 2008, its output was 675,000 tonnes, making it the world's twelfth largest aquafarming producer and ahead of the U.S.

CARGO

Global air cargo traffic surged by over a fifth in 2010 from the previous year, driven by a rebound in international trade. The regional variation in growth rates remained particularly marked, with Latin America posting the biggest increase while Europe grew the slowest. Latin American carriers increased traffic by 29 per cent in 2010, followed by Middle East airlines at 27 per cent. Asia-Pacific carriers, which have a 45 per cent world market share, grew cargo traffic by 24 per cent while American carriers grew 22 per cent.

PRESCRIPTIONS

Changes to Canada's drug patent system being proposed by the European Union as part of a Canada-EU trade deal being negotiated, would add about C$2.8-billion a year in costs to the country's prescription drug bill. The EU has tabled proposals that would lengthen the period of market exclusivity for brand-name drugs in Canada. That deal would result in the most extensive structural protection for innovative drugs of any country in the world. It is projected that this would add $1.2-billion to Ontario's annual prescription drug bill and $249-million in B.C.

CHILE

In 2010, Chile achieved a record year for exports which were valued to be US$69.6-billion, up nearly 30 per cent from the 2009 figure. The jump in exports is attributed to the rising price of copper as well as the global economic recovery. The value of copper exports increased 43 per cent to $11.8-billion. Chile's forest industry maintains its place as the second-largest export industry earning $5.6-billion. Salmon and trout fisheries are the third most valuable export at $2.2-billion.

TASTE

A Tucson taco restaurant that has already served up python, alligator, elk, kangaroo, rattlesnake and turtle tacos is now accepting orders for African lion tacos.

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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February 2011 Imports above 2010 and 2009 levels but still lag 2008

CBSA just released the February 2011 Canadian Import volumes and while they are above 2010 and 2009 levels, they still lag behind 2008 levels.



We update this chart monthly on our cross border statistics page - http://aacb.com/resources/cross-border-statistics.asp

March 2011 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

March 2011 Edition

AUTOS

Canada lost ground to Mexico last year in auto production. Mexico has posted the strongest turnaround in North America from the industry's crisis, passing Canada in output and turning out a record number of vehicles in 2010. This was due to global auto makers' big investments to make small cars in Mexico. This trend helped Mexico to increase auto production by 44 per cent last year to 2.254-million vehicles, exceeding Canada's production of 2.065-million. Mexico now has 19 per cent of North American auto production.

WRAPPING

A new generation of smart packaging is being developed in Glasgow which flags food that is going off. Researchers from Strathclyde University are working on indicators made from "intelligent plastics" which change colour when food loses its freshness. A commercially viable product should be available soon which will improve food safety and cut waste. UK households are estimated to throw out about 8.3-million tonnes of food annually, most of which could be eaten. There is also thought to be about one million cases of food poisoning in the UK each year.

POWER

According to the World Bank, access to electricity is one of the biggest constraints to doing business in countries all around the world. A sampling of the time required to obtain a permanent electricity connection for a newly built warehouse: Liberia; 586 days, Russia: 302 days, Canada; 168 days and St. Kitts and Nevis; 18 days.

PATENTS

Canada is winning patents at a record pace as companies push to innovate. U.S. patent authorities issued a record 5,223 patents to Canadian firms and individual inventors last year, up 20 per cent over the previous year. The U.S. is the preferred global venue for those seeking to enforce their legal rights and secure commercial success. The four countries ahead of Canada in registering patents are: the U.S; up 24 per cent, Japan; up 26 per cent, Germany; up 25 per cent and South Korea up 26 per cent. In 2010, IBM registered 5,896 patents; Samsung, 4,551 and Microsoft 3,094 patents.

REACTORS

The uranium market is active again, set on fire by China's quest to secure nuclear fuel. There are now 442 operable nuclear reactors worldwide, 63 are under construction and a further 156 are planned. 14 per cent of the world's electricity is generated by nuclear power. In France that figure is over 75 per cent and in Canada it is 14.8 per cent. Australia has 31 per cent of the world's known recoverable reserves; Kazakhstan has 12 per cent and Canada three per cent.

INVESTMENT

According to the United Nations, developing countries and economies in transition attracted more foreign investment than developed countries in 2010 for the first time. This indicates that economic recovery is more robust in developing than rich countries. Overall, flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) stagnated at almost US$1.12-trillion in 2010 after $1.14-trillion in 2009, but are still 25 per cent below pre-crisis levels.

MOVIES

Chinese box office takings increased by 64 per cent last year helped by Hollywood blockbusters such as 3D movie Avatar which grossed US$204-million. Movie revenues surged to $1.39-billion: (the North America box office made $10.6-billion). More than 300 new cinemas opened in China last year, their 1,533 new screen bring the total number of screens up to 6,200.

DRIVING

Some of the world's most dangerous roads are South African. An average of 43 people are killed each day in a population of 50-million. The government hopes to cut the annual road-death total in half by 2015, using the grim tally of 16,000 in 2007 as a benchmark. Though it still has less than one registered vehicle for every five inhabitants, Africa's most advanced country recorded 33 road deaths for 100,000 inhabitants in 2007, That was double the fatality rate in the U.S. with almost one vehicle per inhabitant and six times the rate in the UK.

SHIPS

The world's fleet of cargo ships is set to grow at a rapid pace in coming years despite some cancellations of new tonnage in the wake of the financial crisis. World seaborne trade declined by 4.5 per cent in 2009 but the world's merchant fleet grew by 7 per cent. Though the world economy is improving, the problem of new vessels on order will present a challenge for shipping companies. Overcapacity, particularly in the dry-bulk sector that carries iron ore, coal and grain, is likely to worsen in 2011 as new ships are launched. This will put pressure on freight rates and shipping companies' profits.

RAIN

For centuries people living in the Middle East have dreamed of turning the sandy desert into land fit for growing crops with fresh water on tap. That is now a step closer after scientists from Switzerland employed by the ruler of Abu Dhabi claim to have generated a series of rainstorms. Fifty downpours were created last year in the state's eastern Al Ain region using technology designed to control the weather. Most of the storms were at the height of the summer in July and August when there is no rain at all.

GAMBLING

Having tripled in size since 2006, the Isle of Man's lucrative online gaming industry expects to nearly double this year. Now accounting for five per cent of the island's economy, the Isle of Man's e-gaming industry was last year responsible for pumping US$216-million into the local economy and employing about 700 people. With 24 licensed companies already operating, a further 22 are in various stages of set-up. Thanks to the quick 10-12 week licence application process, the low licensing fee and duty rate, and a sound technical infrastructure, the Isle of Man is now considered one of the top four e-gaming jurisdictions, along with Gibraltar, Alderney and Malta.

WORTH

Apple Inc., approaching bankruptcy before the return of CEO Steve Jobs in 2007, has become the world's second-most valuable company, lifted by investor optimism for sales of the iPhone, iPad and Macintosh. Apple's market value has now surpassed PetroChina Co. and trails only Exxon Mobil Corp. Exxon's market value is US$377-billion. Apple's is $306-billion, PetroChina's $300-billion. Fourth is Microsoft which is valued at $239-billion.

HOARDING

Britons have stashed more than US$10.9-billion of cash at home as low interest rates deter depositors. The average U.K. household has about $400 at home. In a recent poll, 37 per cent of those questioned said they had less than $28.00, 4 per cent said they had more than $1450. This included one per cent that said they had at least $14,500 at home. About a third of those polled saw no point in depositing money when interest rates were so low.

SHRIMP

Vietnam earned an estimated record high of US$2-billion last year from its shrimp exports as prawn-loving Americans paid more to satisfy their appetites, partly the result of demand generated by the Gulf Coast oil spill. Vietnam exported an estimated 240,000 tons of shrimp, up from 210,000 tons in 2009, which was valued at $1.7-billion. Japan remains Vietnam's largest shrimp market.

RECALLS

Auto makers recalled about 20-million vehicles in 2010, with high profile recalls led by Toyota that prompted new scrutiny of the auto industry's safety record. The number of recalls was the largest in the U.S. since 2004 when Toyota recalled about 7.1-million vehicles; GM recalled about four million and Japanese auto makers Honda and Nissan both recalled more than two million cars and trucks. The auto industry set a record in 2004 with 30.8 million vehicles recalled.

CARGO

Singapore has lost its crown as the world's busiest container port, losing its place to Chinese rival Shanghai. Shanghai handled more than 29-million containers last year compared with Singapore's 28.4-million. Shanghai also outperformed Singapore in terms of overall cargo handled, processing 650-million tonnes compared with the 502-million tonnes handled by Singapore.

VACATION

Nearly half of Canadians failed to take all their vacation time in 2010. An online survey of 627 employees by a management company found that 46 per cent said they had not used all their allotted vacation time. In 2009, two-thirds of Canadian workers surveyed said they weren't taking all the time that was due to them.

TAXIS

When taking a taxi in a foreign city it is hard to know what it will cost in the end. Now, thanks to a website priceoftravel.com, you can find the metered price of a three-km ride in heavy traffic conditions, in more than 70 big cities. A sampling: US$1.58 in Delhi; $3.27 in Dubai; $6.20 in Singapore and $16.13 in Tokyo.

WIND

Building wind farms offshore in the Great Lakes could generate thousands of jobs in Ontario according to the Conference Board of Canada. If 2,000 megawatts of generation was built over the next 15 years, it would add as much as C$45.5-billion to the province's economy and create as many as 4,400 construction jobs. The province has currently 1,300 megawatts of onshore wind generation capacity.

GOLD

Imports of gold into China in 2010 surged five-fold turning the country, already the largest bullion miner, into a major overseas buyer for the first time in recent memory. The surge comes as Chinese investors look for insurance against rising inflation and currency appreciation. China imported more than 205 tonnes in the first ten months, an increase from the 45 tonnes imported the previous year. In the past, China has kept these figures secret. India imported 612 tonnes of gold in 2009.

THEFT

U.S. cargo theft rose 4.1 per cent to a record high in 2010 with a reported 75 cargo thefts each month across the transport industry. The food and beverage industry was the most heavily hit by theft, accounting for 21 per cent of total theft activity with an average loss of US$125,000 per incident, closely followed by the electronics sector, accounting for 19 per cent of all thefts and an average loss of $512,000 per theft.

TRENDS

Wal-Mart is installing wine vending machines in some of its U.S. stores. Thirsty shoppers must insert their driver's licence into the kiosk and the image is compared with video-camera footage from the machine. Each transaction is monitored remotely, and the kiosks have a built-in breathalyzer that prevents buyers from purchasing wine if they are drunk.

TEA

Growers in the tropical Assam state, India's main tea growing region, say rising temperatures have led not only to a drop in production but to subtle unwelcome changes in the taste of their brews. Assam produced 564,000 tons of tea in 2007, 487,000 tons in 2009 and about 460,000 tons in 2010.

EARNINGS

The average stagehand at Lincoln Centre in New York earns US$290,000 annually while the top paid stagehand at Carnegie Hall makes $422,599 a year in salary and $107,445 in benefits and deferred compensation.

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 2011 Economic Digest - Importing and Exporting

February 2011 Edition

SPACE

In the 1970s, American corporations typically thought they needed 500 to 700 square feet per employee to build an effective office. Today's average is little more than 200 square feet per person and experts now believe that space allocation could hit a mere 50 square feet by 2015.

MEXICO

Mexico wants to sharply boost tourism by luring Canadians to explore the country beyond its seaside resorts. The country is currently the world's 10th-most visited tourism destination, yet it ranks only 19th in terms of tourist spending because many visitors, mindful of well-publicized dangers from drug violence, never leave their resort perimeters. Mexico is now promoting a bounty of attractions: adventure travel, golf, gourmet food and wine, monarch butterfly tourism and hunting. In 2000, 691,000 Canadians spent at least one night in Mexico, in 2009 the figure was 1,208,600.

TRADE

India and China have agreed to a new US$100-billion bilateral trade target by 2015, up from $60-billion in 2010. The two sides agreed to take measures to promote greater Indian exports to China to reduce India's trade deficit. The two countries intend to expand co-operation in infrastructure, environment, information technology, telecommunications, and investment and finance.

DOWNLOADING

In 2010, the illegal downloading of music cost the music industry in the UK nearly US$1.7-billion. Of 1.2-billion digital music tracks downloaded last year, just under three out of four were illegally acquired. That is more than the entire number of tracks ever to be downloaded in the UK which stands at about one billion. However, sales of digital singles topped 160-million last year, beating the previous record of 149.7-million.

R&D

China is on the verge of overtaking Japan as the second-biggest spender on research and development after the U.S., marking another key shift in the rivalry between the world's economic powerhouses. China is expected to spend US$153.7-billion on R&D in 2011 up from $141.4-billion in 2010. By comparison, Japan is expected to spend $144.1-billion up from $ 142-billion in 2010. Despite China's surge, the U.S. remains by far the biggest R&D spender, making up one-third of the global total of an estimated $1.2-trillion for 2011.

TIME

Americans now spend as many hours online as they do watching television according to a new survey. More than 30,000 media consumers were interviewed for the study which showed that, on average, Americans spend about 13 hours a week on the internet and pass the same amount of time watching television offline. Over the past five years, the amount of time Americans watch television has stayed flat while the amount of time they spend on the web has more than doubled.

DAMAGE

Invasive non-native species such as the grey squirrel and Japanese knotweed cost the British economy about US$3-billion a year. Researchers say that crops, ecosystems and livelihoods can be damaged when such species take hold. The study found that the rabbit was the most economically damaging species, followed by Japanese knotweed. Other damaging species include the rat, house mouse and mink, and plants such as the rhododendron and giant hogweed. The cost was significantly higher in England where invasive non-native species have become more established. The price was put at $400-million in Scotland and $250-million in Wales.

EMPLOYMENT

In 32 out of 39 countries and territories surveyed, more companies said they expect to add workers in the three months to March 2011 than said they expect to employ fewer people. The difference between hirers and firers was highest in India and China. Employment growth is also expected to be more robust in Germany, Sweden and the U.S. American employers are more upbeat about their hiring intentions than at any time since the final quarter of 2008.

POLLUTING

If the shipping industry were a country, it would be the sixth-biggest industrial carbon emitter in the world. Whereas big countries have plans for cutting emissions, shipping does not. But customers, who indirectly pay for shipping fuel, might be better placed to put pressure on the industry. A website has been set up to rate ships as though they are refrigerators or boilers and calculate the fuel efficiency of a ship. Eventually, data on 60,000 ships will be provided. If the idea catches on, consumers will be able to shun ships that emit a lot and reward the ones that don't.

INNOVATION

It can be easy to get heavy-footed behind the wheel when the music is pumping. A new smart-phone application called OVK Slowdown tracks a driver's speed and location using GPS, and slows down the music being played in the car if the speed limit is exceeded. The faster the car goes, the slower and more irritating the music becomes. If you drive more than 10 kilometres an hour over the legal limit, the app shuts off the tunes altogether.

ALARMS

An alarm clock that can be heard by the next door neighbour has gone on sale for hard of hearing customers or those that struggle to get out of bed in the morning. At 90 decibels the alarm is louder than most lawnmowers and matched the volume pumped out by a speeding truck on the highway. The clock also comes with a vibrating pad that can be slipped under a pillow. When the alarm goes off the clock sends a wireless signal to the pad which starts to vibrate. It costs about US$70.00.

CARE

High prices and waiting lists in over-stretched health systems of the rich world have driven many people to seek hip replacements, plastic surgery and other care in Thailand, India and Costa Rica. It is forecast that in 2012, 1.6-million Americans will travel abroad for medical care, up from 750,000 in 2007. Abu Dhabi in the Persian Gulf is now being touted as the next hot destination for medical tourism. Dubai is intending to host a big medical-tourism congress in 2011.

CROPS

Scientists are planning to collect and store the wild plant relatives of essential food crops, including wheat, rice and potatoes. The project will collect and catalogue seeds from across the globe. The aim is to safeguard valuable genetic traits that the wild plants contain that could be bred into crops to make them more hardy and versatile. This could help secure food supplies in the face of a changing climate.

OFFICES

There has been a rise in the number of Canadians who work from home with the numbers being evenly split between the self-employed and those paid by companies. About 3.6-million work from home and they comprise 19 per cent of the workforce, up two per cent in eight years. The greatest increase is in the number of self-employed people working from home. In 2008, when the study was conducted, there were 1-8-million, up from 1.4-million in 2000.

AGREEMENT

The recent sweeping free trade agreement between the U.S. and South Korea will benefit U.S. workers, farmers and ranchers as well as granting Korea greater access to U.S. markets. Tariff reductions are expected to boost annual export of U.S. goods by up to US$11-billion. The agreement lifts tariffs on 95 per cent of goods between the countries in five years. This is the largest U.S. trade pact since the NAFTA with Canada and Mexico in 1994. Also, each U.S. automaker will be able to export 25,000 cars per year that meet only U.S. safety requirements, four times the current level.

TRUFFLES

The record price for truffles was in 2007 when a Macao casino owner paid US$330,000 for a Tuscan example weighing in at 3.3-pounds. Now, Italian white truffle prices have fallen to the lowest level since data began to be collected in 2002 and the famed tuber prized by the rich is even being donated to Rome soup kitchens. The price which peaked at $660 per 100 grams in 2007 traded recently for $200. The reduction is blamed on demand falling by at least half in many countries, including the U.S. Hunters use pigs and dogs to sniff out the tubers which grow around the roots of trees.

TRAINS

A Chinese passenger train hit a record speed of 486 kilometres per hour recently in a test run of a yet-to-be opened link between Beijing and Shanghai. This is the fastest speed recorded by an unmodified conventional commercial train though other types of train have travelled faster. It reached top speed on a segment of the 1,318-kilometre-long line between the cities.

DEBT

In 2011, the debt owed by the governments of the world will reach a mountainous US$43-trillion, of which Japan alone accounts for a quarter, with the U.S. not far behind.

ROBOTS

It is estimated that there are now one million industrial robots in use in the world today, up from 66,000 in 1983 and 605,000 in 1995. 36 per cent are used in the automotive industry, 18 per cent in the electrical and electronics sector, 10 per cent in rubber and plastics, nine per cent in metal and machinery and five per cent in the food and beverage industry. As many as 50-million jobs may be lost to robots by 2030. In 1979 the U.S. auto industry invested US$15-million in robots, in 2007 the figure was $753-million.

SAVINGS

Prisoners in the state of Iowa could soon be making their own toilet paper in a bid to save taxpayers money. Under a plan, state prisons would buy one-tonne rolls of paper from a mill, then process it into single rolls. The plan could save up to US$100,000 a year. Iowa prisoners already make and sell everything from furniture and clothing to carved wooden toys. A prison official describes the toilet paper as "not nice and fluffy, but an acceptable roll of toilet paper."

TEMPERATURE

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), record temperatures were reached in several regions in 2010, making it among the warmest three on record. Parts of Russia, Greenland, Canada, China, North Africa and South Asia all saw the mercury soar to record levels. The WMO suggest that 2011 will be cooler as La Nina conditions dominate. This brings colder than average water to the top of the eastern Pacific Ocean, which lowers temperatures globally.

APPLES

A Canadian biotechnology company has asked the U.S. to approve a genetically modified apple that won't brown soon after it is sliced. This improvement could boost sales of apples for snacks, salads and other uses. U.S. apple growers say it's too soon to know whether they'd be interested in the apple as they need to resolve questions about the apple's quality, the cost of planting and most importantly, whether people will buy the apple. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has considered about 100 petitions for genetically engineered or modified crops.

CLOTHES

Swiss bank UBS has sent its retail-banking staff a 43-page manual on how to dress to impress clients. Included is the suggestion that: "Underwear should be undetectable but be of good quality and easily washable."

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