Daniel Workman's Blog

Posted by Daniel Workman

The Forum for International Trade Training (FITT) recently awarded the Certified International Trade Professional (CITP) designation to one of my colleagues, Miran Bek.

FITT is the world's leading international trade training and professional certification body. Miran Bek is the managing director of Bek Group Limited in Toronto, Ontario.

The CITP is the highest mark of professionalism in international trade and the only professional designation of its kind in Canada. FITT confers this designation on individuals who have met educational and experiential requirements. CITPs are recognized as having the highest knowledge and skills across a broad range of international business competencies. These competencies are established by Canadian businesses working in international trade and are then certified by FITT.

Mr. Bek commented "I am proud to be awarded the CITP designation and have the honor to share the acquired knowledge with the international trade community."

About FITT

An international trade training and professional certification body - and the only organization of its kind in the world - FITT sets the standards and designs the training programs leading to the professional designation, Certified International Trade Professional (CITP). FITT's quality training programs impart knowledge and practical skills that trade practitioners can apply immediately. In turn, this provides a competitive advantage and elevates graduates' strategic position in world markets.

FITT President

FITT President Caroline Tompkins affirmed that "FITT remains focused on its commitment to develop valued and relevant international trade programs and services, as well as implementing comprehensive standards for global trade practitioners."

Tompkins added that "We are extremely proud to welcome Miran to the growing group of CITPs across Canada who are excelling in the international trade arena thanks to the skills, knowledge, competencies and support they have earned along with their CITP designation."

FITT Mission Statement

FITT equips individuals and organizations with knowledge and practical skills required to be leaders in the global business environment. FITT is partnered with more than 60 universities and colleges in Canada and has been recognized by the World Trade Centre Association as a standard of excellence in international trade education. FITT membership provides ongoing professional development and networking opportunities plus CITPs and members play a direct role in ensuring Canada's international trade competitiveness.

Source: Scott C. Ferris, CITP, Director of Business Development at FITT.

Posted by Daniel Workman

As mentioned in my article Baltic Dry Index Flags Global Recovery, the Baltic Exchange Dry Index is an objective measure of cargo shipping prices for moving raw materials such as iron ore, grain and coal by sea.

Shipping raw materials reflects real-world demand for manufactured goods. Brazil would never ship 100,000 tons of iron ore to China if there was no demand for the final products to be made from that cargo.

So how is the global economy doing according to the BDI?

According to the charts on InvestmentTools.com, the BDI stood at 1,873 as of April 24. That's down 77.4% since August 1, 2008.

The good news is that the BDI has trickled up for 3 of the first 4 months this year. The BDI suggested a decline in global shipping demand in March, which was followed by a small percentage uptick in April.

Economists sometimes describe the BDI as a leading indicator for global financial recovery. Some investors even claim that the BDI can predict stock market trends, including the prices for the S&P 500.

After studying the charts for both the BDI and the S&P, one could say that there is a general correlation between the two. However, these indices have gone up or down at the same time in only 4 of the past 8 months since August 1, 2008 - and for by widely varying percentages. (The percentage increase or decrease since August 1, 2008 is shown within brackets below.)

• April 24: BDI was 1,873 (-77.4%); S&P500 was 866.23 (-31.3%).
• April 1: BDI was 1,574 (-81%); S&P500 was 811.08 (-35.6%)
• March 2: BDI was 2,014 (-75.7%); S&P500 was 700.82 (-44.4%)
• February 2: BDI was 1,099 (-86.7%); S&P500 was 825.44 (-34.5%)
• January 2: BDI was 773 (-90.7%); S&P500 was 931.80 (-26.1%)
• December 1: BDI was 700 (-91.5%); S&P500 was 816.21 (-35.2%)
• November 3: BDI was 827 (-90%); S&P500 was 966.3 (-23.3%)
• October 1: BDI was 3,025 (-63.%); S&P500 was 1,161.04 (-7.9%)
• September 1: BDI was 6,691 (-19.2%); S&P500 was 1,277.58 (+1.4%)
• August 1: BDI was 8,280; S&P500 was 1,260.31.

Update: BDI hit 2,544 on May 15, 2009.

Posted by Daniel Workman

An MBA would make a very weak candidate as an online International Trade author, at least according to Toronto Star columnist Carol Goar.

Goar cites three major complaints about MBA graduates from Andrew Kidd, vice-president at the world's largest commercial real estate and property management firm CB Richard Ellis.

First, MBAs don't know how to present researched information in a clear and readable form. So while they can research information competently, MBAs generally lack the skills to analyze the data then effectively communicate their findings to an audience with an urgent need to know.

Second, immature MBAs haven't learned how to intelligently deal with adversity. Failure paralyzes them, so that they give up far too quickly instead of using setbacks as lessons learned for self-improvement.

Finally, MBAs have bad attitudes. They try so hard to look confident that most end up projecting arrogance and false bravado.

Of course, each of these 3 weaknesses show a lack critical skills necessary for credible online journalism these days. For example, rule number 1 at Suite101 is to walk the talk by consistently producing high-quality, well-researched articles that are Search Engine Optimized (SEO).

Back in 2005, an MBA from a Florida university ran this International Trade site. She averaged about 500 page views a month. Her articles and blogs were far too theoretical and scattered to attract and retain a growing but time-stressed global audience.

Since then, we've written over 400 articles for Suite101, and grown our International Trade audience to 200,000 page views monthly. Yes, we have had challenges including unsuccessful articles with meagre page views and stinging criticisms. Yet we used those speed bumps to write some of our most popular articles, including World's Richest Countries and Top Internet Countries.

That's not to say that education isn't important. To the contrary, this author continuously studies practical and inexpensive courses at community college night school.

Ironically, some of my best professors are moonlighting university professors from countries from around the globe.

And they all enjoy reading our Suite101 articles.

Posted by Daniel Workman

National Post's Jonathan Chevreau has written about the Cycle of Market Emotions in the past, but never has it been more pertinent than during the current global financial crisis.

Jon's Wealthy Boomer blog presents a compelling graphic for an investor's emotional cycle, one that we partition into a set of lists below.

Phase 1 – Upswing

• Optimism
• Excitement
• Thrill (Wow, I feel great about this investment)
• Euphoria (Point of maximum financial risk).

Phase 2 – Downswing

• Anxiety
• Denial (temporary setback, I’m a long-term investor)
• Fear
• Desperation.

Phase 3 – Worsening

• Panic
• Capitulation (maybe the markets just aren’t for me)
• Despondency
• Depression (point of maximum opportunity).

Phase 4 – Recovery

• Hope
• Relief
• Optimism.

Remarkably, the Market Emotions Cycle graphic closely mirrors the performance of one of Canada's most respected yet battered financial stocks: Manulife Financial (MFC on TSX).

The 6-month graph for MFC suggests that Manulife investors are teetering between Desperation (late phase 2 in our analysis) and Despondency (late phase 3). The 30% downward spike on already depressed price levels in the first week of March 2009 may well trace the Market Emotions Cycle's panic reaction.

With its exposure to the leading U.S. financial engine, not to mention a 10% dividend, hope then relief for Manulife stock may be on the horizon later on this year.

Posted by Daniel Workman

With all the gloom and doom we read in the newspapers these days, it could be a lot worse. Take low interest rates - a good thing for mortgage holders.

Does anyone remember mortgage rates at 22% back in 1981?

Below is a summary of posted mortgage rates in Canada since 1980.

Canadian Mortgage Rates in 1980s

Canadian Mortgage Rates in 1990s

Canadian Mortgage Rates in 2000s

Can everyone see why I'm happy to renew my mortgage in July 2009? That's my silver lining.

Posted by Daniel Workman

This past Monday and Tuesday, RE/MAX Realty hosted a kickstart rally that highlighted real estate sales opportunities in Southern Ontario. Most participants were upbeat about opportunities to sell even in a down market, subject to some hard sales work.

Below are online questions that registration staff posed to attendees.

1. Which of the following do you see as your biggest business challenge for 2009?

• The economy
• Too few motivated buyers
• Listings not selling
• Commission cutting
• Cost of doing business
• Your own personal money management
• Other.

2. Do you use the Internet for your job?

• Don't know
• Sometimes
• My focus on the Web is on sellers
• Not a priority.

3. My priority for career development in 2009 is:

• Developing more referrals
• Creating a business plan
• Keeping my continuing education credits up to date
• Ways to prospect business
• Financial planning and cashflow
• Script and skill development
• No plans.

The most popular answer for question 1. was The economy. For question 2. most answered that they used the Internet to focus on sales listings, while Creating a business plan was at the of the list for question 3.

Posted by Daniel Workman

In Fall 2008, Export Development Canada (EDC) conducted a survey that asked 850 small, medium and large Canadian exporters about their confidence in sales prospects.

The results? Canada's Trade Confidence Index (TCI) score fell to its lowest level in EDC history.

Given the financial crises that accelerated this past November, it's no surprise that exporters were pessimistic about all aspects of their future sales potential. Unlike the previous 5 years, exporters suffered the biggest single drop in confidence for domestic demand. Export businesses often generate additional revenues from sales at home. Looking forward in 2009, 57% of survey respondents expect that Canadian market demand will fall.

In addition, 25% of survey participants were also gloomy about short-term export sales. Even though 39% of participants were upbeat about selling more exports, that percentage is 8% lower than just 6 months earlier in 2008.

The most troubling survey finding is that 64% Canadian exporters visualize a worsening global economy. Perhaps this comes down to "if America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold."

But there is a silver lining for Canada even if anemic sales growth in more traditional markets like the U.S. is expected to continue. Perhaps because of recent double-digit export gains, one-third of Canadian exporters expect improved opportunities to sell to emerging markets like China, Brazil, India and Eastern Europe.

If Canada can build on its comparative advantages in resources from clean water to uranium as well as in information and communication technology, the Great White North is on its way to even greater long-term trade success.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Each of the following types of international trade bonds is equivalent to duties and taxes.

The exporter, importer or customs broker presents the bond to the U.S. Customs department.

• Temporary Import Bonds (TIB) for goods to be temporarily imported from Canada then re-exported from the U.S. to Canada.
• In Transit Bonds for goods shipped to final buyer in the U.S.
• Transit and Export Bonds for products traveling from Canada through the U.S. to a final outside country destination country like Mexico.
• Immediate Export Bonds for goods that a Canadian exporter ships to the U.S.
• In Transit Manifest for shipments traveling from Canada through the U.S. and then back into Canada.

The Canadian version of the TIB is the E29B.

Both Canadian and American customs require the In Transit Manifest to account for shipments.

Posted by Daniel Workman

The World Economic Forum recently published results of a survey in which 12,000 corporate executives from around the world graded banks from around the globe.

Nations with banks seen as insolvent were assigned a number as low as one. At the upper end, a mark of seven was reserved for countries with a banking system seen as entirely healthy.

Below is a list of the world's top 10 banking systems. Point scores from the World Economic Forum survey have been converted to percentage marks for easier comparison.

1. Canada ... 97.1%
2. Sweden ... 95.7%
3. Luxembourg ... 95.7%
4. Australia ... 95.7%
5. Denmark ... 95.7%
6. Netherlands ... 95.7%
7. Belgium ... 94.3%
8. New Zealand ... 94.3%
9. Ireland ... 94.3%
10. Malta ... 94.3%.

In contrast, the failure-prone banking system of the United States of America scored 57.1%.

While traditionally the German banking industry has enjoyed a strong reputation for thrift and strong financial leadership, Germany's banks received an even lower mark of 55.7%. That grade is similar to those assigned to banking systems in less developed, risky and volatile emerging economies.

Strong Canadian Banks Support Trade Ventures

Canada's largest bank is Royal Bank, followed by CIBC, Bank of Nova Scotia, TD Bank, Bank of Montreal and National Bank.

Given the stability of countries like Canada and Ireland, will these trading partners focus on exporting and importing among each other?

Canadians should sleep well knowing that their financial assets are relatively secure.

Posted by Daniel Workman

In many ways, an international entrepreneur is a global project manager who uses resources from around the world to produce the highest quality products at the lowest possible prices.

International entrepreneurs are risk takers. They need to closely analyze political, economic and legal risks in the many countries they do business in. Often entrepreneurs avoid violence-plaqued countries in Africa, nations with high unemployment rates or those with an overly protective or undeveloped domestic legal systems.

To be successful risk takers, entrepreneurs must analyze the local markets, rules and regulations, competition, cultural issues, demographics and other pertinent marketing factors.

In a nutshell, international entrepreneurs:

• Find supply and demand gaps
• Create markets
• Create jobs
• Pay taxes
• Attract foreign investment.

Who better than international entrepreneurs to lead the United States of America to a healthier, more robust place in the world economy?

Posted by Daniel Workman

Time-consuming research tasks can be outsourced to personal procurement service providers in developing countries. A newbie freelance writer can use outsourcing for a wide range of personal assistance tasks, from cold calls for survey questions to accounting data entry to contacting prospective clients for the freelancers skills.

Using international outsourcers to edit written material has had mixed results, since professional, publication-ready copy is not always the strongest component in some developing countries education systems.

There are cultural differences even within the freelancers own country; also, writing for a bank is different than writing for an engineering firm prospect. So outsourcing some tasks can lead to even more work for the freelancer.

There is also the risk of outsourcers stealing ideas and methodologies, then re-selling them for their own profit. Service level agreements can contractually mitigate some of this risk, but enforcement in international arenas can be difficult.

Two international outsourcing firms are AskSunday.com and GetFriday.com. Both are based in India, where salaries are lower.

Users can also Google keywords that closely fit the specific outsourcing services they need. My best advice for newbie freelance writers? Join Suite101.com. I recently did a management study that shows that a freelancers can make upwards of US$70,000 on Suite101.com in 10 years, although it's easy to quit based on the extremely low initial returns.

Find a topic that you're passionate about, then develop a system to produce articles efficiently. By outsourcing mundane tasks at economical pricing, you can focus on producing the most profitable articles that will reach hundreds of thousands of readers around the globe.

Posted by Daniel Workman

What better way to advertise your beer brands than to sponsor China's breakout sports spectacle, broadcast daily around the world via Internet and high-definition television?

Millions of younger Chinese drinkers in the domestic market are developing a brand loyalty to Tsingtao beers. Imagine how many are lifting a Tsingtao beer to celebrate winning Chinese Olympic competitors, from on the trampoline to the diving board.

Headquartered in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdoa, Tsingtao is leveraging publicity from its sponsorship of the Beijing Olympics to grow its beer sales. Tsingtao has spent US$386 million on Olympic-centered promotions of its ales.

The payoff has been a US$146 million gain in company revenues for the first 6 months of 2008, now at $1.2 billion up 16% from $995 million from the same period in 2007.

Long-term sales gains are the main objective of the Olympic advertising. Anheuser-Busch owns 27% of Tsingtao, and in turn is the target of a mammoth takeover from InBev.

Tsingtao beer may soon win a gold medal in sales on international trade markets.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Central to writing successful articles on global trade is an understanding of the audience. After all, the audience decides the success of any published work, whether online or hardcopy.

In the case of our international trade articles, it is important to look at both where our online readers are located, who they are and what they are looking for.

Where Our Online Audience Is Located

Based on overall website traffic statistics for Suite101.com from alexa.com, we can make some general assumptions about viewer locations for our international trade articles.

1. United States ... 57% of all Suite101.com online visitors
2. India ... 6.8%
3. United Kingdom ... 5.8%
4. Canada ... 4.6%
5. Australia ... 2.6%
6. China ... 1.9%
7. South Africa ... 1.5%.

Given that almost two-thirds of our audience is from the U.S., you can understand why we use American spelling rather than Canadian. We also focus on American exports and imports more than any other country, even though Daniel Workman is proudly Canadian.

Our Online Audience Segments

We carefully studied the keywords that audience members used to find our most popular online articles. Below is the audience profile that we developed.

1. Business Researchers ... 55% of international trade article viewers
2. Students ... 30%
3. Educators ... 10%
4. Online Shoppers ... 5%.

What Our Audience Wants

Most of our viewers are researching international trade information either from a business or educational perspective. Ironically, our smallest segment Online Shoppers offers the most promise.

Webpronews.com reports that in 2007 e-commerce sales over the Internet continued to grow over 70% annually. Today, global online shopping generates over US$100 billion in sales.

By 2012, 37% of music sales will be made via the Web while over 50% of consumer electronic purchases will be completed online.

Guess which topic areas we will be covering in our upcoming International Trade articles?

Posted by Daniel Workman

Developing countries led by China and India have 2% driving automobiles, while 14% of Brazilians drive. That compares with 80% in more developed economies like the United States and Canada.

Therefore, demand for fossil fuels is expected to increase substantially as the number of drivers in developing nations accelerates. No one expects alternative energy sources like ethynol, solar, electricity or wind to replace oil and gas to fuel vehicles - at least not any time soon.

Petrobras de Brasilia has budgeted US$250 million to develop oil properties, many of which are offshore.

The problem is that the world economy will need millions of barrels of oil to keep up with accelerating demand. The marginal cost to extract millions of barrels of oil is estimated to be at least $100 per barrel, principally because reserves are located so far below the surface and therefore difficult to pump out.

Yes, oil prices are down because as the slowing U.S. economy is pulling down demand for oil and gas in the short-term. But we shouldn't fixate on short-term fluctations in demand.

The geophysical fact is total oil reserves around the world are limited. Particularly in emerging industrial powerhouses like China and India, long-term demand for oil will be back in a big way. Oil prices will go back up.

The same analysts pointing to the temporary pullback in petroleum demand will lead the chorus screaming for alternative energy including uranium.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Actually, most search engine users will leave a page if they can't find what they're looking for within a second.

Some searchers may stay for up to 10 seconds. But the point is that articles published on the Internet must be highly focused, concise and structured to present essential information where it can be immediately found by the audience.

That's why International Trade articles include a heading that strives to answer questions asked by users with a pressing need to know from around the world. Subheading further focus on questions closely related to the article's main point.

Where possible, we include lists that enable viewers to quickly scan for the keywords or statistics they need.

Online article writing is much different from penning articles for traditional hardcopy forms of journalism. We need to be blunt, not witty.

For example, which title do you think more closely reflects what users will enter into a search engine: Brazil's Trade Buddies or Brazil's Trade Partners? Sure "buddies" is cuter and maybe shows more personality. But statistics show that researchers around the world are far more likely to enter "Brazil's Trade Partners" into a search engine simply because it more accurately and intuitively reflects what they are looking for at that moment.

Highly focused, keyword-rich articles also facilitates companion Google display ads that more accurately reflect the content of the article. Just as important is the fact that the displayed information is more pertinent to what the audience is looking for.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Nicole Weston of Slashfood.com reports that, on average, Brits eat 22 pounds of chocolate contrasted with 12 pounds for Americans. Both nations prefer milk chocolate, although dark chocolate is making progress given increased awareness of dark chocolate health benefits.

Countries Where Chocolate Is Most Popular

Below is a list of top consuming chocolate countries in 2004.

• Britain ... 22 pounds of chocolate per person
• Germany ... 17.8 pounds
• France ... 15 pounds
• United States ... 12 pounds
• Spain ... 8.5 pounds
• Italy ... 4.8 pounds.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the following shows the top chocolate exporting countries in 2004.

• Germany ... US$1.9 billion in chocolate exports
• Belgium ... $1.7 billion
• France ... $1 billion
• Netherlands ... $853 million
• Canada ... $726 million
• Italy ... $596 million
• United States ... $560 million
• United Kingdom ... $498 million.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Worldwide Internet information consultant Comscore Media Metrix revealed that 67.1% of Canadians did their banking online in April 2008, far ahead of the United Kingdom (49.5%) and the United States (44.4%).

Comscore president Brent Bernie notes that the world-class Canadian banking system is so developed and competition is so fierce that Canadian banks must meet the needs of consumers online to grow their banking business.

In fact, online banking in Canada is a must for even the largest bank's survival over the longer term.

Royal Bank Financial's website had 4.6 million visitors in April 2008 (down 2% from April 2007), the most of any Canadian bank. A close second, TD Canada Trust had 4.5 million online customers (up 2%).

The study shows an ongoing re-engineering of how Canadians do business. While bricks-and-mortar banking services are still important, the future of Canadian marketing and business transactions clearly lies on the Web.

This is even more true of international trade. A click of a mouse button will soon become the most common method to source products and sell merchandise from around the world.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Several years back, Brick Brewery Company had a chance to own a part of the Beer Store, one of the premier retail channels for selling suds to Ontario drinkers. Brick declined, partially because no dividend payment was part of the deal.

Now a small brewer like Brick is having great difficulty getting their products on the shelves of one of Canada's largest chain of beer stores.

Instead, the 3 large multinationals that own the Beer Store dominate the ad space and shelf space. Those huge companies are:

• Labatt's owned by InBev, the world's largest beer company by volume
• Molson Coors
• Sappolo out of Japan.

Those huge multinationals have multimillion dollar advertising budgets. As a result,, consumers are much more familiar with Labatt's, Molson and even Sappolo brands. Going into the Beer Store, guess which case of beer drinkers will ask for?

Looking around and only seeing poster-sized ads for the huge beer brands and only those beers on the shelf, a small independent brewer like Brick has no chance.

In international trade, distribution channels are sometimes more important than the product itself.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Being an online Feature Writer at Suite101.com isn't a quick way to get rich. But it is encouraging to see that Internet marketing is enjoying healthy sales increases as more people around the world get connected to the Web.

According to PriceWaterhouseCooper (PwC), Web-based advertising in Canada will soar 21.1% compounded annually to $3.4 billion in 4 years. Toronto Star Business reporter Rita Trichur recently quoted PwC director Jerry Brown as identifying the following 3 fastest-growing drivers for online marketing:

• Keyword searches
• Classified advertising
• Online video advertising (full-motion video ads shown on the Internet).

Traditional media advertising like newspaper classifieds are expected to grow at a slower pace of less than 10%. Even then, digital advertising is expected to fuel much of those gains.

Still, the older generation age 50 and over will still demand the older forms of media to which they become accustomed.

Hopefully, more young and old Web researchers will find their way to our International Trade articles to find immediate answers to the questions for which they want answers.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Paul Waldie of Toronto's Globe and Mail points out that 80% of Canadian wheat is exported. So far this year wheat prices have increased by 50%, a trend that benefits Canada as one of the world's leading wheat producing countries.

Revenues from Canadian agricultural exports continue to hit all-time highs on the way to a record US$11-billion trade surplus this year.

At the same time, Canadians have experienced price increases for food imports, but not as high as those experienced in other countries.

Statistics Canada reports that Canadians paid an average of just 1.2% more for food during the 12 months ending April 30. That rise is 5 times lower than food price increases in America and 6 times lower than in Europe.

The world's most heavily populated country China has experienced a 22% increase in food prices.

So while Canadians are paying about 10% more for cereals and breads due to higher grain prices, cereals and breads represent just 12% of total Canadian food purchases. More meats, fruits and vegetables show up on Canadian food bills, and prices for those products have fallen. Why? Because a strong Canadian dollar has reduced imported vegetable costs by 13% and imported fruit prices by 4%. About 40% of vegetables and fruits that Canadians consume are imported.

Oil comprises only 5% of food prices, so any energy cost pressures are expected to be moderate.

Besides, Canadians are in the enviable position of being able to substitute different foods like potatoes should rice prices multiply. Populations in other countries depend on rice to survive, and therefore suffer the most as Canada's food exports continue to profit.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Last year, Canadians drank US$18 billion worth of beer, wine and spirits. That amounts to a 4.9% gain over 2006.

Canadian beer drinking continues to slow, although sales of imported brands did grow faster than Canadian-made brews last year. Overall, Canadian purchases of beer rose 2% in 2007 - the slowest of any alcoholic beverage category. Imported beers now represent 11.4% of Canadian beer sales, twice the Canadian beer market share 10 years ago.

Wine sales to Canadians moved ahead 9.5%. Red wines now account for 61% of Canadian sales. Wine imports dominate 75% of Canadian red wine and 60% of white wine sales, respectively.

Statistics Canada also revealed that sales of spirits rose 5.8% in 2007. Up 10%, vodka was the fastest-growing spirit last year. While imported spirits garner less than 30% of the Canadian spirits market, foreign spirit brands are growing their sales faster than Canadian-made products. Whisky, scotch and bourbon remain the most popular hard liquors in Canada.

So why do imported alcoholic beverages led Canadian alcohol sales? We should consider the following trends.

1. A compelling trend towards drinking more red wine in Canada, particularly more expensive brands of imported red wine
2. A 1.5% population increase in Canadians over age 15
3. More sales of premium alcohol combined with a 0.9% rise in alcoholic beverage prices
4. Overall, Canadians spent 3.1% more on alcohol last year.

Posted by Daniel Workman

According to Jim Bronskill of the Canadian Press, a British Columbian firm licensed to import guns for use on movie sets was charged for illegally distributing submachine guns to local criminals.

A year later in 2007, police traced two assault rifles used in a January 2007 shootout in British Columbia. A west-coast company with a movie import licence was responsible for bringing those weapons into Canada.

Movie production companies can legally buy guns in bulk internationally. They then import those weapons into Canada for use on their movie sets. The loophole in the law is the loosely defined deadline for registering imported guns, vaguely worded as "as soon as practical".

The result is that imported guns are never registered. Instead, gun dealers ignore the registration process and keep the weapons. The movie company simply says that they no longer have the guns.

Meanwhile, gun dealers sell the firearms to criminals on the black market.

How do you catch these international trade criminals when they never have to register the imports that they are accused of selling? Absent proof that they ever handled the products after delivery to the movie producer, the gun dealers simply point the finger at the movie production company or disappear after making their tidy profits.

The next time you're staring down the barrel of a legally imported but illegally distributed gun, ask yourself how effective Canada's "as soon as practical" gun registration legal wording is. And I'm not talking about watching an action movie on the big screen.

Posted by Daniel Workman

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) established a free trade agreement in which Canada, the United States and Mexico promote economic growth through reduced tariffs, expanded trade and investment. NAFTA has no common external tariffs.

Latin American countries (Caribbean, Central and South America) have four preferential trade agreements:

• Central American Integration System
• Andean Community
• Common Market of the South
• Caribbean Community and Common Market.

Five South American nations - Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela - established a customs union agreement called the Andean Community. Foreign exchange, financial and tax incentives as well as export subsidies were abolished. Common external tariffs were introduced.

Comprised of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) is a customs union that impose common external tariffs of up to 20%. Chile and Bolivia are associate Mercosur members.

Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) is an economic union with a common currency. Seventeen member nations include Bahamas, Bermuda and Jamaica.

Asia-Pacific includes 23 countries and 56% of the world's population.

Newly Industrializing Economies feature strong export-driven economies sometimes called the 4 Tigers of Asia, namely South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) includes Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Burma.

The European Union is the most successful economic union, with harmonized national laws and regulations.

Central European Free Trade Association (CEFTA) teams Hungary with Poland and Czechoslovakia. These countries cooperate in areas including:

• Infrastructure and telecommunications
• Sub-regional projects
• Inter-enterprise cooperation
• Tourism and retail trade.

The Middle East has three key regional organizations: Gulf Cooperation Council, Arab Maghreb Union and Arab Cooperation Council.

Africa has 53 nations and three regional agreements:

• Economic Community of West African States
• East African Cooperation
• South African Development Community.

Posted by Daniel Workman

The standard definition of marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services. This creates exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals.

Global marketing focuses on market opportunities and threats around the world. The scope of activities shifts to markets outside an organization's home country. For an example, see our recent article on Bombardier's international sales.

So why would a successful company like Bombardier look to global markets?

First, the multinational benefits from access to new markets like fast-growing China, India and Russia. Generally less-expensive resources also become available.

But perhaps more important is the inescapable fact that company survival depends on global marketing. Otherwise, competitors that access lower-cost resources in foreign lands will drive a strictly domestic company out of business.

The standard tools in global marketing remain the same: product, price, place and promotion. However, e-commerce and the internet are in prime position to communicate multinational products and services via the worldwide web.

Posted by Daniel Workman

In our first three classes, instructor Anthony Pauk shared insights that he gained as an international deal maker for large multinationals like Montreal-based Bombardier.

Rule number one to successful marketing is to take an idea already in existence and make it more successful. Of course, reengineering require critical thinking skills combined with creative insights.

Audience Analysis

But you also have to understand the audience, particularly its needs and wants. For example, most cultures view aluminium pans as an improvement over heavy cast-iron pans. However, Germans will not buy aluminium cooking utensils because they associate heaviness with durability and functionality.

Focus groups are so important early in the product planning cycle.

Goal of Marketing

Marketing communicates a vision to customers and employees. International marketing messages have a much broader scope to communicate.

Most marketing efforts focus on value, which equals benefits divided by price. Price can involve money, but some people don't consider that time and effort applied towards a product also is part of its price. For example, buying a cat also requires the new owner to spend time and effort grooming, feeding and cleaning.

Hardest Marketing Challenge

Our instructor remarked that the hardest challenge that marketing poses is that marketers have to:

• Put themselves in the shoes of the audience
• Think the way the audience thinks
• Figure out what the audience wants.

In international trade, that effort becomes even more complicated because of the different cultural norms and values around the world.

International Marketing Tips

1. Companies must focus their efforts on core competencies. That's why a world-leading multinational like Nestlé focuses strictly on its food and beverage lines of business.
2. Since 80% of marketing results come from 20% of sales prospects, the most effort must be applied to those countries that maximize value for marketing dollars spent.

Posted by Daniel Workman

For my latest special events gig, I escorted a team of 16 doctors and surgeons visiting from the Near East and Gulf region. This included medical professionals from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Qatar, Lebanon, Jordan and Bahrain. Our guests stayed at the Toronto Hilton at the southeast corner of Richmond Street and University Avenue.

International trade researcher that I am, my journey started with googling cultural behaviours. For example, in the UAE politeness and respect to the elders are generally expected. For me, that's a good thing. I also learned that respect towards the women is mandatory etiquette.

Above all, I had to control my usually creative side that might be construed as an insult to Muslim customs or beliefs. In the UAE, you can get fined and sent to jail for swearing.

I also learned that our guests from Kuwait frown on impatience, something that I work hard on. Kuwaitis often interrupt their meetings for their religious prayers, while handshaking is the ideal method of greeting in this very religious country. Sure enough, during our Saturday dinner three guests excused themselves to pray on mats in the parking lot outside the restaurant. And the men often shook my hand firmly.

I'm not sure that I scored 100% on a test of Arabic manners. When the head doctor asked me how to pronounce the name of our Italian restaurant (Joe Badali's), I phonetically broke it down to sound like "BAD ALLEYS". To which the doctor nudged me and said that he'd like to visit the "bad alleys" later.

So it looks like there are some similarities in international cultures. At least for the men.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Online magazine Suite101 implemented a feature that enables readers to post comments. Since then, page views for our international trade site are up about 9%.

In the 18 day period after comments went live, international trade received 59 comments. As the feature writer for this site, I've allowed 27 comments to be posted while deleting 32.

Guidelines for Comment Moderation

Creating a comment doesn't necessarily guarantee online publication.

Management has given us explicit instructions to delete comments that are spam, sales pitches, libelous, multiple postings, or contain abusive language. That code of conduct also requires that Suite101 writers act as professionally and diplomatically as possible when encountering contentious material.

Bear in mind that typically Suite101 writers will not respond to your comments. Also, comments must be text-only so links are images are excluded.

Examples of Good Comments

We received the most positive affirmations for Brazil's Trade Buddies. Comments range from "This article gives some trade information about Brazil - which is what I have been looking for, thanks" to "Very good! I Learned alot from reading this! thank you very much."

We also received compliments on how informative our international trade site is.

Constructive criticism is also welcome. For example, one reader tactfully pointed out that our article on Eastern European Dental Tourism did not address the quality or durability of dental materials used in low-cost countries.

Examples of Bad Comments

We will instantly delete any comments that are rude, insensitive or obscene. Can you imagine a newspaper editorial page including swear words or random rantings? We also delete meaningless comments like "wow i dotn no what to say" since these add little to the content or professionalism of our site.

UPDATE: We disabled comments on May 14, 2008 due to profanity.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Page views on Wednesdays in April were tops, about 2% more than online visits on Tuesday.

Thursdays and Mondays also averaged well over 3,000 page views daily.

Recording the fewest page views for a week day, the time window from Friday to Saturday seems to be when many Web surfers are offline doing other activities such as shopping or entertaining.

Below is a summary of page views for each day of the week, based on April 2008 statistics.

1. Wednesdays ... 18,337 for a daily average of 3,667
2. Tuesdays ... 18,017 for a daily average of 3,603
3. Thursdays ... 13,228 for a daily average of 3,307
4. Mondays ... 13,097 for a daily average of 3,274
5. Sundays ... 11,169 for a daily average of 2,792
6. Fridays ... 10,113 for a daily average of 2,528
7. Saturdays ... 7,168 for a daily average of 1,792.

The credibility of this data is low since we're only looking at 30 days. Also note that there was an additional Wednesday and an extra Tuesday in April.

What we can safely say is that, in April 2008, page views from:

• Monday to Thursday were 62,679 for a daily average of 3,482.
• Friday to Sunday were 28,450 for a daily average of 2,371.

Thus, page visits from Monday to Thursday are about 47% higher than later in the week. So if a month ends on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday - chances are that month will have lower page views than a comparable month that ends on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday - or best of all - Wednesday.

Posted by Daniel Workman

I never realized the opportunities that international trade offers for technical writers - particularly bilingual technical writers.

A consultant in Winnipeg contacted me and asked whether I could proofread some shipping labels with English and French text. I was up for the challenge, particularly when I heard that Chinese manufacturers were waiting for the corrected labels to finish their production runs.

When I received the first batch of 76 pages (some labels had front and back text), I realized that I could make the 6 p.m. delivery deadline. Products for the labels included office supplies like glue, pens and erasers. Of course there was some overlap, for example boxes of blue pens in quantities of 12 or 24. My job was to ensure that the French translation was accurate, and that both the English and French wording was clear, consistent and correct.

The second batch of about 30 pages was a little more problematic. By 6 p.m. I had sent out the first delivery, but by then my mind had slowed. Fortunately, I was able to negotiate an early morning deadline for the second deliverable. I made the second delivery at 9 p.m.

The next morning the client thanked me for meeting the tight deadlines.

Key success factors included an ability to work in both Canadian official languages, plus a table in MS Word that summarized discrepancies by label form number. Each row in the table was for a particular form with suggested improvements to the French wording plus any discrepancies that I uncovered (for example: form number on label didn't match form number in file name).

Who says there isn't any opportunities in international trade documentation?

Posted by Daniel Workman

Many of the international trade articles on our top 10 list for April 2008 were published at least a year ago. For example, pieces about the world's richest and poorest countries first appeared in autumn 2006. Articles like the top French and Italian exports and imports were published about 8 months ago.

Brazil has shown the greatest increase in readership. Articles ranging from Brazil's trade partners, exports and imports to trade regulations bring in a combined total of about 5,000 page views.

Below is the top 10 list of articles with the most page views during April 2008.

1. World's Richest Countries ... 7,647 page views
2. World's Poorest Countries ... 3,421
3. Brazil's Trade Buddies ... 2,941
4. Top Ten Oil Countries ... 2,766
5. America's Trade Buddies ... 2,567
6. China's Top Trading Partners ... 1,787
7. Top French Exports & Imports ... 1,733
8. Top Italian Exports & Imports ... 1,439
9. Germany's Trade Buddies ... 1,406
10. Brazil’s Top Exports & Imports ... 1,376

With recent shortages in commodities hitting headlines around the world, it should come as no surprise that many global researchers are visiting our articles to learn about oil (4,000 page views), water (1,600), wheat (1,000), rice (1,600), diamonds (700) and sugar (664).

Of these articles, rice offers exciting opportunities since over 50% of the world's population depends on rice as a food staple. Our article on Leading Rice Export Countries finished in 30th place despite having been published in mid-month.

Countries that provide grains that feed the world are sure to benefit from the increased demand and therefore prices around the globe.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Suite101 writers often find that blogs and competitive websites copy original articles without first asking permission.

Using Google Alerts, many of our authors track keywords embedded into their articles or references to their names as authors. This notifies us when our writing is duplicated on another website.

Suite101.com has exclusive electronic rights for one year after an article or blog is published on the website. That work cannot be published elsewhere on the Internet unless you are granted special permission by Suite101.

You are welcome to post an introduction followed by up to 50 words from the writing, provided that your text includes a link to the original article or blog on Suite101.com.

After the first year of publication, ownership rights shift to me as the sole owner of the online-published work. Just as you would during Suite101's one year ownership period, you must ask me for permission to publish my work on another website.

If this is not acceptable, I would ask you to please remove my article or blog from your site. I do appreciate your interest in my work, and I would suggest that if you would like to publish works written by writers outside of your organization that you ask their permission first.

Here is the link to my original article, in case you would like to edit your blog post.

Posted by Daniel Workman

The relatively new German Suite101.de site scores higher than 95% of the hundreds of thousands of websites that HubSpot's Website Grader has previously evaluated,

Sure that's less than Vancouver-based Suite101.com's score of 99%. Then again, the English version Suite101 electronic magazine has been online for over 10 years with more than 7 million readers each month. The English version has over 900 writers while the German counterpart has 200 authors.

Suite101.com has a Google page rank of 7, one more than Suite101.de's ranking of 6. One reason is that the Vancouver-based Suite101.com has 825,000 indexed pages (mostly articles and blogs) while the younger Suite101.de has only 47,400.

Further, Suite101.com has an Alexa online traffic rating of 3,004 which is in the top 0.01% of all websites. Suite101.de has an Alexa score of 147,368 as of April 13, 2008. This is good for the top 0.51% of sites.

One area where Suite101.de has a competitive advantage is in inbound links. The German site has 1.6 million inbound links compared with 236,508 for Vancouver's Suite101. That's because the larger Suite101.com site provides many links to its sister German portal.

So how does our International Trade site stack up against the German site version (Weltwirtschaft & Welthandel translates as Economy & Trade)? Consider the following comparison.

• International Trade Website Grade is 97% (61% for German site)
• International Trade Google Page Rank is 5 (0 for German site)
• International Trade Indexed Pages equals 393 (5 for German site)
• International Trade Inbound Links are 1,287 (2 for German site).

Posted by Daniel Workman

To prepare for our final exam, I had the unique privilege of researching and writing about leadership styles from Germany to Japan as well as human resource management issues including international job assignments.

One question asked for a list of 5 differences between Japanese and American leadership styles. In Japan, promotions are very slow and based on seniority. Promotions in the U.S. can happen lightning-fast for the right candidate in the right specialty. Individual American managers make decisions, whereas Japanese see decision-making as a team responsibility. Besides, the Japanese are much more wary of risk than the more entrepreneurial Americans. Japanese leaders want to care for their workers both on and off the job, whereas American managers focus their concern for their employees at work only.

Another question posed a scenario in which Microsoft launches an international operation in India, then asked whether we would send Americans to run the Indian operation, hire local Indian talent or outsource the Indian initiative to a sub-contractor like Infosys. My answer was that it is a lot less expensive with fewer cultural barriers to use host-country nationals. Although more secure than a subcontractor, my only concern was whether the Indian operation ran the risk that some Indian employees would take proprietary Microsoft trade secrets to competitors. It's much harder to persecute local Indians than American citizens, because obviously international law is harder to enforce and more expensive in the host country.

The last question asked whether international travellers will improve their understanding of other cultures. George Brown College's International Market Culture course helps identify basic underlying values that drive a culture's norms and values, which are behind a lot of the distinct behaviours we see when we travel.

Posted by Daniel Workman

HubSpot's latest webinar offered practical advice on taking advantage of social media. One metaphor for social marketing is a cocktail party without time or space constraints.

Publishing Social Media Sites

HubSpot highlighted the following sites as tools to build interest in our blogs and articles.

• Google Groups
• Podcast.net
• Squidoo
• Twitter
• UTube
• Yelp.

These sites also provide metrics to measure visitor traffic. The webinar also examined Google blog searches and blog alerts.

Networking Social Media Sites

The following sites enable us to build a following of friends with whom to share article and blog links.

• Bebo
• Care2.com
• Eons
• Facebook
• Friendster
• Gather
• Linkedin
• Myspace.

An intriguing way to promote a flattering blog that someone has written about your site or one of your articles is for you to then post the favourable blog on StumbleUpon.com. For example, a positive review on Technorati.com with a link to your work makes for a strategic post on StumbleUpon.

Promotional Social Media Sites

Of the promotional sites below, Digg has the most visitors per month with 18 million. Del.icio.us has 2 million while StumbleUpon has 1 million per month.

• Bloglines
• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Fark
• Mixx
• Newswire
• Propeller
• Reddit
• Slashdot
• StumbleUpon.

Another tip is to search these promotional sites with keywords specific to your website to see what other people are bookmarking.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Our final evening of student presentations started with a Filipina partnered with a French girl dressed in a black jersey labelled G'Day Toronto! With an interesting accent, Claire explained that Australian strongly believe that the way they do business will be successful around the world without modification. Australians are also highly individualistic, placing highest priority on taking care of themselves and their immediate family.

The next team was comprised of two Brazilian women who analyzed China. A key feature of the Chinese market culture is a strong focus on long-term success. This in turn makes decision-making very slow and cumbersome in the People's Republic.

My Ukrainian partner and I were third to present. Germany is the world's number exporter, and has strong language, cultural and perceptual barriers that may prevent Germany from becoming a true global superpower. For example, Germans are very formal and require that they be addressed by title (like Herr Workman) rather than by first name. Also, Germans have a strict - if unspoken - code of conduct for attending business presentations. No one should enter the meeting room until invited and told where to sit. The oldest and highest rank enter the room first. Among those of equal rank, men go in before women.

A Middle Eastern couple made the final presentation on Switzerland. While Switzerland's population of 7.5 million is much smaller than Germany's 82.4 million, Switzerland has a multicultural population including people of German, Italian and French heritage. This fact makes it easier for Swiss management to adapt to cultural demands of multinationals, since they need to adjust to different cultures within their own boundaries. In contrast, 95% of Germans speak German and are conditioned to well-documented and proven German business practices.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Each culture was presented by a nationality of a completely different origin.

A team of Filipinos described the rigid and authoritarian rule in India. Meetings last many hours behind closed doors in India. In group discussions, only the most senior persons may speak even if the rest of the group disagrees. Never shake hands with your left hand, which is considered unclean in India.

Two Brazilian classmates discussed Sweden. Swedish businesses take some of the highest risks. Sweden has flat, decentralized organization structures and is more concerned with a cooperative and friendly work atmosphere. Swedish managers allow employee freedoms, and are more conservative to the environment.

Two Colombians examined the Ukraine, with its warmer and more emotionally open culture. Then again, the Ukraine is highly authoritarian and bureaucratic. Job vacancies in the Ukraine specify the acceptable age range for applicants. Also, Ukranians are more focused on oral communication.

A Mexican couple presented Ireland. Once a poor country, the Celtic Tiger is now host to many multinational corporation operations including those of Dell, Intel and Microsoft. Ireland's culture has a decentralized power structure, high emphasis on taking care of an individual's immediate family, a strong focus on earnings and promotion, as well as a willingness to take on risk.

An Indian gentleman and a Chinese lady presented Japan. Like Ukraine, at work the focus is taking care of fellow group members rather than individual competition. Working in Japan is highly stressful due to the emphasis on earnings and promotion. Yet the Japanese are highly adverse to risk.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Boosted by income from exports and overseas investment, China will surpass the United States as the world's largest economy in 2025. This is according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report mentioned in John Morrissy's article World's financial order to shift for the Canwest News Service.

Similarly, Brazil will move ahead of Japan to become the 4th largest economy by 2050. That same year, India will grow to 90% the size of America's economy while Russia, Mexico and Indonesia will overshadow Germany.

Areas of future growth include environmental technologies, energy and utility firms as well as financial services.

The report forecasts that the Canadian economy will fall behind:

• India in 2014
• Brazil in 2016
• Russia in 2020
• Mexico in 2024
• Indonesia in 2037.

To keep pace with changes in international trade, Canada needs to leverage its competitive advantages, namely:

• a multicultural society
• natural resources
• strong social and cultural ties to developing nations.

Posted by Daniel Workman

The past 2 weeks, I've been promoting two new cereal samples for a major American company. We've been stationed around Toronto's Union Station and Eaton Centre, 2 of the busiest hubs in Canada.

Our target audience is the younger audience, males and females from 18 to 38. The multinational cereal maker wants to increase sales of its products in Canada by getting prospective customers to sample 2 new flavours, cinnamon and honey roasted.

What better way to develop brand name loyalty than to give away free samples?

We started early Thursday morning at 7 am to catch early morning commuters. About 16 brand ambassadors handed out samples, walking to the historic St. Lawrence Market after morning foot traffic waned at Toronto Union Station, which serves as a centre for the subway, trains, buses, taxis and other vehicles.

It makes sense for an American multinational to contract out the actual sampling of its product in a local market to area residents. Otherwise, the multinational would have to pay for American staff traveling to Toronto and staying in hotels. Besides, local workers have a much stronger knowledge of places with the highest foot traffic.

One Canadian company that provides front-line staff for these special events and promotions in Toronto is NASCO Employment Solutions. That's one company that participates in international trade by staying at home in Canada while serving clients from other countries.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Fresh from Hillary's victories in Ohio and Texas, former US president Bill Clinton gave a masterful lecture on how Republican George Bush's misguided war in Iraq and inattention to the US economy have resulted in a massive US trade deficit.

To which countries does America owe the most money? Bill Clinton points to 4 foreign entities:

• China
• Japan
• South Korea
• Oil producing countries, notably those in the Middle East.

Which countries does America desperately want to renegotiate international trade deals on more favourable grounds for the US? Hmmm... let's see:

• China
• Japan
• South Korea
• Oil producing countries, notably those in the Middle East.

These countries are using America's debt payments to subsidize education and skills training to make themselves even more competitive in international trade.

Lenders are not predisposed to give borrowers a competitive edge in negotiations. Should the next US president be a Democrat, he or she will probably have to implement American tariffs as mechanisms to leverage more advantageous trade terms for American business.

Keep an eye out for the mention of American tariffs in upcoming speeches from Obama, Hillary and even Bill.

Posted by Daniel Workman

According to The Nielsen Company global information and media company, South Korea leads the world in shopping online. The list below shows that 99% of South Koreans with Internet access have made online purchases.

Top International E-Commerce Countries

1. South Korea ... 99% shop via Internet
2. United Kingdom ... 97%
3. Germany ... 97%
4. Japan ... 97%

The United States finished eighth with 94 percent of Americans have made online purchases.

Most Popular Online PurchasesBooks are the most popular purchased items over the Internet (about 40%), followed by clothing (35%), videos and games (24%), airline tickets (24%) and electronic equipment (23%).

American Internet users buy more clothing online, followed by books and videos and games.

Global E-Commerce Sales Growth

The Nielsen Company global surveys show that 627 million had shopped online 2 years ago, and increased by approximately 40 percent to 875 million just 2 years later.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Let's look at some of the 50 Website variables that we excel in.

On-Page Search Engine Optimization

Our site keywords and heading summaries are effective. That's a major reason some 70,000 readers find our articles each month.

The readability level is college undergraduate.

Off-Page Search Engine Optimization

Suite101 is almost 12 years old, with over 2 years to domain expiry. That counts towards a higher rating by search engines.

Based on a strong set of some 1,200 inbound links, our international trade site has a Google Page Rank of 5 - better than thousands of international business and government sites including The Canadian Immigrant.

We've won 2 del.icio.us bookmarks plus 19 votes for 8 articles submitted to digg.com.

Traffic Rank: Top 0.05%

According to Alexa, an online service that measures traffic for millions of sites on the Internet in a similar way to Nielsen television show ratings, our website:

• has an Alexa rank of 6,396 and
• is in the top 0.05% of all websites.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Cultural Conflicts

A Mexican salesperson learned the hard way that German business clients demand prompt attendance at meetings often scheduled weeks in advance. Mexicans tend to multi-task and change schedules on the fly.

In contrast, the German culture carefully plans, prioritizes and schedules project tasks.

To be successful, the Mexican sales representative must adapt his approach to meet the cultural needs of prospective German buyers.

Perceptual Barriers

An American company designed an advertisement with 3 keyword phrases in flowchart format: soiled clothes, followed by the advertised laundry soap, which was followed by clean clothes.

Why was the ad successful in North America but an unmitigated failure in Saudi Arabia? The Arabic culture reads word images from right to left, indicating that the laundry soap would turn clean apparel into dirty clothes.

Unintended Language Associations

Dr. Pepper was a relatively successful soft drink in North America. In Britain, however, the words Dr. Pepper is associated with prostitution. As a result, sales volume suffered dramatically.

An American company introduced toothpaste in a Latin American commercial that would make brushers interesting. Unfortunately, the Latin audience associates the term "interesting" with being pregnant.

Non-Verbal Communication

And let's not forget about facial expressions and body movements. In Western cultures, direct eye contact shows honesty and respect. Asians see sustained eye contact as staring and disrespectful. In some cultures, students are not allowed to look their instructors in the eyes.

North Americans tend to keep a social distance further apart than South Americans who typically stand closer even to new business acquaintances..

Posted by Daniel Workman

Canadian exports in December 2007 slipped 3.1% to C$36.7 billion. The stronger Canadian loonie resulted in a slight 0.7% gain in imports to $34.3 billion.

According to Statistics Canada, Canada's trade surplus of $2.4 billion in December represents a nine-year low.

BMO deputy chief economist Doug Porter commented that Canada's current account deficit including investment income and services may have slipped into the red for the final quarter of 2007.

Back in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, government overspending resulted in Canada's current account deficits.

Today, the Canadian economy remains strong while U.S. business weakens.

Canadian exporters are now focusing on other countries around the world. Over the past 3 years, America's share of Canadian exports has fallen from 85% to 75%. Still, Canadian exports are declining across the board.

In December, industrial products declined 6.5%, machinery and equipment sales fell 4.6%. The biggest decrease? Auto exports were down 8.7% to their lowest level in almost a decade.

Only Canadian energy exports experienced an increase.

Should oil prices fall significantly or oil exports falter, Canada's trade balance will slip into deficit.

Posted by Daniel Workman

According to David Twiddy of the Associated Press, the U.S. Attorney's office is charging 2 Chinese companies and an American firm with distributing tainted pet food which led to the recall of 60 million cans and pouches of wet pet food at a cost of US$55 million last year.

Located in China's Jiangsu Province, Xuzhou Anying Biologic was charged with 13 felony counts each for introducing adulterated food - as well as misbranded food - into interstate commerce. Both the Chinese owner and president are named in the indictment.

A Chinese export broker, Suzhou Textiles, was also charged with mislabelling 800 tonnes of tainted wheat gluten that Xuzhou manufactured. Not only did Suzhou mislabel the gluten in an attempt to avoid inspection in China, the Chinese export broker did not declare the contaminated product when it was exported to the U.S.

The American company ChemNutra picked up the melamine-laced wheat gluten at a Kansas City port after it was shipped from China. Because ChemNutra distributed the tainted gluten to pet food makers in Canada as well as the U.S.

The criminal charges against the Chinese companies are punishable by up to 3 years in prison. If proven, the felony conspiracy charge will result in 5 years in prison. Charges against the American importer ChemNutra carry a lesser but still serious penalty of one year in prison.

Posted by Daniel Workman

George looked squarely into the camera and identified four compelling reasons that Congress should pass these free trade agreements just like they did for Peru. The first three points were explicit.

Panama, Colombia and South Korea represent 100 million potentional clients for U.S. exports. This is good of course for America exporters.

More South American and Asian clients also mean more jobs if the U.S. can sell more of its Made in America products to these expanding markets.

Thirdly, the U.S. has significantly reduced tariffs for imported goods coming from these countries. Free trade agreements would level the playing field by bringing down adjustment tariffs currently imposed on U.S. exports to Colombia, Panama and South Korea. A more reciprocal arrangement would increase revenues for American businesses.

The fourth point had a more implicit message. Bush commented that these free trade agreements would ensure the survival of American ideals including freedom from oppression from dictatorial regimes. In other words, the free trade agreement with Colombia will enable the U.S. to keeps its eyes on unfavourable leaders like in Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Haven't we learned our lesson from Iraq yet? Let's just stick to the international trade agreements.

Posted by Daniel Workman

In first place, America's Trade Buddies had 6,211 page views (PVs) from October 25, 2007 to January 23, 2008.

Second place goes to Brazil's Trade Buddies with 6,040 visits.

China's Top Trading Partners was third with 3,085 hits. Germany's Trade Buddies wasn't far behind with 2,450 PVs.

Below is a list of other country-specific articles:

• Brazil's Top Exports & Imports ... 1,888 PVs
• Japan's Trade Buddies ... 1,803 PVs
• Australia's Trade Buddies ... 1,757 PVs
• Top Chinese Exports & Imports ... 1,588 PVs
• Canada's Trade Buddies ... 1,425 PVs
• Top Italian Exports & Imports ... 1,356 PVs
• Top French Exports & Imports ... 1,343 PVs
• Mexico's Top Exports & Imports ... 1,210 PVs
• Japan's Top Exports & Imports ... 1,122 PVs
• Top Chinese Investment Picks ... 1,084 PVs
• Top Indian Exports & Imports ... 1,029 PVs

Posted by Daniel Workman

Our Colombian and Brazilian students commented that there is more social bonding and interaction in South American cultures. On the other hand, Canadians tend to reward individual behaviour more than respect social interraction.

My Colombian friend made an interesting observation. In his home country, people continually interrupt each other. Most Canadians and Americans would have difficulty adapting to this.

The Brazilian student said that during Carnival, everyone got at least a week off from work.The instructor explained that he had received notice at his workplace that his company isn't eligible for a new Ontario holiday because the company was federally incorporated.

The key here is understanding why different cultures behave the way they do. For example, Japanese and Koreans bow to show respect for seniors. In some cultures, students call their teachers "Sir" while others use the instructor's name. Even a handshake can send a different message depending on the culture. A firm handshake is preferred in North America but a soft grip is the way to make an impression. And in some Middle Eastern countries, norms and values don't allow you to shake a lady's hand.

Each culture shares implicit assumptions that shape norms and values that result in observable characteristics. While direct eye contact is thought to show respect in Canadian culture, that same behaviour is seen as a menacing stare by others.

In the end, my South American colleagues have started to adapt to Canadian culture which may play havoc when they return home. And the instructor? He plans to teach in Brazil next semester just in time for Carnival.

Posted by Daniel Workman

On the first night of class, we met our instructor at nearby George Brown College.

Rommel Shakil comes from Bangladesh and received his MBA from Houston, Texas. His full-time job is supply chain management with Telus Mobility.

The instructor challenged us with a Human Resource Management question: Should a company send a North American employee to manage in a foreign environment like Saudi Arabia or instead hire local talent? We were asked to consider family pressures, since spouses might insist on returning home.

Rommel contrasted the American culture which recognizes individual performance while Japanese focus more on methodical, one-step-at-a-time group activity.

Key course outcomes are to:

• Examine basic concepts, principles and sensitivities needed to manage businesses in key international cultures
• Explore different cultural markets
• Prepare for short- and long-term assignments to foreign markets.
• Examine working with multicultural teams of people.
• Demonstrate how to make effective international management presentations.

I was the only Anglo-Saxon Canadian among an international gamut of students. Three classmates are Brazilian, two come from the Philippines or Mexico. Two Chinese women were joined by a Russian mechanical engineer and students from Iraq and Bahrain. We also have an exchange student from France who wants to sharpen her English skills.

One final insight: Indian companies often insist on meeting with a vendor's CEO beforing signing contracts.

I must say, this learning experience should enrich our international trade articles with educated insights from around the world.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Based on the keywords international trade, below is a list of synonyms and corresponding average price per click.

• international trade leads ... $4.87
• international trade consulting ... $4.27
• international trade attorney ... $3.96
• international trade administration ... $3.80
• international trade law firms ... $3.54
• international trade lawyer ... $3.47
• international trade solutions ... $3.29
• court of international trade ... $3.12
• international trade finance ... $2.62
• international trade courses ... $2.55
• articles on international trade ... $2.25
• international trade data ... $2.09

Lots of profitable Google searches are finding their way to our international trade site. Even the term international trade brings in $2.10 per click.

You can look forward to another year of intriguing articles on international trade - I know I am.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Our most popular keyword searches in December 2007 with corresponding page views were: luxembourg (richest country) - 585 page views; richest countries - 582 PVs; richest countries in the world - 352 PVs; richest country - 313 PVs and richest country in the world - 277 PVs.

Below is a list of other popular keywords. Again, the number of page views is shown beside each keyword phrase.

1. brazil exports - 272 PVs
2. poorest countries - 258 PVs
3. richest nations - 226 PVs
4. wealthiest countries - 194 PVs
5. worlds richest countries - 182 PVs
6. oil countries - 180 PVs
7. water etf - 176 PVs
8. staples india - 174 PVs
9. international trade articles - 173 PVs
10. world's richest countries - 171 PVs
11. poorest countries in the world - 125 PVs
12. wealthiest nations - 121 PVs
13. brazilian exports - 113 PVs
14. world's poorest countries - 109 PVs
15. gdp of countries - 109 PVs.

Isn't it interesting how more people are interested in finding out about the richest countries rather than the poorest? And more want to read about Staples in India rather than general trade articles.

Posted by Daniel Workman

At the time, FedEx stock (FDX on NYSE) was trading at around US$107. Since then FDX has plummeted 14% to $92. There's been some bad news, like the $319 million that the company has to be pay the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in taxes and penalties as the result of a decision that FedEx Ground staff are employees and not independent contractors.

According to Corridore, the major risk to FedEx revenue and profit growth in 2008 is a major economic slowdown coupled with a possible price war against competitors like UPS.

Corridore is more optimistic. He proposes that FedEx revenues will grow about 7% in 2008 down slightly from 9% in 2007. However, double-digit gains in international revenues are expected led by exports out of China.

In 2007, FedEx won authority to operate 30 weekly flights into China. The company plans to grow its delivery business within China from 220 to 320 cities within 5 years.

FedEx international business serves 220 countries and generates about 40% of overall company revenues. Those faster-growing revenues are counter-balanced by two major service contracts with the gargantuan U.S. Postal Service effective to 2010 for air transport of Priority, Express and First Class mail.

With annual revenues of over US$37 billion, FedEx has some 5,000 drop boxes at post offices in 340 American metropolitain locations.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Critics also point to the higher Canadian loonie harming exports from Ontario and Quebec manufacturers. Railways are doing better, but truckers struggle with overcapacity in challenging freight environment.

We looked at risks to TransForce Income Fund, Canada's largest trucking firm, in our article Lower Trade Slows Canadian Trucker. We concluded that long-term debt to pay for acquisitions is the predominant threat particularly if interest rates rise.

However, TransForce has established credentials, growing company revenues profitably even in challenging global trade conditions. The company's dominant position in the Canadian trucking industry bears witness to management's formidable track record.

Late in November, TransForce acquired 63-year-old trucking firm Thibodeau Group of Companies with its 815 employees. Thibodeau also comes with 400 diesel-powered tractors, 1100 trailers and 14 trucking terminals in Ontario, Quebec and the United States. Thibodeau generated some US$75 million in revenues in 2006.

Canada's largest trucker is using the global trade downturn to take over smaller competitors when prices are falling. The Thibodeau deal is expected to add $0.05 to TransForce earnings.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Many countries depend on immigrant workers to maintain their Gross Domestic Products. Countries like india, China, Mexico, France and the Philippines lead the world in supplying migrant workers.

Japan's government has a strict policy that discourages immigrant labour. As the Japanese population grows older, Japan is experience a shortage of able-bodied workers from the homeland.

The answer? The Japanese are developing sophisticated robots to pick up the slack.

And this trend extends to professions including dentistry. A Japanese humanoid responds in pain if a dental student hits a nerve while drilling on teeth in the robot's mouth.

Robots are performing a wide range of repetitive tasks in manufacturing sectors, led by the automotive industry. Honda is a major investor in robot technology.

Humanoids require no salary nor benefits. Breaks, vacations and holidays are of little concern.

Robot technology should improve Japan's productivity.

From an international trade perspective, Japan may best profit from its humanoid workforce by exporting its robotic products to nations overdependent on immigrant workers.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Last month, we looked at the world's leading tea export nations. But which countries drink and export the most of the hot liquid?

For answers, we look to the Intergovernmental Group on Tea. The IGT is part of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.

India maintains its position as the world's number one tea consuming nation. Below are FAO statistics for 2004 on tea drinking.

1. India ... 757,000 metric tons (22.5% of global total)
2. China ... 676,253 mt (20.1%)
3. Russia ... 181,680 mt (5.4%)
4. Japan ... 151,400 mt (4.5%)
5. Pakistan ... 134,578 mt (4%)
6. United Kingdom ... 127,849 mt (3.8%)
7. United States ... 100,933 mt (3%).

The list below shows the top tea importing nations.

1. Russia … 172,145 metric tons (17.8%)
2. United Kingdom … 156,311 mt (16.2%)
3. Pakistan … 115,967 mt (12.0%)
4. United States of America … 99,484 mt (10.3%)
5. United Arab Emirates … 65,826 mt (6.8%)
6. Japan … 56,234 mt (5.8%)
7. Morocco … 45,670 mt (4.7%)
8. Germany … 43,409 mt (4.5%)
9. Poland … 32,119 mt (3.3%)
10. Syrian Arab Republic … 30,330 mt (3.1%)
11. Netherlands … 29,155 mt (3.0%)
12. Canada … 18,835 mt (1.9%).$

Posted by Daniel Workman

Fast sell-outs for 13 of 15 shows in London and Manchester, England pushed promoters to expand their Spice celebrity offerings to 45 shows in 9 countries.

The kick-off Spice reunion concert was performed to a standing-room-only crowd in Vancouver (population 1.8 million), a key west-coast shipping port. Also sold out are 2 spectacles in another major Canadian trade hub: Toronto (4.4 million) on February 3 and 4.

Seven of the 16 Spice extravaganzas in U.S. cities are before Christmas, which should maximize sales for Spice Girl merchandise. Fans can buy a wide range of goods, ranging from Spice baseball caps, books, DVD videos games, hankerchief sets, iTunes downloads, make-up sets, plates, purses, removable tatoos, ring tones and shoulder bags. T-shirts continue to be the most popular Spice Girls product sold online and at the concerts.

Starting on December 8, three Spice Girl concerts are at the Mandalay Bay Event Center in Las Vegas, Nevada - a major international tourist destination. Both Canadian and American gaming enthusiasts can buy tickets online from Ticketmaster, with prices ranging from US$75.50 to $133.25.

Other Spice Girl concerts will take place in some of the most heavily populated American cities.

• January 30, 2008 … Boston (population 564,483)
• February 15 & 16, 2008 … Chicago (2,818,628)
• February 10, 11 & 13, 2008 … New Jersey (8,724,560)
• December 5 & 7, 2008 … Los Angeles (3,945,097)

International venues include gigs in Argentina (Buenes Aires) and Australia (Sidney), 3 shows in China (Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai), as well as concerts in Germany (Cologne), South Africa (Cape Town) and Spain (Madrid).

The musical invasion of global trade superpower China marks the girl band’s first performance in the People’s Republic, just in time for the upcoming 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Posted by Daniel Workman

First of all, I like writing about the apple trade because I enjoy apples - particularly Royal Galas and Empires. Ontario's most famous apple remains the McIntosh, which has a tarter taste.

I live near Toronto's St. Lawrence Market, so I enjoy year-round access to Ontario-grown produce.

I was delighted to read Jennifer Bain's article The darling of the apple world (Toronto Star, November 28/07). Jennifer reveals that the province of Ontario produces 42% of Canadian apples.

Bain also points out that Ontario ships apples to the United Kingdom, Europe, the Caribbean and Mexico. Still, Canada's central province imports from apple producing countries including China, the U.S. and Australia. For example, Granny Smiths stocked in Ontario supermarkets are likely from Australia where it's a native brand. Similarly, Pink Lady apples are typically imported.

Honeycrisp and Ambrosia are two of Ontario's fastest-growing apples. Both are sweet, firm and crisp. But the top-selling Ontario apples continue to be the McIntosh (30.2 million pounds in 2006), Red Delicious (16.3 million pounds) and Empire (15.5 million pounds).

Hopefully, the sweeter-tasting Honeycrisps and Ambrosians will spearhead a rise in Ontario's apple exports. Now if we could only get the Canadian loonie back to its former discounted self against the U.S. dollar ...

Posted by Daniel Workman

Old boy that I am, my childhood Christmas gifts ranged from a box of Cracker Jacks to a GI Joe doll. The caramel corn probably did more for my dentist's pocketbook, although every box had a surprise prize.

Today's gifts are a lot more high-tech.

Take this year's finalists for best Christmas gift ideas. Based on an online survey described at squido.com, the list below is ordered from highest to lowest prices.

1. Nintendo's Wii Game Console (including Wii Sports) ... US$569
2. Sony's PlayStation 3 80GB Motorstorm Computer Entertainment System ... $499.99
3. Apple 16 GB iPod Touch Digital Media Player ... $379.99
4. Uglobe's Pleo Dinosaur ... $349.99
5. LEGO Mindstorms NXT Robot Building Kit ... $249.99
6. Activision's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle ... $166.69
7. Hasbro's Transformers Movie Leader Optimus Prime ... $91.99
8. Fisher Price Kid-Tough Digital Camera for Girls ... $48.99
9. Spinmaster Aquadoodle Draw N' Doodle Mat ... $48.66

My personal favourite is Pleo, a one week-old robotic dinosaur. Pleo is a virtual pet that interacts with your family – moving organically, expressing emotion, autonomously exploring and responding to the outside world. Each Pleo has a unique personality that develops based on Pleo’s life experiences at your home. Owners can go to a home site to learn training tips and download new enhancements.

Posted by Daniel Workman

According to the Toronto Star wire services on November 20, the 3-month delivery price for zinc fell by nearly 10% to as low as C$2,270 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange.

Zinc's price is half the record rate of $4,580 on November 10, 2006.

The principal reason for the glut of Chinese zinc exports is a rumour that China's government may rescind a 5% tax rebate on zinc exports. Zinc suppliers from the People's Republic are scurrying to flood global markets with their stockpiled zinc while the 5% tax rebate is still in effect.

We may well be seeing a situation where Chinese exporters are contributing to a 10% decrease in prices that they receive for their zinc shipments - just to lock in a 5% tax rebate.

China is the world's largest supplier of zinc. However, not just Chinese zinc miners are suffering. Canada's Teck Comenico is a leading zinc producer that has seen its class B share price fall by 20% over the past month.

Once Chinese zinc inventories are depleted, the laws of supply and demand should kick in. The global price for zinc should move up, making international trade more profitable for zinc miners like Teck Comenico.

Short-term pain should lead to long-term gain.

Posted by Daniel Workman

In the province of Ontario, beef is a C$1.2 billion industry. More than 19,000 producers work in Ontario's beef industry. Another 13,000 people directly or indirectly owe their jobs to Ontario beef.

According to Ian Urquhart of the Toronto Star (Beef sector burned by hot loonie, November 14/07), Canadian beef farmers face 4 major obstacles.

1. The soaring loonie makes Canadian beef exports more expensive and imported American meat cheaper.
2. Canadian beef producers are at a competitive disadvantage because of stingent new Canadian federal regulations. These were the result of the outbreak of mad cow disease in Alberta in 2003.
3. Strong preference for bio-fuels as a green alternative to gasoline has driven up the price of grains and oilseeds, used as cattle feed.
4. Meat processors like the Better Beef plant in Guelph have downsized and cut its daily production by 20%.

Beef farmers are now losing more than C$400 per head of cattle. That amounts to a loss of about $100 million in just 6 months.

Given the pain felt by Canadian beef farmers, government subsidies may be the only way to stem the losses.

The World Trade Organization frowns on government meddling. But this is a genuine emergency.

Posted by Daniel Workman

An estimated 200 million Chinese watched the November 11 NBA regular season game televised from Houston. That number dwarfs the 34 million viewers for the NFL's Superbowl-calibre teams, the New England Patriots versus the Indianapolis Colts.

The presence of Chinese giant Yao Ming on the Houston Rockets facing off against Oriental rookie titan Yi Jianlian on the Milwaukee Bucks roster no doubt boosted interest from the People's Republic audience.

This interest no doubt will translate into huge NBA merchandise sales in China. Based in China, top global trade site alibaba.com lists 80 buying leads for NBA products. The Chinese audience solidifies the NBA's position as sports' leading global brand.

China itself hopes to improve its standing as a global brand via a mutually beneficial relationship with the NBA. In fact, some pundits write that basketball may introduce an international version of soccer's immensely popular World Cup.

China can use the 2008 Beijing Olympics to elevate its standing as a key international business audience and sponsor for the National Basketball Association.

Posted by Daniel Workman

A quick search on alibaba.com, the leading global trade site, calls up over 60,000 selling leads for stretched canvas oil paintings, pop paintings, canvas paintings and landscape paintings.

A mouse click on the Products tab immediately lists over 35,000 art painting products.

The third tab entitled Suppliers presents company profiles plus contact links to some 4,500 art suppliers. Many are located in China.

Clicking on the Buyers tab gives a wish list of art products that businesses want to buy. Desired products range from child paintings to decoration paintings to artifact paintings. The United States, Canada, China and Pakistan show up on the first page of buyers.

Another tab finds art-related tradeshows around the globe.

Registrants can list their art products to trade on alibaba.com for free. Another benefit is an automated email feature that notifies registrants whenever a new art product or supplier is listed on the site.

Of course, buying artwork masters is a completely different international trade game.

Infoplease has published a list of the 10 most expensive paintings ever auctioned.

1. US$140 million for No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock (in 2006)
2. $135 million for Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt (in 2006)
3. $104 million for Boy with a Pipe by Pablo Picasso (in 2004)
4. $95.2 million for Dora Maar with Cat by Pablo Picasso (in 2006)
5. $82.5 million for Portrait du Dr. Gachet by Vincent van Gogh (in 1990)
6. $78.1 million for Au Moulin de la Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (in 1990)
7. $76.7 million for The Massacre of the Innocents by Paul Rubens (in 2002)
8. $71.5 million for Portrait de L'Artiste sans Barbe by Vincent van Gogh (in 1998)
9. $60.5 million for Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier by Paul Cézanne (in 1999)
10. $55 million for Femme aux Bras Croises by Pablo Picasso (in 2000).

Posted by Daniel Workman

On the alibaba trade site, a search on the keyword 'honey' calls up about 3,500 selling leads across all categories and countries. Many of the suppliers are premium Gold Suppliers from China. Each supplier has a brief profile and email contact information. Some have a company video.

Our recent article Top Honey Exporting Countries reveals global concerns with contaminated Chinese honey.

Other sellers on alibaba.com include Vietgo Joint Stock Company which markets Vietnamese sunflower honey, apple honey and flower powder honey. Vietnamese honey is typically dark coloured, which indicates that it is produced from nectar that bees extract from dark-coloured flowers.

Alibaba presents a list of hyperlinked keywords that enable Web visitors to narrow their search for specific honey products. Those keywords include: natural honey, bee honey, pure honey, honey products, acacia honey, organic honey, amber honey, fresh honey, ela honey, chinese honey, australian honey, raw honey, natural bee honey, flower honey, la honey, honey food, white honey, natural raw honey, cole honey, comb honey, sunflower honey, vitex honey, milkvetch honey, argentinian honey, pure natural honey, bottled honey and rape honey.

Another tab on alibaba.com lists almost 3,000 honey suppliers from around the world, but mostly from China. This should come as no surprise given that China is the world's largest honey producer, and the fact that alibaba.com is based in China. Alibaba also has a sister site specifically for Chinese companies.

A third tab shows 150 companies looking to buy honey-related products from around the globe. Buying countries include China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Pakistan, Czech Republic, the United Kingdom and the United States.

International trade entrepreneurs can use alibaba.com to develop price lists and organize shipments for honey products from around the world.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Since 2002, Research In Motion (RIM) has experienced many delays from Chinese regulators empowered to approve sale of RIM's BlackBerry in the People's Republic.

RIM, based in the Canadian city of Waterloo near Toronto, has partnered with international telecommunications giant Alcatel-Lucent. This partnership gives RIM a gateway to the requisite Chinese infrastructure and distribution networks key to selling a complete set of wireless email services customized for the People's Republic market.

Previously, most expatriates would buy BlackBerrys outside of China which would then be run on a network for which they weren't designed. That same cohort of expatriates is expected to propel demand for approved BlackBerry technology customized for Chinese systems.

France's Alcatel-Lucent has achieved certification to sell the BlackBerry 8700 model in China via a joint agreement with TCL Communications, a major Chinese mobile device maker that also markets Alcatel's branded mobile handsets.

Partners RIM and Alcatel-Lucent jointly announced that the first BlackBerry shipments to China should be in the hands of business customers by this Christmas.

Posted by Daniel Workman

According to Bloomberg News, poor countries may soon have access to life-saving generic versions of patented drugs. This news must give hope to African nations ravaged by AIDS and other developing countries threatened by an outbreak of bird flu.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has proposed an international trade treaty amendment that will enable developing nations that lack a robust pharmaceutical drug industry to import generic drugs. Under the amendment, participating poor countries needn't fear patent lawsuits from large multinational drug makers.

In late October 2007, the European Union assembly's trade committee accepted the WTO's amendment. This endorsement by the European parliamentary committe gives credibility to the WTO's efforts to pass the treaty amendment.

It's important to understand, however, that the full parliamentary assembly has to approve the amendment. If so, the EU will be on its way to changing the WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.

Which global generic drug companies are positioned to gain should drug patents in developing nations be waived? Winners will include Teva Pharmaceuticals and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Many consultants can tell you how to act or what not to do often well after you make a mistake or miss an opportunity. Deloitte is a management consultant that practices the proactive leadership style that the company preaches.

Below is a list of 10 tips for effective global trade leadership from Deloitte's annual meeting at the Metro Convention Centre in Toronto during the first week of October.

1. Know yourself. Understand your strengths and weaknesses so you don't make promises you can't keep.
2. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Reach out and expand the knowledge base available to solve problems.
3. Invest in others. Win loyalty through generosity to others; give and you will get.
4. Forge the strongest team. Recruit people around you who are smarter than you are.
5. Run effective meetings. Nail down what you have to do before, during and after meetings to be an effective chair and/or contributor.
6. Be prepared. Improve your credibility and authority through advance preparation including appropriate research.
7. Maintain a professional tone in all written communication. Assume that every e-mail, memo and letter that you write will become part of the public record.
8. Stay positive. Leaders inspire people with positive energy to keep going no matter what.
9. Dream big. Keep your vision moving, think creatively and raise the bar.
10. It's not about you. Forget about being a nice person or a diva - focus on getting the job done. People will admire you all the more for it.

Whether you're a trade consultant in India or an exporter in Chile, these principles will propel you to success in business projects around the world.

Source: Robert Sirman, Director of the Canadian Council for the Arts (June 2007).

Posted by Daniel Workman

A number of factors conspired to trigger the rapid rise in the Canadian currency exchange rate, namely:

• the Fed's half-point cut in U.S. interest rates
• more competitive Canadian rates
• record oil prices
• international confidence in the Canadian economy to weather credit market turmoil.

The strong loonie makes Canadian exports more expensive on international trade markets. Most Canadian companies that depends on exports are experiencing slowing demand from their global trade customers. Partly hard hit are manufacturing firms in Central Ontario including Toronto.

Forestry companies like Tembec have had to temporarily halt its timber sales to foreign markets. Prices for Canadian lumber products are so depressed that, when combined with the double-whammy of the higher Canadian currency exchange, Tembec is losing money by exporting timber to the U.S.

Like most concerns in international trade, a high loonie has a silver lining. The other side of the coin is that Canadian importers are enjoying more bang for their buck. Similary, Canuck travellers to the U.S. can buy more products and services during their visits.

It will be interesting to see whether the stronger Canadian dollar leads to more Canadians going abroad for medical services including cosmetic surgery.

In the meantime, the jury is still out as to whether this is worth the estimated 80,000 manufacturing jobs lost in the Toronto area alone since 2002.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Global sugar production is at such a high level that top sugar exporters like Brazil, Thailand and Australia are having trouble finding customers willing to buy their supplies.

Sugar importing countries now have their choice of suppliers, and are turning to the exporting nation with the lowest prices.

Sugar is used in many processed foods and beverages. Lower sugar prices provide a counterbalance to higher costs for wheat and other commodities affected by recent droughts around the globe.

Like many issues in international trade, bad news for exporters is good news for importers. A surplus of sugar will cut into the profits of sugar exporting countries, but reduces inflationary pressures in importing nations.

And like other international trade issues, ultimately we make decisions based on cold, hard statistics. No debate about whether white sugar is unhealthy, just numbers on exports and imports with a column in a spreadsheet with corresponding sugar prices. Right now, those sugary numbers look good for consumers and importers.

Sugar supplies and prices go through cycles. Without a compelling substitute for sugar, prices and supplies will work themselves out in the long term as farmers in producing countries plant fewer sugar plants. Instead, they may substitute scarcer, and therefore higher priced, commodities like wheat.

Leading sugar cane producers are Brazil, India, China, Thailand, Pakistan and Mexico.

Posted by Daniel Workman

William Foreman of the Associated Press has written an intriguing article 'China flexes its financial muscle' (published September 2, 2007 in the Toronto Star).

Here are some interesting points from Foreman's article, which reinforce the fact that China is emerging as a dominant global power in international trade.

• Higher wages in China now attract migrant workers from around the world.
• China has increased its political and diplomatic presence in resource-rich African countries.
• China already eats 32% of the world's rice, builds with 47% of its cement & smokes 1 of 3 cigarettes.
• China's consumer market will be the second-largest in the world by 2015.
• Some 30% of Brazilian rainforest lumber exports go to China.
• Poorer countries like Liberia prefer China's electrical generators which cost one fifth of a used American or European machine.
• China is expected to become the largest market for commercial aircraft & travel outside the U.S. over the next 20 years.

While China currently imports commercial aircraft from large multinationals like Boeing, many U.S. workers fear that the Chinese will copy Boeing technology to eventually manufacture commercial aircraft in China.

In long-term world trade, China going up can mean America going down.

I don't know about you, but I'm seriously considering learning how to speak (and write International Trade articles in) Mandarin.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Headquartered in Geneva, the IATA represents over 240 airlines around the world. Those carriers operate 94% of scheduled international flights

Currently, 84% of passengers on IATA airlines fly without paper tickets. Those travellers are registered on computer systems, and simply check-in at the airport with identification documents in hand.

The global airlines organization points out that China, one of the world's fastest-growing markets for air travel and host of the 2008 Olympic Games, will likely have the first paper-free, airline ticketing system by the end of 2007.

The elimination of paper tickets will save airliners about Cdn$9 per passenger and save some 50,000 mature trees each year.

Low-cost airline carriers like WestJet and larger flyers like Air Canada already have paper-free systems in place.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Not all fruits and vegetables on our lists below make great exports or imports.

The reason? Some of these products have comparatively short shelf lives, and would spoil during long trans-Atlantic delivery routes.

Also, the cost of shipping vast quantities of the heavier fruits and vegetables would be prohibitive.

Still it's interesting to consider the leading food crops from around the world.

Top 10 Fruit Crops

1. Tomatoes ... 124.7 million tonnes (production, 2005)
2. Watermelons ... 95.3 million tonnes
3. Bananas ... 72.4 million tonnes
4. Grapes ... 66.5 million tonnes
5. Apples ... 63.5 million tonnes
6. Oranges ... 59.9 million tonnes
7. Coconuts ... 55 million tonnes
8. Plantains ... 33.4 million tonnes
9. Cantaloupes & other melons ... 28.3 million tonnes
10. Mangoes ... 28 million tonnes

Top 10 Vegetable Crops

1. Sugar cane ... 1.3 billion tonnes (production, 2005)
2. Potatoes ... 322 million tonnes
3. Sugar beets ... 242 million tonnes
4. Soybeans ... 209.5 million tonnes
5. Sweet potatoes ... 129.9 million tonnes
6. Cabbages ... 69.5 million tonnes
7. Dry onions ... 57.6 million tonnes
8. Cucumbers & pickles ... 41.7 million tonnes
9. Yams ... 39.9 million tonnes
10. Eggplants ... 30.5 million tonnes

And yes, tomatoes are considered fruits and technically sugar cane is a vegetable. Just don't ask me how to pronounce the word tomato.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Two American entrepreneurs lead the list of men with the world's highest net worth.

Warren Buffet's insights about global demand for Coca Cola are behind his investment success. Microsoft is found on more than 90% of computers worldwide. Russian oil exports are key to the revived Soviet Union economy.

1. Bill Gates (USA), Microsoft software ... US$50 billion
2. Warren Buffet (USA), Bershire Hathaway investments ... $42 billion
3. Carlos Slim Helu (Mexico), Communications ... $30 billion
4. Ingar Kamprad (Sweden/Switzerland), Ikea home furnishings ... $28 billion
5. Lakshmi Mittal (India/UK), Mittal Steel ... $25.5 billion
6. Paul Gardner Allen (USA), Microsoft software ... $22 billion
7. Bernard Arnault (France), Louis Vitton luxury goods ... $21.5 billion
8. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud (Saudi Arabia), investments ... $20 billion
9. Li Ka-shing (China), investments ... $18.8 billion
10. Roman Abramovich (Russia), oil ... $18.2 billion

Let's take a look at the world's richest women,.

1. Liliane Bettencourt (France), L'Oreal ... $16 billion
2. Alice L. Walton (USA), Wal-Mart ... $15.7 billion
3. Helen R. Walton (USA), Wal-Mart ... $15.6 billion
4. Abigail Johnson (USA), finance ... $12.5 billion
5. Anne Cox Chambers (USA), media/entertainment ... $12.4 billion
6. Barbara Cox Anthony (USA), media/entertainment ... $12.4 billion
7. Jacqueline Mars (USA), candy ... $10 billion
8. Susanne Klatten (Germany), pharmaceuticals ... $8.1 billion
9. Johanna Quandt (Germany), BMW cars ... $6.1 billion
10. Shari Arison (Israel), Carnival cruise line ... $5.2 billion

International trade does seem to fuel the personal wealth of the world's richest people.

As a feature writer, my question is: will my international trade articles translate into great wealth for me?

Note: Forbes magazine, "The World's Richest People", 2006 is the source for the above lists.

Posted by Daniel Workman

International trade is a mosaic of major market trends and specialty niches. But plastic surgery in South Korea?

Well, yes ... and actually it makes perfect business sense.

What has caught the attention of international tourists is a group of South Korean entertainers who, after cosmetic surgery, radiate with remarkably soft and natural-looking skin.

Those same tourists want the same flat stomachs and rounded cheekbones of the South Korean stars. South Korea has 80 cosmetic surgery clinics in its so-called Beauty Town (Busan). Korean surgeons are renown for their surgical expertise and glamour results, specializing in "double eyelids" created by inserting a crease in the upper lid that make the eyes seem larger.

South Korea's overseas promotion project has enlisted the services of Korean celebrities to further popularize cosmetic procedures, and expects 13,000 tourists to visit one of South Korea's 1,400 esthetic plastic surgeons this year.

The price is right for high-quality Korean surgery. Eyelid operations cost about US$1,100 in Korea compared to $1,700 in Thailand, $1,900 in Japan and $4,700 in the United States.

Just how popular is South Korean cosmetic surgery? Well, even South Korean president Roh Moo Hyun and First Lady Kwon Yang Look have had what they refer to as "corrective surgery" in 2005.

While Stephen Harper and George W may not be the next to step up to the cosmetic surgery plate, South Korea has surely established a profitable niche in the international plastic surgery tourism.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Critics say that both India and Japan need to strengthen their trade links to counterbalance China's growing global influence in international trade.

The Japanese Prime Minister is targeting a bilateral trade pact with India in return for discussions on Japan's support for a US$90 billion infrastructure project in India. That project would significantly improve freight lines, power stations and access to ports and airports in the corridor between India's capital New Delhi and its financial center Mumbai.

India's top exports include cotton household furnishings & clothing, diamonds and jewellery. Examples of Indian imports are civilian aircraft, chemical fertilizers and telecommunications equipment.

Japan's top exports include cars, industrial machinery and computer accessories. Leading Japanese imports are medicinal equipment, medicinal equipment and corn.

Currently, India is a relatively small trading partner for Japan. Therefore, a stronger trade agreement between the two countries can pay significant economic dividends.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Shortly after poisoned dog food recalls, the safety of Chinese exports is once again in the headlines.

Over 83 types of toys including best-selling Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters are suspected of having excessive amounts of lead in their paint. This has forced Fisher-Price to announce a worldwide recall of 967,000 toys made by a Chinese vendor and sold in the U.S. between May and August. Mattel reports that about 20 of these toys were sold in Canada during the past 3 months.

Fisher-Price's General Manager, David Allmark, said that the lead problem was detected by the company's internal investigation.

What's called into question here is the fact that China doesn't have stringent quality controls in place. Some international trade consultants say that importing countries may soon develop their own procedures to test the safety of imports.

At the recent North American trade summit in Montebello, Quebec, all three political leaders indicated that the safety of imported goods is a major concern. Canadian Prime Minister Harper, U.S. President Bush and Mexican President Calderon promised to work with trading partners to identify and stop unsafe food and products before they enter their countries.

Shifting the burden for safe production measures solely onto importers involves far too much cost and is inefficient. The Chinese government needs to take an active role in ensuring that safety comes first - both for the workers and for global consumers.

Expect to see a big downturn in Mattel and Fisher-Price sales as worried parents do everything in their power to protect their children. And there is at least one Chinese exporter that is sure to lose a major contract with Mattel and Fisher-Price. Amid the recall, the Chinese toy-factory owner hung himself. One of the owner's friends had supplied the dangerous paint.

Posted by Daniel Workman

There are 45.8 million baby boomer households in America. A boomer household has an average income of US$56,500, and spends about $45,000 per year.

Boomers aged 51 to 59 spend 11% less on children's items than younger boomers aged 41 to 50. Older boomers spend:

• 50% more than average upgrading their homes with items like china and silverware.
• 13% more than average on adult women's apparel
• 11% more on adult men's apparel
• 23% more than average on hotels and vacation homes
• 20% more than average on life insurance and other personal coverages.

Over 50% of American baby boomers live in nine states: California, Texas, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and New Jersey.

Baby boomers represent more than 30% of the population in the following seventeen states: Alaska (33.3%), New Hampshire (32.8%), Vermont (32.2%), Maine (31.8%), Maryland (31.6%), Colorado (31.4%), Connecticut (31.2%), Virginia (31.1%), Wyoming (31.0%), Washington (30.9%), New Jersey (30.8%), Montana (30.7%), Massachusetts (30.5%), Minnesota (30.3%), Oregon (30.2%), West Virginia (30.0%), and Wisconsin (30.0%).

This blog presents independent is based on data presented in MetLife’s Mature Market Institute ‘A Profile of American Baby Boomers’ .

Posted by Daniel Workman

Top 25 medical technology companies sell products used by doctors, surgeons, dentists and other medical professionals around the world.

Top 25 Medical Technology Companies (based on 2006 sales)

1. J&J (JNJ on NYSE) ... US$20.3 billion
2. G.E. (GE on NYSE) ... $16.6 billion
3. Medtronic (MDT on NYSE) ... $12.1 billion
4. Siemens (723610 on Frankfurt) ... $10.5 billion
5. Baxter (BAX on NYSE) ... $10.4 billion
6. Philips (PHG on NYSE) ... $8.5 billion
7. Boston-Scientific (BSX on NYSE) ... $8.5 billion
8. Tyco (TYC on NYSE) ... $7.7 billion
9. Stryker (SYK on NYSE) ... $5.1 billion
10. Becton, Dickinson & Co (857675 on Frankfurt) ... $5.0 billion
11. B. Braun Melsungen AG (private German company) ... $4.0 billion
12. Zimmer (ZMH on NYSE) ... $3.5 billion
13. St. Jude (STJ on NYSE) ... $3.3 billion
14. 3M (MMM on NYSE) ... $3.2 billion
15. Smith & Nephew (SNN on NYSE) ... $2.8 billion
16. Hospira (HSP on NYSE) ... $2.7 billion
17. Kodak (EK on NYSE) ... $2.5 billion
18. Synthes (Swiss public company) ... $2.4 billion
19. Terumo ...(Japanese public company) $2.3 billion
20. Alcon (ACL on NYSE) ... $2.2 billion
21. Biomet (BMET on NASDAQ) ... $2.1 billion
22. Fresenius (FMS on NYSE) ... $2.1 billion
23. C.R. Bard (BCR on NYSE) ... $2.0 billion
24. Dentspy (XRAY on NASDAQ) ... $1.8 billion
25. Invacare (IVC on NYSE) ... $1.5 billion

These medical technology companies typically employ a team of sales personnel who are expected to be experts on their range of medical products. Sales representatives spend most of their time selling medical solutions to clients.

Sources for this Article

This article presents independent insights from data presented in the Stryker Fact Book 2006-2007 on stryker.com.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Canada has only 2 major airlines, Air Canada and WestJet. Competition in the Canadian duopoly is limited to the duopolists matching prices, taking care not to undercut the other. Canadians shouldn't expect an air travel price war any time soon.

Still, the two airliners are matching several discounted trips while offering bargains on some one-way trips not duplicated by the other.

Consider WestJet's 35%-off discounts for one-way fares from Toronto. WestJet airline prices for each trip match discount sales from Air Canada.

• Calgary ... CDN$179
• Edmonton ... $179
• Halifax ... $120
• Moncton ... $120
• St. John's, NFLD ... $144
• Vancouver ... $204
• Winnipeg ... $134.

In addition, WestJet is offering one-way discounts from Toronto to other cities that are not part of an Air Canada promotion.

• Charlottetown ... CDN$124
• Fort Lauderdale ... $149
• Fort Myers ... $159
• Kelowna ... $204
• Las Vegas ... $169
• Orlando ... $149
• Saint John, New Brunswick ... $120.

WestJet's sale applies to travel up to mid-December 2007 and must be booked by August 15, 2007 - a week before Air Canada's deadline.

WestJet's discounted tickets target 14 Canadian and American cities. Air Canada has a larger flight network and extends its one-way sale to 25 cities. Only 7 of those overlap with West Jet 's destinations.

Still, some critics say that Air Canada is cutting into shareholder profits by sparring with one-way ticket discounts.

WestJet's costs are over 40% less than Air Canada's. WestJet employs non-union workers, flies to a select set of destinations and operates one aircraft type (737) which cuts down on training and maintenance costs. In contrast, Air Canada has a unionized workforce, uses a fleet of multiple aircraft types, and serves a global route network.

Who is going to win the battle of Canadian airline discounts? In 2006, Air Canada earned US$27 million (CDN$25 million) from revenues of US$11 billion (CDN$10 billion). In contrast, WestJet earned US$124.7 million (CDN$114.7 million) on revenues of US$1.7 billion (CDN$ 1.6 billion). Air Canada is more known for first class airline tickets; Westjet is associated with cheap business class airline tickets and has recently signed a business deal with Wal-Mart.

WestJet's competitive advantages point to more consumers visiting its website to find cheap airfares on WestJet.com. The bottom line is that WestJet's promotions garner higher profits than Air Canada's inexpensive one-way airfares can generate. Therefore, WestJet can offer more cost-effective flights.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Back in 2003, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) introduced microprocessors that outperformed Intel chips.

Intel started to lose market share around the world.

Regulators from the European Union (EU) say that Intel responded with unfair business practices, namely:

• Giving a large number of signficant rebates to computer manufacturers for including Intel central processing units (CPUs)
• Paying computer makers to delay or cancel any product line that used AMD chips; and
• Selling Intel chips to major clients including universities and governments at unreasonably low prices.

But isn't it good for international trade clients if an influential parts supplier like Intel lowers prices? The answer is no, not over the longer term.

Sure, buyers will enjoy lower costs in the short-term. However, predatory pricing forces competitors to sell their products at below average costs. Eventually smaller rivals go out of business.

That's bad for international trade clients because fewer competitors means less choice and a slower pace for innovation should Intel assume a monopoly positon in the world trade of computer chips.

Intel has until mid-October 2007 to respond. Then, the EU's executive branch will make a decision that could fine Intel up to 10% of its global revenues for each year that the company broke fair trade laws.

According to Aoife White from the Associated Press, Intel's worldwide sales were US$36 billion in 2006.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Wal-Mart has learned some painful lessons in international trade. Last year, the retailer exited Germany after traditional German shoppers rejected the company's big-box American ways. Wal-Mart executives made their decision based on low profitability that didn't appear likely to improve anytime soon.

Shopper culture doesn't seem to an issue in China, where Wal-Mart is intently focused on tapping the accelerating personal wealth among the country's 1.3 billion people.

Currently, Wal-Mart has 84 stores in 46 Chinese cities. Wal-Mart now wants to expand its reach into smaller cities where few, if any, superstores compete. In North America, smaller cities become dependent on Wal-Mart's broad range of products and one-stop shopping business model.

As usual, Wal-Mart has set lofty goals. The company plans to become a market leader, dominating 20% of China's retail market.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Citigroup is the world's biggest bank.

Revenues from Citigroup operations outside the United States rose 34% to some US$13.5 billion, while net income from international markets surged by 35% to US$3.3. billion. Record revenues from Asian and European markets propelled both achievements, which surpassed analyst expectations.

A financial superstar in global trade, Citigroup does business in more than 100 countries. Services range from credit cards and consumer banking to merger consulting and stock underwriting.

The New York-based company set the foundation for stellar international results by making some US$10 billion in acquisitions focused on faster-growing geographies.

Citigroup is well-diversified to take advantage of superior financial industry opportunities around the world.

Ironically, Citigroup's share price (C on NYSE) has declined to around US$47 on July 27. The stock has a 4.4% dividend. This presents an international trade investment opportunity of a different type, as in buying a quality stock at a low price.

Posted by Daniel Workman

The 2007 edition of Internet Retailer's Top 500 Guide that ranks and profiles the 500 largest e-retailers in the U.S. is now available. Web-based retailing has grown into a US$135-billion industry. Here's a sneak preview of pertinent facts for our international trade audience.

Top Ten Retail Web Sites (based on 2006 online sales)

1. Amazon.com ... US$10.7 billion
2. Staples ... $4.9 billion
3. Office Depot ... $4.3 billion
4. Dell ... $3.9 billion
5. Hewlett-Packard ... $3.1 billion
6. OfficeMax ... $2.8 billion
7. Sears Holding ... $2.3 billion
8. CDW Inc ... $2 billion
9. SonyStyle.com ... $1.7 billion
10. Newegg.com ... $1.5 billion

While there are tens of thousands of retail web sites operating in America, the Top 500 e-retailers in 2006 accounted for 61% of all online sales.

A total of 145 (or 29%) the Top 500 e-retail businesses in the U.S are owned by store-based retail chains, 89 (or 18%) by catalog and direct-marketing firms, 42 (or 8%) by consumer branded manufacturers and 224 (or 45%) by the so-called pure plays or web-only retailers. Because they control an even larger share of the biggest sites, retail chains accounted for 41% of online sales reported by the Top 500 in 2006, catalogers 14%, manufacturers 14% and pure plays 31%.

Of the 500 e-retailers ranked in the Top 500 Guide, retail chains and web-only merchants grew their online sales faster than anyone else, achieving growth rates of 23.4% and 23.6% respectively. By comparison, catalogers in the Top 500 grew their e-retail sales by 21.2%% and consumer branded manufacturers by only 9.1%.

In percentage terms, Lumber Liquidators achieved the best e-retail sales growth among the Top 500 with a 400% gain. Meanwhile eCOST.com turned in the worst performance with a decline of 41% in online sales.

Hardware/Home Improvement sector grew fastest online with a 42% growth rate in 2006. Apparel/accessories boasted 2006 web sales that rose by 41% to almost $10 billion, proving that shoppers have no qualms with buying fashions online.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Some analysts chose to focus on the fact that Hershey made only US$3.6 million or a penny a share for the latest quarter ending July 1.

Sure that's a steep decline from the US$97.9 million profit or 41 cents a share in the same period last year. But the fact is that Hershey has invested heavily to upgrade its production lines and to promote a growing portfolio of over 50 world-class brands of chocolate. Hershey is also building up its online chocolate sales, which also takes both time and money.

Excluding what Hershey spent on changes to its production and supply chain processes, the company would have made $81.7 million or 35 cents a share. Revenue was consistent at $1.05 billion.

Face it. Hershey is changing its focus to premium dark chocolate made from the best cocoa beans imported from the top cocoa exporting countries. Chocolates with higher percentage cocoa content demand loftier prices from the growing cohort of wealthy baby boomers around the world.

It should not be surprising that a gargantua like Hershey needs time to transition its well-established brands to the more sophisticated tastes of premium dark chocolate lovers.

That Hershey has announced an entry into the fast-growing gourmet chocolate market with Starbucks-branded chocolates shows foresight into, and the ability to keep up with, worldwide demand for premium dark chocolate.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Emerson added that the new trade deal signed in mid-June between Canada & India will enable the Great White North to open up other trade markets and therefore be less dependent on the United States.

Canada ships about 80% of its exports to the U.S. However, there are concerns that the declining U.S. dollar against Canadian currency will lead to significant decreases in the value of Canadian exports.

It is true that the deal with India could increase the value of trade between the two countries from the current US$3.3 billion to around US$18 billion within 5 years.

And, as the Toronto Star article Trade deal with India 'a natural' for Canada (Prithi Yelaja, June 18, 2007) points out, Canada is home to about 1 million Indo-Canadians. This supposedly gives Canada a bridge to India, although one can argue that the Canadian mosaic has always been a bridge to the many countries from which its people emigrated.

The problem is that the new trade agreement gives priority nation status to India, but not to Canada. Further, the deal does not address the issue of outsourced jobs from Canada to India and in particular IT outsourcing opportunities.

In international trade, the most effective leaders negotiate win-win deals for the longer term. The latest agreement with India once again shows that Canadian politicians do not understand the difference between taking advantage of a trade opportunity and being taken advantage of.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Many travellers visit Air Canada's website to book the lowest-costing airfares. Booking online at AirCanada.com saves consumers at least US$22 (CDN$21) per passenger. In addition, the site enables visitors to reserve discounted hotel rooms, car rentals and city attractions.

Partly to take advantage of the high loonie, Canadian tourists from Toronto are the target of a recent Air Canada promotion offering discounts to major American cities. The sale applies to travel up to mid-December 2007 and must be booked by August 22, 2007.

Below are Air Canada's one-way Tango airfares from Toronto to the Canadian cities shown:

• Calgary/Edmonton ... $179
• Deer Lake ... $124
• Halifax/Moncton ... $120
• Montreal/Ottawa ... CDN$79
• Regina/Saskatoon/Vancouver ... $204
• St. John's, NFLD ...$144
• Thunder Bay ... $114
• Victoria ... $224
• Winnipeg ... $134.

Below are Air Canada's one-way Tango or Tango Plus airfares from Toronto to the American cities shown:

• Boston ... $151
• Chicago ... $157
• Dallas ...$178
• Los Angeles ... $214
• Orlando ... $164
• San Diego ... $242
• San Francisco ... $237
• Seattle ... $217
• Washington/Baltimore ... $134.

Air Canada is also focusing on each-way disount fares to international destinations. However, these promotions require round-trip tickets be purchased. Availability of discounts for international trips vary.

This seasonal promotion come at a time when Air Canada is forced to offer travel discounts as a means to feed its international routes with Canadian passengers. The airline industry in Canada is a duopoly with two major airlines, yet Air Canada faces strong price competition from WestJet particularly to and from the most heavily travelled destinations in Canada, the U.S. and the Caribbean.

Do WestJet's bargain prices undercut Air Canada's? To find out, read our WestJet blog.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Chocolate makers like Hershey buy a mix of cocoa beans and cocoa products such as cocoa butter, cocoa liquor and cocoa powder. According to Hershey's 2006 annual report, cocoa beans are grown principally in Far Eastern, West African and South American regions around the equator.

West African countries including Nigeria produce about 70% of the world's crop of cocoa beans.

Civil unrest in the world's largest cocoa-producing country, the Ivory Coast, has cause volatile cocoa prices. However, analysts believe that other cocoa-exporting countries and existing inventories in importing nations provide a significant supply buffer.

Besides, never in the history of international trade has any cocoa-producing country experienced a total loss of its cocoa crop and exports.

In 2006, world cocoa prices traded in a range between US$0.67 and $0.749 with an annual average of $0.70. That's up slightly from an average of $0.683 in 2005 and $0.687 in 2004.

However, prices showed a much smaller range ($0.074) in 2006 than in any of the other years. For example cocoa prices jumped $0.142 in 2003, for problems that apparently had a much greater downside effect than the Ivory Coast disruptions last year.

Posted by Daniel Workman

The biggest fish among alcoholic beverage firms thrive in world trade. Case in point: the world's largest winemaker Constellation Brands bought out Canada's ice wine king Vincor just last year. Similarly, Coors now owns Molson's, one of Canada's oldest brewers.

Below is a list of international alcohol drink makers under consideration as topics for upcoming world trade articles. Stock symbols are shown within brackets.

Canadian Companies

• Brick Brewing (BRB on TSX)
• Corby Distilleries (CDL.A on TSX)
• Magnotta Winery (MGN on TSX)

American Companies

• Anheuser-Busch (BUD on NYSE)
• Boston Beer (SAM on NYSE)
• Brown-Forman (BF.B on NYSE)
• Castle Brands (ROX on NYSE)
• Companhia de Bebidas das Amer (ABV on NYSE)
• Compania Cervecena (CU on NYSE)
• Constellation Brands (STZ on NYSE)
• Diageo (DEO on NYSE)
• Fortune Brands (FO on NYSE)
• Molson Coors Brewing (TAP on NYSE)
• Quilmes Indus Quinsa (LQU on NYSE)
• Vina Concha Y Toro (VCO on NYSE)

We have already written about beer-maker Anheuser-Busch, wine giant Constellation Brands & spirits king Diageo. Please email me with which of the other alcholic beverage firms you would like to learn more about.

Posted by Daniel Workman

While China grows the most wheat, much of its grain crops are used to feed the Chinese people. Major international trade exporters of wheat include the United States, Canada and Australia.

According to a short press release in the Toronto Star on July 3, China expects to raise its wheat production 2.2% to 107 million tonnes this year. Many Chinese farmers are planting more grain instead of more labour-intensive crops.

China's above average wheat harvest may result in the People's Republic shipping more Chinese wheat exports particularly to neighbouring Asian countries.

With wheat prices around a record US$6.50 per bushel, expect wheat farmers in competitive trading nations to complain about China dumping more of its grains onto the world market at prices subsidized, at least in part, by China's unusually low currency exchange rate.

Wheat farmers in Canada, Australia and the U.S. now have to concern themselves not only with wheat harvests in their homelands, but also in international trade's leading wheat arena - China.

Posted by Daniel Workman

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's analysis World Wine Situation & Outlook (April 2005) provides a pie-chart summary of international trade's leading wine exporting countries.

Italy, France, Spain, Portugal & Germany represent Old World wines which dominated about two-thirds of global wine exports in 2003.

Top Wine Exporters

• Italy ... 21% marketshare of global wine exports
• France ... 19%
• Spain ... 19%
• Australia ... 8%
• Chile ... 6%
• United States ... 6%
• Portugal ... 4%
• Germany ... 4%
• South Africa ... 4%
• Argentina ... 2%
• Other ... 7%.

Wines from Australia, Chile, California, South Africa & Argentina are known as New World wines. These are the fastest-growing category both domestically and in international trade partly because wine drinkers around the world want to experience new wine taste experiences.

Global wine companies like Constellation Brands plan to profit from this trend by buying up vinters from New World Wine regions around the globe.

Top Wine Consumers

According to vinography.com's World of Wine figures for 2003, Europeans are the leading consumers of wine drinking over two-thirds of wine consumed around the world. The United States ranks second at just over 20% of world wine consumption. Asia is a distant third with 6.6%.

Luxembourg, France and Italy finish at the top for per capita wine consumption. Their per capita wine consumption of some 50 liters is almost 7 times America's per capita wine score of about 7.5 liters.

Although wine consumption is tiny in China and India, both countries boast a vast marketplace of potential drinkers. Since joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, China has lowered its tariffs on imported wines from 64% to 11%.

Posted by Daniel Workman

G-4 members are Brazil, India, the United States and the European Union.

Each member accuses the other of unfairly subsidizing prices for domestic farming sectors which reduces demand for imported farm products. While few countries directly subsidize their industries, G-4 nations point to high tariffs that constrain exports.

G-4 was meeting in Potsdam, Germany. Participants hoped to negotiate compromises that would result in more international trade deals. Instead, a bitter dispute broke that pitted so-called more developed economies (U.S. & EU) against developing countries (Brazil & India).

The World Trade Organization (WTO) responded by calling a meeting to resuscitate Doha global free trade talks.

Many analysts doubt the effectiveness of the WTO. Many countries now negotiate directly with their trade partners, or turn to fellow-members of regional trade blocks.

While G-4 negotiations are now dead, Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim believes that WTO talks in Doha may have some answers to multilateral disputes on farm subsidies and industrial tariffs.

In contrast, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said that the U.S. will work with "any country or group willing to resolve the G-4 dispute". Reading between the lines, this comment is far from complimentary to the WTO as the final authority on trade disputes. Rather, it sounds as if the U.S. will negotiate directly with countries or regional groups if the WTO doesn't decide in its favor.

Posted by Daniel Workman

As described in our article International Google Ads, Google’s global advertising revenues continue their upward progress.

Yet senior executives are focused on potential international trade risks that result from expanding Google's search engine businesses in foreign markets.

Here are some challenges that Google faces.

• Difficulties in developing Google products and services in different languages and for different cultures.
• Longer payment cycles in some countries.
• Elevated credit risks and higher levels of payment fraud.
• Currency exchange fluctuations; recent weakness of U.S. dollar boosted the value of international revenues by over 3%.
• Foreign exchange controls that could prevent Google from repatriating cash earned outside the U.S.
• Import and export requirements that may prevent Google from shipping products or providing services to a particular international market and may increase company operating costs.
• Political and economic instability.
• Volatile revenue growth in emerging markets compared to more developed countries.
• Higher costs associated with doing business around the world.
• Failure to compete effectively with local information providers.

As an international trade feature writer, I need to put on my thinking cap as well. Specifically, I need to figure out which search keywords will return the highest ad revenues from around the world.

Any suggestions?

Posted by Daniel Workman

Bill Schiller's June 16, 2007 Toronto Star article Steamed by Starbucks in the Forbidden City spins an international trade horror story.

Last July, we wrote about how an American company no less than WalMart had to exit from Germany because German customers could not adjust to an American-based global brand.

Chinese clients may acquire the taste for Starbucks products. After all,Starbucks has the international reach and marketing muscle to penetrate markets around the world.

Face it. Starbucks global sales continue to improve.

Today, Starbucks has 220 cafes in the People's Republic.

Also, look at how Starbucks continues to take aggressive legal actions to protect its copyrights and trademarks against copycats in foreign markets.

But building a Starbucks shop in the Forbidden City, a virtual Ming museum from the 15th century that was home to 24 Chinese emperors, transcends legal rights and coffee tastes. As CCTV journalist Rui Chenggang's blog declares, installing a Starbucks in the middle of China's historical district is nothing short of a national outrage - in fact, it's trampling on Chinese culture.

Sure international trade comes down to exports, imports, surpluses, deficits and profits. But respect is also a basic currency that Chinese customers expect - and demand - from multinational service providers including Starbucks.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Putin argues that, as it stands today, the WTO protects the best interests of more developed countries including the United States and the United Kingdom.

Putin's main issue with the WTO's centralized structure is that international trade for all member countries revolve around so-called "Old World" currencies, namely the U.S. dollar and the euro.

Putin wants to put more trade controls in the hands of fast-developing countries through a regional European-Asian organization responsible for local area free trade agreements. Regional organizations could be modeled on the WTO but regulatory and decision-making powers would shift to regional committees.

From an economic performance perspective, Putin's case for regional free trade has merit. International Monetary Fund statistics for 2006 show that China's economy grew at 10%, India at 8.4% and Russia at 6.4% - well-above the world average.

It looks like Putin doesn't want world trade laggards catching up, at least not any time soon.

Posted by Daniel Workman

No less than a Houston-based rocket scientist, Mr. Jim Oberg, helped me to improve the clarity and correctness of my articles pertaining to MDA's space technology businesses. Currently, Jim is writing an article on RADARSAT militarization for The Space Review.

Just last month, the president of Aqua Terra Asset Management furnished top-notch research about the world's most precious commodity. That inspired me to write a series of pieces related to the international water industry.

A Claymore investment publicist provided access to international investment resources, including interview opportunities with leading analysts. The results? Our most popular blog Rich As A BRIC and an article with the fastest-growing page views World's Best Water Stock.

At the University of Toronto, I met Canadian-sovereignty author David Orchard who writes about the hollowing out of corporate Canada. Those insights galvanized me to write America Drives Free Trade Deals. Similarly I sat beside former prime minister John Turner at a screening of Hoodwinked: The Myth of Free Trade.

Entrepreneurs from India to Venezuela have emailed asking for advice on how to set up exporting businesses or how to obtain detailed trade statistics. Often that information can be found in the Google ads that accompany our articles and blog. Please read these ads - answers to your questions may be only a click away.

Finally, I was thrilled when the hosts of the Business News Network program Stars & Dogs debated my article Canada's Top Trucking Company which, by way, is a star.

Posted by Daniel Workman

As described in our article Burj Dubai Next World Trade Center, Dubai is aggressively pursuing a change from a powerful oil-producing country to a high-end tourist destination for well-heeled baby boomer travellers.

Toronto Star business reporter Chris Sorenson notes in his June 6, 2007 article about Dubai's Emirates airline that the Middle Eastern air carrier already runs flights from New York to Dubai. Emirates will also offer flights between Houston and Dubai by the end of 2007, hoping to cash in on wealthy oil-industry traffic.

The difficulty with Toronto-Dubai flights is that the Canadian government will only allow up to 3 trips per week, in strict compliance with an international trade service agreement between Canada & the United Arab Emirates.

Daily flights would improve Emirates' profits by spreading out costs over higher revenues, and give the Middle Eastern airliner more control over price discounts on airline tickets to Dubai.

Canada would do well to negotiate stronger trade deals with Dubai, using daily Emirate flights as a bargaining chip.

Unfortunately, this is highly unlikely given that West Jet and Air Canada have a duopoly within Canada. These airliners will fight hard to avoid any price reductions that would cut into company profits.

Savy Canuck travellers will take advantage of the higher Canadian loonie and find an inexpensive way to travel to New York or Houston. There, Canadians will be able to buy cheaper tickets to Dubai on American-based Emirate flights. Meanwhile, Canada's political machine misses out on yet another opportunity to negotiate a stronger deal with an international trade partner.

Posted by Daniel Workman

We've seen that some countries have more water resources than others. Water, sometimes referred to as blue gold, is a scarce resource that is continues to experience increased demand.

That makes water a great investment, particularly in fast-growing countries like China where the quality of water is poor.

To save water in countries with more developed delivery systems, here are 10 great tips from wateruseitwisely.com.

1. When washing dishes by hand, don't let the water run while rinsing. Fill one sink with wash water and the other with rinse water.
2. Run your washing machine and dishwasher only when they are full and you could save 1000 gallons a month.
3. Keep a pitcher of water in the refrigerator instead of running the tap for cold drinks, so that every drop goes down you not the drain.
4. Drop that tissue in the trash instead of flushing it and save gallons every time.
5. Wash your produce in the sink or a pan that is partially filled with water instead of running water from the tap.
6. If your shower can fill a one-gallon bucket in less than 20 seconds, then replace it with a water-efficient showerhead.
7. Cut back on rinsing if your dishwasher is new. Newer models clean more thoroughly than older ones.
8. Insulate hot water pipes so you don't have to run as much water to get hot water to the faucet.
9. Time your shower to keep it under 5 minutes. You'll save up to 1000 gallons a month.
10. Install low-volume, water-efficient toilets and other appliances.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Some 19,000 Google searches in May led a growing audience to our international trade site.

The list below shows the articles with the most page views in May with the original publication date in brackets. The number of page views for the month is also shown.

The top blog remains Rich As A BRIC with 372 page views this month.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in May 2007

1. World's Richest Countries (October 11, 2006) ... 5,679 page views
2. World's Poorest Countries (October 22, 2006) ... 2,066
3. World's Best Water Stock (April 23, 2007) ... 1,809
4. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 1,245
5. America's Trade Buddies (November 21, 2006) ... 1,105
6. Richest EU Countries (November 11, 2006) ... 967
7. Richest Asian Countries (December 9, 2006) ... 791
8. China's Top Trading Partners (June 26, 2006) ... 730
9. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 682
10. Australia's Trade Buddies (February 4, 2007) ... 515

April 2007 statistics

Posted by Daniel Workman

Toronto Star’s May 16 article Teachers buys two water utilities in Chile announces that the US$95-billion Teachers’ fund has acquired:

• 50.01% of Empresa de Servicios Sanitarios del Bio-Bio, Chile’s second-largest water and waste-water utility with 610,000 customers; and
• 100% of Aguas Nuevo Sur Maule with 195,000 customers.

Why would the Teachers’ Fund focus on Chile when Canada’s water and wastewater systems are in dire need of investment?

While Canada is one of the world’s most water-rich nations, few Canadians consider that much of Canada’s water pipe infrastructure was laid over a hundred years ago as cities were built. Old corroded pipes can have leakage rates exceeding 25%.

Seasoned global water investment experts at Aqua Terra Asset Management (ATAM) provide quantitative and qualitative analyses on worldwide water opportunities and challenges.

Research from ATAM points to a Fraser Institute report that highlights underlying problems with Canadian water systems. These include:

• the age of Canadian water systems
• a growing population that exceeds system capacity
• poor management and ill-trained staff
• lax regulation
• a lack of capital and operating funds.

ATAM also presents a finding from Canada’s National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy that, over the 20-year period to 2016, Canada must invest up to US$49 billion to maintain and refurbish existing water and sewage infrastructure.

Perhaps the Chilean government is more amenable to Canadian investment in its water systems because, unlike Canada, the South American country better understands the urgent need to invest in its own water resources.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Our article America Drives Free Trade reveals how foreign companies have privileges that allow them to buy Canadian resources, thus threatening Canada's economic sovereignty.

We then wrote about how the top uranium producing countries and companies are benefiting from spiking uranium prices. The fact that Canada is the world's leading producer of uranium makes us think that more foreign takeovers of the Canadian mining companies are imminent.

Propelled by blossoming demand for nuclear power from China and India, the current shortfall between global supply and demand for uranium (yellow cake) is expected to rise. China alone is building 30 of the 100 uranium-fuelled reactors being planned or built worldwide.

Yuriy Humber of Bloomberg News notes that recent disruptions in uranium supplies will push prices even higher. Cameco (CCO on TSX), the world’s largest uranium miner, reported that a flood at its Cigar Lake uranium project in Saskatchewan, Canada will delay production until 2010. Energy Resources of Australia cautioned that its Ranger mine may produce 35% less uranium in 2008 due to heavy rainfall.

Our research shows that there may well be international trade opportunities midst the emotional distress caused by the foreign capital takeover of Canada (or as John Turner calls it - the hollowing out of Canada).

Laramide Resources (LAM on TSX) owns the Westmoreland Project, a large open pit uranium mine in Australia. For more details on that Westmoreland's prospects, please read our article World's Top Uranium Project.

Since November of last year, Laramide’s stock price has increased 75% from $8 (Canadian) to around $14 as of late. Given the potential of its Westmoreland property in Queensland, Laramide would appear to have upside possibilities. However, the ride will be both risky and volatile as the stock recently traded in a weekly range from $12.21 to $15.40, a gap of more than 20%.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Canada is focusing on free trade deals with countries in the Western hemisphere.

Although Canada does have a sparse portfolio of trade deals with Chile, Costa Rica and Peru, the United States has outperformed Canada in free trade negotiations for many years now.

Given that Canada wants to double trade and investment with Brazil by 2012, we hope that the Canadian government approaches future trade negotiations making better use of Canada's rich resources including uranium and water as bargaining chips.

In particular, we hope that Canada fares better than it did under both the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) & North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the U.S.

As we describe in our analysis America Drives Free Trade, current Canadian free trade agreements expand foreign ownership thus hollowing out the Canadian economy while lowering the standard of living for many Canadians.

What would make a bad situation even worse for Canada is an approach that copied the American-dominated free trade agreements into "cookie cutter" treaties to be used with other trading partners like Brazil.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Some 16,000 Google searches in April led a growing audience to our international trade site.

The list below shows the articles with the most page views in April with the original publication date in brackets. The number of page views for the month is also shown.

The top blog remains Rich As A BRIC with 200 page views this month.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in April 2007

1. World's Richest Countries (October 11, 2006) ... 5,070 page views
2. World's Poorest Countries (October 22, 2006) ... 1,799
3. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 951
4. Richest EU Countries (November 11, 2006) ... 923
5. Richest Asian Countries (December 9, 2006) ... 888
6. America's Trade Buddies (November 21, 2006) ... 858
7. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 635
8. China's Top Trading Partners (June 26, 2006) ... 621
9. McDonald's Global Sales (October 24, 2006) ... 614
10. Germany's Trade Buddies (December 14, 2006) ... 470

March 2007 statistics

Posted by Daniel Workman

More than 50% of Canada's shipments to the U.S. are oil, gas and raw materials like lumber.

Last July, we wrote about how the U.S. shafted Canada in a softwood deal. America has consistently beat Canada in trade negotiations, and outperformed the Great White North in gaining new free trade partners.

The recently released documentary Hoodwinked: The Myth of Free Trade shows how America has used free trade to strengthen U.S. head office revenues at the expense of Canada's sovereignty and standard of living. The movie includes celebrity analyses, including insights from former Prime Minister John Turner and strategist Dalton Camp.

The Ottawa screening featured lively and passionate discussions. Questions that the free trade documentary addresses include "Is Tim Horton's really Canadian?"

As for Canada's trade negotiators, the movie shows that Canada has agreed to ridiculous terms that no self-respecting nation would have agreed to.

Who would have thought that a relatively wealthy country like Canada would become the door mat of international trade.

But maybe that's the problem. Canada has a too-rich upperclass with a too-little understanding of how business works in the real world.

Stay tuned. I'll attend Toronto's premier of the movie and report back on both the content and discussions after the documentary.

This just in! Read the most important insights from the premier. Note that I was able to sit beside former Canadian Prime Minister John Turner during the film presentation and following discussions.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Christopher Bodeen's article Tainted-food exports a global worry (Toronto Star, Associated Press, April 13, 2007) reveals that Canada and the United States have increased agricultural imports from China by nearly 20-fold over the past 25 years.

Headlines scream out that pet food contaminated with rat poison is killing beloved pet cats and dogs through kidney failure. Canadian pet food maker Menu Foods is forced to recall 60 million cans, and faces countless lawsuits.

In international trade, China looks to lose a big part of its US$2.3 billion agricultural food exports to its major North American trade partners. Although China is trying to improve inspections of its exports, so far success has been mixed.

Shipments from China to America were rejected at a rate of 200 per month in 2007, more than any country. This number is more startling when we consider that the U.S. only inspects a tiny percentage of the millions of shipments from China each year.

Inspections, testing and substantial trade penalties must be imposed before China will focus less on profits and more on compliance with global trade standards.

Or is it only a matter of time before humans perish from gluten imported from China and added to processed food that ends up on our store shelves?

Posted by Daniel Workman

Fishermen slice off the fins of sharks, dumping the half-dead carcasses at the bottom of the ocean to be eaten alive by other fish.

Illegal shark fishing is one of the cruelest forms of exploitation in world trade, on par with the blood diamond industry.

Once again, greed is the root cause of suffering in global trade. Still, it's hard to blame the impoverished fishermen who risk their lives on the high seas for less than one dollar per pound of shark fin.

Any form of exploitation, especially the illegal shark fin trade, has no place in world trade. Shark meat is wastefully discarded, depriving hungry families in poor countries of a valuable source of protein. Furthermore, the ecosystem is threatened, since the lifeforms that sharks prey on are allowed to multiply and devore an inordinate amount of oxygen-supplying plankton.

The fact that sharks have been vilified as monsters in movies including Jaws has makes it easy to justify or at least ignore the blackmarket for shark fins. The movie Sharkwater sets the record straight, revealing that the dramatic need for more public awareness, analysis, discussion and action.

Read more in our article about shark finning, and see how the World Trade Organization can help resolve some of the issues

Then see the movie. And learn.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Sure the U.S. trade market is ten times the size of Canada's. But that's hardly reason for Canada to play second fiddle and wait for America to first establish free trade relationships with the rest of the world.

After all, South Korea is also much smaller than its American, Chinese and Japanese trade partners but makes the most of what it brings to the trade table. The Korean Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. proves that South Korea is willing to work with its trade partners.

As reported in the Globe and Mail's April 3, 2007 article S. Korea-U.S. deal paves way for Canada, Canada's International Trade Minister David Emerson wants to protect the interests of Canadian auto makers, shipbuilders and beef exporters as Prime Minister Harper strives for a majority government. Mr. Emerson has yet to define a target date for a final free trade agreement with South Korea, instead waiting until his political party's future is secure before inking any such deal.

Face it. South Korea is Canada's seventh-largest export partner representing over US$2.8 billion worth of exports. Rather than playing politics, Canada's Trade Minister should focus on negotiating a free trade deal that will eliminate tariffs of 5% or more that South Korea imposes on 80% of its industrial imports.

A clear sense of purpose and resolve enabled the U.S. to structure a free trade deal with South Korea that will increase American exports to Seoul by 20%.

So, Canada, get with the free trade program!

Posted by Daniel Workman

Some 16,000 Google searches in March led a growing audience to our international trade site.

The list below shows the articles with the most page views in March with the original publication date in brackets. The number of page views for the month is also shown.

The top blog remains Rich As A BRIC with 300 page views this month.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in March 2007

1. World's Richest Countries (October 11, 2006) ... 5,460 page views
2. World's Poorest Countries (October 22, 2006) ... 2,185
3. Richest EU Countries (November 11, 2006) ... 1,079
4. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 938
5. Richest Asian Countries (December 9, 2006) ... 914
6. America's Trade Buddies (November 21, 2006) ... 728
7. McDonald's Global Sales (October 24, 2006) ... 561
8. China's Top Trading Partners (June 26, 2006) ... 549
9. Germany's Trade Buddies (December 14, 2006) ... 384
10. Coca-Cola Global Sales (December 28, 2006) ... 382

February 2007 statistics

Posted by Daniel Workman

Our most popular article World's Richest Countries was the target of 3,258 searches including such keyword searches as "richest countries/country in the world", "top ten/10 richest countries", "wealthiest countries/nations".

Second-place article World's Poorest Countries was associated with over 1,000 searches in which the audience entered keywords including "world's poorest countries/country".

Listed below are other popular writings, with the number of related searches in brackets and pertinent keywords in italics.

• Rich As A BRIC (591 searches): "claymore bric etf"
• Brazil's Trade Buddies (197 searches): "brazil exports"
• Top Ten Oil Countries (183 searches): "oil countries"
• Highest Taxed Countries (155 searches): "highest taxed countries"
• International Trade Articles (125 searches): "international trade articles"
• Starbucks Sues Copycats (112 searches): "starbocks"
• Top Chinese Investment Picks (93 searches): "china investments".

Posted by Daniel Workman

The world's leading exporter of sugar, coffee, beef and orange juice, Brazil's exports to Iraq are principally food products.

According to the February 1, 2007 article Brazil's exports triple in 2006 on iraqupdates.com, two groups of Iraqi entrepreneurs will visit Brazil in 2007 to investigate the purchase of non-food imports from South America's fourth richest and largest country.

Jabal Chaya, president of the Brazil-Iraqi Chamber of Commerce, anticipates that household appliances, hospital devices and packaging materials could be added to Iraqi imports from Brazil.

President of the Brazil-Iraq Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Jalal Chaya, expected Brazilian exports to Iraq to double in 2007.

President Chaya is also confident that Iraqi exports can rebound to those levels prior to the comprehensive economic embargo which the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) had imposed on Iraq on 2 August 1990. In those days, Brazil exported about US$630 million worth of goods to Iraq - four times current totals.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Free trade with India long-term plan (by Les Whittington, Toronto Star, March 14/07) reports that Canadian Trade Minister's parliamentary secretary gave a speech in New Delhi declaring Canada's long-term vision of an unfettered free-trade deal with India.

Recently, India's trade barriers have been loosened as the world's twelfth largest economy transforms into an international trade superpower. For its part, Canada's record in implementing free trade deals has been poor.

So while it was disappointing, it wasn't a complete surprise when Canada's parliamentary secretary, Ted Menzies, told reporters that he only "wanted to put it out there" that Canada has a long-term strategy for full free-trade with India.

Menzies hopes that Canada and India can sign a foreign investment & protection agreement (FIPA) by year-end. Such an agreement will stimulate investment flows between the two countries.

In 2006, imports and exports between Canada and India amounted to US$3.1 billion. Vast opportunities exist to build on that trade relationship.

Canada is currently focused on India's information technology, life sciences and mining sectors. Canada brings much expertise and resources to the table, particularly for India's infrastructure including roads, bridges and sewers.

Enough talk. Enough speeches.

Here's hoping that Canada can develop a detailed, clear action plan that organizes, quantifies and prioritizes what Canada can offer India in a mutually beneficial trade relationship.

Posted by Daniel Workman

As explained in our recent article NYSE Group Trade Secrets, stocks of non-U.S. firms play an increasingly important role on the NYSE.

Let's look at the NYSE-listed stocks from Brazil, Russia, India and China, four fast-growing powerhouses in international trade. We describe the investment potential of these countries in our blog Rich As A BRIC.

Here are 32 NYSE-listed companies from Brazil:

• Ambev (ABV) - brewers
• Aracruz Celulose (ARA) - paper
• Banco Bradesco (BBD) - banks
• Banco Itau Holding Financeira (ITU) - banks
• Brasil Telecom Participações (BRP) - fixed line telecommunications
• Brasil Telecom (BTM) - fixed line telecommunications
• Braskem (BAK) - commodity chemicals
• Companhia Brasileira de Distribuição (CBD) - food retailers & wholesalers
• Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais (CIG) - electricity
• Companhia Paranaense de Energia (ELP) - electricity
• Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (SID) - steel
• Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (RIO) - steel
• CPFL Energia (CPL) - electricity
• Embraer-Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica (ERJ) - aerospace
• Embratel Participações (EMT) - fixed line telecommunications
• Gerdau (GGB) - steel
• Gol Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes (GOL) - airlines
• Perdigão (PDA) - food products
• Petrobras - Petróleo Brasileiro (PBR) - integrated oil & gas
• SABESP(SBS) - water
• Sadia (SDA) - food products
• TAM (TAM) - airlines
• Tele Norte Celular Participações (TCN) - mobile telecommunications
• Tele Norte Leste Participacoes (TNE) - fixed line telecommunications
• Telebras HOLDRs (TBH) - fixed line telecommunications
• Telecomunicaçôes de Sao Paulo (TSP) - fixed line telecommunications
• Telemig Celular Participações (TMB) - mobile telecommunications
• Tim Participações (TSU) - mobile telecommunications
• Ultrapar Participacoes (UGP) - commodity chemicals
• Unibanco (UBB) - banks
• Vivo Participações (VIV) - mobile telecommunications
• Votorantim Celulose e Papel (VCP) - paper

Russia has 5 NYSE-listed companies:

• Mechel OAO(MTL) - steel
• Mobile TeleSystems (MBT) - mobile telecommunications
• Rostelecom(ROS) - fixed line telecommunications
• Vimpel-Communications(VIP) - mobile telecommunications
• Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods (WBD) - food products

India's 10 NYSE-listed companies are:

• Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (RDY) - pharmaceuticals
• HDFC Bank (HDB) - banks
• ICICI Bank (IBN) - banks
• Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTE) - fixed line telecommunications
• Patni Computer Systems (PTI) - software
• Satyam Computer (SAY) - computer services
• Tata Motors (TTM) - commercial vehicles & trucks
• Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSL) - fixed line telecommunications
• Wipro (WIT) - computer services
• WNS (Holdings) (WNS) - business support services

Here are 20 companies on the NYSE from China:

• Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) - aluminum
• American Oriental Bioengineering (AOB) - food products
• China Eastern Airlines (CEA) - airlines
• China Life Insurance (LFC) - life insurance
• China Mobile (CHL) - mobile telecommunications
• China Netcom Hong Kong (CN) - fixed line telecommunications
• China Petroleum & Chemical (SNP) - integrated oil & gas
• China Southern Airlines (ZNH) - airlines
• China Telecom (CHA) - fixed line telecommunications
• China Unicom(CHU) - mobile telecommunications
• Guangshen Railway (GSH) - travel & tourism
• Huaneng Power International (HNP) - electricity
• Mindray Medical (MR) - medical equipment
• New Oriental Education & Technology (EDU) - specialized consumer services
• PetroChina (PTR) - integrated oil & gas
• Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMI) - semiconductors
• Suntech Power (STP) - electrical components & equipment
• Trina Solar (TSL) - electrical components & equipment
• Yanzhou Coal Mining (YZC) - coal

For more information see nyse.com - Listed Company Directory by region.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Some 13,708 Google searches in February led a growing audience to our international trade site.

The list below shows the articles with the most page views in February with the original publication date in brackets. The number of page views for the month is also shown.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in February 2007

1. World's Richest Countries (October 11, 2006) ... 4,138 page views
2. World's Poorest Countries (October 22, 2006) ... 1,788
3. Richest EU Countries (November 11, 2006) ... 880
4. Richest Asian Countries (December 9, 2006) ... 833
5. Top China Stock Pick 2007 (January 10, 2007) ... 743
6. America's Trade Buddies (November 21, 2006) ... 734
7. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 696
8. Coca-Cola Global Sales (December 28, 2006) ... 618
9. China's Top Trading Partners (June 26, 2006) ... 477
10. McDonald's Global Sales (October 24, 2006) ... 407

The top blog remains Rich As A BRIC with 441 page views this month.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in January 2007

1. World's Richest Countries (October 11, 2006) ... 3,524 page views
2. World's Poorest Countries (October 22, 2006) ... 1,220
3. Richest Asian Countries (December 9, 2006) ... 997
4. Top China Stock Pick 2007 (January 10, 2007) ... 969
5. Richest EU Countries (November 11, 2006) ... 755
6. America's Trade Buddies (November 21, 2006) ... 721
7. Coca-Cola Global Sales (December 28, 2006) ... 716
8. Germany's Trade Buddies (December 14, 2006) ... 598
9. Top Chinese Investment Picks (June 28, 2006) ... 525
10. Canada's Diamond Trade (December 7, 2006) ... 459

There were some 12,800 Google searches in January 2007.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in December 2006

1. World's Richest Countries (October 11, 2006) ... 2,495 page views
2. World's Poorest Countries (October 22, 2006) ... 972
3. Richest EU Countries (November 11, 2006) ... 811
4. America's Trade Buddies (November 21, 2006) ... 689
5. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 376
6. Blood Diamond Countries (November 30, 2006) ... 354
7. Richest Asian Countries (December 9, 2006) ... 323
8. Top Ten Tobacco Countries (November 17, 2006) ... 293
9. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 271
10. McDonald's Global Sales (October 24, 2006) ... 266

There were some 8,400 Google searches in December 2006.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in November 2006

1. World's Richest Countries (October 11, 2006) ... 2,433 page views
2. World's Poorest Countries (October 22, 2006) ... 1,287
3. Richest EU Countries (November 11, 2006) ... 675
4. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 494
5. McDonald's Global Sales (October 24, 2006) ... 430
6. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 319
7. Top Ten Banana Countries (November 1, 2006) ... 290
8. Wal-Mart Finally Gets It (July 31, 2006) ... 284
9. Micky Dee Sues Copycats (October 26, 2006) ... 265
10. Starbucks Global Sales (August 29, 2006) ... 242

There were some 7,300 Google searches in November 2006.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in October 2006

1. World's Richest Countries (October 11, 2006) ... 1,045 page views
2. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 416
3. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 320
4. World's Top Competitive Countries (September 28, 2006) ... 314
5. Wal-Mart Finally Gets It (July 31, 2006) ... 310
6. Starbucks Global Sales (August 29, 2006) ... 272
7. World's Poorest Countries (October 22, 2006) ... 236
8. China's Top Trading Partners (June 26, 2006) ... 224
9. Highest Taxed Countries (September 24, 2006) ... 204
10. Risky Russian Trade (September 21, 2006) ... 179

There were some 3,900 Google searches in October 2006.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in September 2006

1. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 252 page views
2. Starbucks Global Sales (August 29, 2006) ... 213 page views
3. Wal-Mart Finally Gets It (July 31, 2006) ... 194 page views
4. China's Top Trading Partners (June 26, 2006) ... 146 page views
5. Starbucks Sues Copycats (August 31, 2006) ... 96 page views
6. T-Shirt Sweatshops (September 11, 2006) ... 94 page views
7. Slot Machine Monster (August 21, 2006) ... 92 page views
8. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 79 page views
9. Top Ten 'Pop' Stats (June 5, 2006) ... 78 page views
10. Top Chinese Investment Picks (June 28, 2006) ... 76 page views

There were some 1,600 Google searches in September 2006.$

Posted by Daniel Workman

According to the February 23 Toronto Star article Port eyes boost from Asian traffic, cargo landing in Halifax from Asia can be shipped inland via rail or truck, or shipped down the St. Lawrence Seaway via lake ships to ports in Toronto and Hamilton.

In the past most international trade goods destined for Canada arrived in Vancouver. In addition to labour disputes, Vancouver's port has grown increasingly congested with traffic from China.

Comprised of 12 of Canada's largest retailers including Sears, Sony and Reitmans, the CRSA wants the Port of Halifax to focus on trade from another thriving economy, India. A ship travelling from India through the Suez Canal arrives in Halifax takes about half the time required to travel east across the Pacific Ocean to any port on North America's west coast.

Because the shipping route to Halifax is shorter, there will be less damage to products and reduced handling costs. The risk of shipping through the Suez Canal was downplayed, partly because that area is regularly patrolled by Canadian and American naval forces on the lookout for terrorists.

To promote its trade advantages, Port of Halifax has introduced its first-ever offices outside Canada in the Indian cities of Mumbai and New Delhi.

Canadian ports like Halifax, Toronto and Hamilton will require increased efficiency, skills and business-friendly policies as we described in our article about the world's leading port, Singapore. Otherwise Canada will once again be left behind in the super-competitive arena of international trade.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Not only is India the world's leading producer of polished diamonds, Indian consumers are buying up to 20% more retail diamonds as India's middle class become richer.

Another big growth market for the international diamond trade is China. Like India, the People's Republic has a health economy and is enjoying robust financial health.

Canada is one of only a few countries that mine rough diamonds. Thus Canada's diamond industry should benefit from increasing Asian demand for precious gems.

The sales and marketing arm of De Beers, London-based Diamond Trading Co., expects increasing diamond purchases by Asian buyers to continue this year.

De Beers, the world's largest diamond company, accounts for 40% of diamonds mined around the globe. The South African multinational is finalizing annual statistics on diamond sales.

The world's largest mining company, Australia's BHP Billiton Ltd., predicts that diamond supplies won't keep pace with demand from growing markets in China, India and the Middle East.

Therefore diamond prices are set to rise in 2007.

Posted by Daniel Workman

As reported by Santanu Choudhury of Bloomberg News, Bombardier will bid to provide up to 600 locomotives that state-run India Railways plans to use to deliver freight across India. Bombardier will also bid on mass transit rail projects in cities including diamond trade center Mumbai as well as Chennai.

The Canadian company also has its eyes set on a contract to build a high-speed rail link between the city of Delhi and its airport. In addition, Indian Railways will need US$1 billion worth of systems and components for locomotives, high-speed trains and signalling equipment.

India wants to develop its transportation infrastructure to speed economic expansion, thus reducing poverty. Plans to spend over US$3 billion over the next five years on railway systems and supplies are good news for Bombardier.

China, India and Russia remain the company's fastest-growing markets, providing global growth engines for both Bombardier as the world's largest train manufacturer and as a stock (BBD.B on TSX).

Posted by Daniel Workman

As we pointed out in our article Japan's Trade Buddies, Japan's economy has come out of a long-term restructuring and is now on a sustained growth path.

Fourth quarter 2006 marked the eighth straight quarters of improvement for the Japanese economy. With an annualized expansion rate of 4.8%, Japan's performance in the latest quarter far exceeded what experts had expected.

Japanese exports performed well, particularly its software, general machinery and high-tech equipment such as car navigation systems. Japanese private-sector consumption of cars, flat-screen TVs and hotel accommodation also accounted for a significant part of increased demand.

To recognize the healthier Japanese investment climate, February 14, 2007 saw a new Japanese Exchange Traded Fund introduced on Canada's top stock exchange.

The Claymore Japan Fundamental Index ETF C$ Hedged (TSX:CJP) was designed to replicate the performance of the FTSE RAFI Japan C$ Hedged Index. Exposure to Japanese currency is hedged to reduce foreign currency return risks for Canadian investors.

As of December 31, the index's top industry weightings were: Consumer Goods (27% of CJP's total assets), Industrials (18.7%), Financials (10.8%), Consumer Services (8.6%), Utilities (8.4%), Telecom (7.9%), Basic Materials (7.7%), Technology (5.5%), Health Care (3.5%) and Oil & Gas (1.92%).

CJP's top ten holdings were:

• Toyota Motor (5.5% of CJP's total assets)
• NTT (4.7%)
• Tokyo Elec. Power (2.3%)
• Honda Motor Co. (2.2%)
• NTT Docomo (2.1%)
• Nissan Motor (1.7%)
• Canon (1.60%)
• Matsushita Electric Ind. (1.4%)
• Sony Corp. (1.4%)
• Seven & I Holding (1.3%)

Posted by Daniel Workman

StreetAuthority's subscriber-only investment newsletter picks iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI) as one of the world's top performing investments in 2007. StreetAuthority points out that in addition to a growing Chinese middle-class of over 300 million consumers, China continues to enjoy booming foreign trade. After joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, China's government has reduced tariffs and made it easier for foreign companies to invest directly in China.

StreetAuthority compares China emergence as an economic superpower to America's economic expansion in the late 19th century as the U.S. became the world's largest economy.

Mad Money's Jim Cramer (booyah, booyah) recognizes the risks of a red-hot economy like China's, but affirms that the Chinese market offers a great opportunity to jump in once FXI's unit price settles down.

The Motley Fool's Will Frankenhoff believes that companies in FXI like China Mobile, China Life and PetroChina are attractively valued in relation to their growth prospects, particularly since these companies service China's domestic market.

A recent report by the Xinhua Economic Information Department sees China's $2.5 trillion economy posting an impressive 9.5% gain in 2007, down slightly from 10.5% in 2006. Retail sales in China will grow by 15%, an example of the consumer demand that continues to fuel Chinese business profits.

China's tremendous economic growth should continue for years to come as it approaches the level of wealth of the U.S. or Western Europe. The key to investing in this hyper-growth market is the diversification found in FXI's basket of blue-chip Chinese companies.

Posted by Daniel Workman

America's commerce department reported that the U.S. annual trade deficit hit a new high in 2006, continuing a five-year streak.

A flood of relatively inexpensive imports from China as well as record prices for oil imports are compelling reasons behind the U.S. trade deficit's 6.5% rise to over US$650 billion.

The good news is that American exports are also increasing, although at a slower rate than imports. At its simplest level, this trade imbalance results in an accelerating U.S. deficit. Yet stronger foreign economies coupled with a weaker American dollar helped U.S. exports in 2006 to rise to a record US$1.2 trillion, up 12.6% from 2005. U.S. exports grew at a faster rate than the 10.5% for American imports in 2006. However, the final amount of U.S. imports last year was greater, specifically US$1.9 trillion.

According to John Ward of the Canadian Press, merchandise exports from Canada to the U.S. in 2006 declined, the first annual decrease in three years. Canadian exports to the U.S. made up 79% of total foreign revenues, down from 81% in 2005. Canadian autos and forestry products saw the greatest declines.

Canadian exports rose 1.1% in 2006 to US$392 billion.

Imports into Canada climbed nearly four times faster than exports, and hit a record US$346 billion. Increased foreign imports reduced Canada's trade surplus by US$9.5 billion to US$46 billion, the lowest Canadian trade surplus since 1999.

Canada's US$82 billion trade surplus with the U.S. in 2006 is the lowest annual Canadian surplus with America since 2003.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Cisco's stock price (CSCO on NASDAQ) increases to $28.85 from prior day low $$27.12 based on a 36% jump in net income and a 27% rise in revenues for its second quarter.

As we wrote in our January 25 article Cisco International Sales, emerging markets continue to fuel revenue growth for the company's network and Internet equipment.

Momentum from emerging markets was certainly firing on all cylinders in Cisco's latest quarter: Overall revenue growth from emerging regions was up some 40% from last year. Russia and Africa accounted for 12% of Cisco's product orders, up from 11% in the prior quarter.

Cisco's large size allows the company to dominate emerging markets, which is why analysts expect Cisco to maintain its 40% growth rate in emerging markets for several years. In such markets, margins tend to be higher and operating expenses lower.

Many stock analysts are just now upgrading Cisco's ratings. We were ahead of the curve, writing about Cisco's global trade success over two weeks before its stellar quarterly results were released.

Our research uncovered the fact that Internet Protocol TV (IPTV), television delivered over a broadband connection, and online videos are global consumer products that require Cisco's advanced network products. Read more about Cisco products.

Telecom carrier spending on video, cable operators' upgrades and the "healthy growth in user-generated video" is expected to strengthen demand for Cisco's products in the second half of this year and in 2008.

Keep reading Suite101 articles, have fun and profit from your experience!

Posted by Daniel Workman

Some 12,800 Google searches in January led a growing audience to our international trade site.

The list below shows the articles with the most page views in January with the original publication date in brackets. The number of page views for the month is also shown.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in January 2007

1. World's Richest Countries (October 11, 2006) ... 3,524 page views
2. World's Poorest Countries (October 22, 2006) ... 1,220
3. Richest Asian Countries (December 9, 2006) ... 997
4. Top China Stock Pick 2007 (January 10, 2007) ... 969
5. Richest EU Countries (November 11, 2006) ... 755
6. America's Trade Buddies (November 21, 2006) ... 721
7. Coca-Cola Global Sales (December 28, 2006) ... 716
8. Germany's Trade Buddies (December 14, 2006) ... 598
9. Top Chinese Investment Picks (June 28, 2006) ... 525
10. Canada's Diamond Trade (December 7, 2006) ... 459

Top Ten International Trade Articles in December 2006

1. World's Richest Countries (October 11, 2006) ... 2,495 page views
2. World's Poorest Countries (October 22, 2006) ... 972
3. Richest EU Countries (November 11, 2006) ... 811
4. America's Trade Buddies (November 21, 2006) ... 689
5. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 376
6. Blood Diamond Countries (November 30, 2006) ... 354
7. Richest Asian Countries (December 9, 2006) ... 323
8. Top Ten Tobacco Countries (November 17, 2006) ... 293
9. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 271
10. McDonald's Global Sales (October 24, 2006) ... 266

There were some 8,400 Google searches in December 2006.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in November 2006

1. World's Richest Countries (October 11, 2006) ... 2,433 page views
2. World's Poorest Countries (October 22, 2006) ... 1,287
3. Richest EU Countries (November 11, 2006) ... 675
4. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 494
5. McDonald's Global Sales (October 24, 2006) ... 430
6. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 319
7. Top Ten Banana Countries (November 1, 2006) ... 290
8. Wal-Mart Finally Gets It (July 31, 2006) ... 284
9. Micky Dee Sues Copycats (October 26, 2006) ... 265
10. Starbucks Global Sales (August 29, 2006) ... 242

There were some 7,300 Google searches in November 2006.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in October 2006

1. World's Richest Countries (October 11, 2006) ... 1,045 page views
2. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 416
3. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 320
4. World's Top Competitive Countries (September 28, 2006) ... 314
5. Wal-Mart Finally Gets It (July 31, 2006) ... 310
6. Starbucks Global Sales (August 29, 2006) ... 272
7. World's Poorest Countries (October 22, 2006) ... 236
8. China's Top Trading Partners (June 26, 2006) ... 224
9. Highest Taxed Countries (September 24, 2006) ... 204
10. Risky Russian Trade (September 21, 2006) ... 179

There were some 3,900 Google searches in October 2006.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in September 2006

1. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 252 page views
2. Starbucks Global Sales (August 29, 2006) ... 213 page views
3. Wal-Mart Finally Gets It (July 31, 2006) ... 194 page views
4. China's Top Trading Partners (June 26, 2006) ... 146 page views
5. Starbucks Sues Copycats (August 31, 2006) ... 96 page views
6. T-Shirt Sweatshops (September 11, 2006) ... 94 page views
7. Slot Machine Monster (August 21, 2006) ... 92 page views
8. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 79 page views
9. Top Ten 'Pop' Stats (June 5, 2006) ... 78 page views
10. Top Chinese Investment Picks (June 28, 2006) ... 76 page views

There were some 1,600 Google searches in September 2006.$

Posted by Daniel Workman

In his article Global stage no longer a reflection of reality in the January 29, 2007 edition of the Toronto Star, David Crane explains that emerging markets now constitute 50% of the world economy. However, this fact is not reflected in the representation and voting powers of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Consider some examples.

The European Union, America, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand own 60% of IMF votes. China has less voting power than Belgium combined with the Netherlands. Equally laughable is the fact that Canada has 2.89% of IMF votes, far more than India.

To its credit, the IMF is striving to reallocate voting powers. This necessary epiphany is likely to be a long, painful process because countries with an abundance of votes will fight having to give them up.

Posted by Daniel Workman

In world trade, India's economy continues to provide strong demand for other countries' exports.

Take Indian trade in office and telecom equipment in 2005, for example.

According to the World Trade Organization (WTO), India's exports of office and telecom equipment in 2005 was US$989 million. Imports for this type of equipment into India was $10.4 billion over the same period.

The rest of the world is taking note of India's strong demand for office equipment. Office supply king Staples has announced a joint venture with Future Office, a unit of India's Pantaloon Retail Ltd. Through Future Office, the American office-supply company will offer delivery and cash-and-carry locations in India.

Future Office will also expand its delivery operations to include key Indian cities Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad, Indore and Chandigarh.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Regardless of a slowdown in the world economy, most analysts expect worldwide sales of generic drugs to increase because generics save consumers money. That's why TEVA Pharmaceutical Industries is considered the top defensive stock for 2007 from an international trade perspective.

TEVA is a diversified drug company. TEVA also makes proprietary branded drugs like best-selling multiple sclerosis treatment Copaxone® and sells active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) to drug manufacturers around the world. Another TEVA branded drug is Azilect®, the first once-daily oral treatment for Parkinson's disease.

TEVA's financial results for third quarter ending September 30, 2006 were stellar. Overall, quarterly net sales rose 74% to $2,286 million while net income increased 127% compared to the same period of 2005. Fully diluted earnings per share (EPS) jumped 85% to $0.74. The company's gross profit margin reached 55.2% in the quarter, up from 47% in the prior year.

North American pharmaceutical sales were up 87% in the latest quarter, benefiting from TEVA's introduction of 22 new products. Pharmaceutical sales in Europe increased 36% due in part to higher generic sales from 34 product launches across nine countries. International pharmaceutical sales rose 149% notably due to the addition of new markets in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe.

After TEVA announced its stellar quarter on November 7, its stock price has stuck around the $32.80 level down from $36 in October. As long as TEVA continues to grow its revenues and earnings consistently at about 20% or less, TEVA offers considerable upside in both the global generic drug marketplace and in terms of its stock price on NASDAQ.

Currently TEVA is the 14th largest component of the NASDAQ 100 Index, ahead of the likes of Starbucks, Costco and Adobe Systems.

Note: Suite101 does not offer investment advice. Instead, we seek to educate and inform our readers by writing about the latest trends in world trade. Armed with these insights, you are in a much better position to make your own decisions. We encourage you to add your thoughts to our analysis by starting a discussion below.

Posted by Daniel Workman

We first looked Britain's Diageo as an international trade powerhouse last July in the article King of Alcoholic Beverages.

Paul Tracy, editor of StreetAuthority Market Advisor, looks to Diageo as his favorite conservative stock for 2007. Tracy's stock predictions are much respected after he finished 4th in last year's stock picking competition among leading financial newsletter advisors. Tracy notes that Diageo owns either the best-selling or second-best-selling brand of drink in every major category of alcohol. Diageo accounts for 55% of the sales for the world's top 10 premium spirits brands.

Tracy likes Diageo's moves into foreign markets in Africa, Latin America and Asia. He is also attracted to the stock's dividend yield of 3%, noting that there's room for further distribution hikes.

Around the world, premiums spirits consistently generate the highest prices from wealthy baby boomers and enjoy the highest profit margins. Diageo is the premium alcohol leader in the U.S., Great Britain, Ireland, Russia, Brazil, India, Korea and Australia.

Although Diageo has over 150 brands, the company focuses on both global priority brands and some 30 local priority brands. A local priority brand is one which holds an important position in an individual region, e.g. Crown Royal in North America and Cacique in Spain.

Diageo is strategically positioned to take advantage of anticipated strong demand from drinkers in fast-growing Brazil-Russia-India-China. In Brazil, the company is #1 in premium & standard scotch and vodka, with net sales up 42% from 2005. Diageo is Russia's #1 maker of premium & standard scotch and cream liqueurs, up 26% from 2005. Drinkers in India make Diageo #1 in vodka and premium scotch, up 37% in 2005. Net sales in China are up 61% from the year earlier.

We agree that Diageo will continue to be the King of Alcoholic Beverages in world trade. However, Diageo's current stock price of US$89 is near an all-time high. Six months ago Diageo's price was 40% lower at $65. We'll wait until Diageo's shares approach the $65-70 level before jumping on the Diageo bandwagon.

Posted by Daniel Workman

It's hard to remove your emotions from an analysis of George Bush's duplicitous demands for yet another massive appropriation of Iraqi war funding. At time of Bush's speech, the U.S. had already spent US$350 billion on a deadly effort with very little returns, despite America's "patience, sacrifice and resolve".

Let's just say that it is hard to believe that throwing additional resources spent on Iraq will bear fruit, particularly when the war funds will be administered by the same bureaucracy in Washington and Baghdad that has already squandered billions of dollars through corruption and mismanagement. Many pundits believe that Bush's "new way forward" is just a ploy to extend the Iraqi war past the Bush's current presidential term, leaving a mess for which the next American president will have to take responsibility - including the stigma of America's defeat in Iraq.

From an international trade perspective, my greatest fear is that Americans will fail to understand that oil prices may well go through the roof if Bush is allowed to make yet another mistake by extending America's presence in Iraq. Currently oil prices are falling, which can lull voters into putting oil on the backburner.

It's what Bush didn't mention in his speech that is most troubling. As brilliantly articulated by David Olive in the January 11, 2007 edition of the Toronto Star, America is losing the war that Bush launched 4 years ago. Iraq has descended into civil war, with 132,000 U.S. soldiers trapped in the sectarian crossfire. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Turkey have been warning Washington for months that they will invade Iraq to protect their fellow ethnic Sunnis if necessary. Threats to the region from Iran are more publicly known. Even a traditional American ally like Turkey is amassing troops to invade Iraq from the north to protect Turks in Iraq from Iraqi Kurds.

Should the Middle East erupt in conflict, David Olive estimates that world oil prices will jump at least 50%. The world economy will go into shock, with severe declines in stock exchanges around the globe.

After hearing George Bush's speech, I am even more determined to buy oil stocks with low price-to-earnings ratios like Talisman (TLM on NYSE and TSX). A warmer winter is one thing. Deadly massacres and civil war in the Middle East will affect oil prices and world trade far more profoundly, with due respect to the "patience, sacrifice and resolve" that Bush demands but to-date has resolved very few issues in Iraq.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Some 8,400 Google searches in December led a growing audience to our international trade site.

The list below shows the articles with the most page views in December with the original publication date in brackets. The number of page views for the month is also shown.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in December 2006

1. World's Richest Countries (October 11, 2006) ... 2,495 page views
2. World's Poorest Countries (October 22, 2006) ... 972
3. Richest EU Countries (November 11, 2006) ... 811
4. America's Trade Buddies (November 21, 2006) ... 689
5. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 376
6. Blood Diamond Countries (November 30, 2006) ... 354
7. Richest Asian Countries (December 9, 2006) ... 323
8. Top Ten Tobacco Countries (November 17, 2006) ... 293
9. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 271
10. McDonald's Global Sales (October 24, 2006) ... 266

Top Ten International Trade Articles in November 2006

1. World's Richest Countries (October 11, 2006) ... 2,433 page views
2. World's Poorest Countries (October 22, 2006) ... 1,287
3. Richest EU Countries (November 11, 2006) ... 675
4. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 494
5. McDonald's Global Sales (October 24, 2006) ... 430
6. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 319
7. Top Ten Banana Countries (November 1, 2006) ... 290
8. Wal-Mart Finally Gets It (July 31, 2006) ... 284
9. Micky Dee Sues Copycats (October 26, 2006) ... 265
10. Starbucks Global Sales (August 29, 2006) ... 242

There were some 7,300 Google searches in November 2006.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in October 2006

1. World's Richest Countries (October 11, 2006) ... 1,045 page views
2. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 416
3. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 320
4. World's Top Competitive Countries (September 28, 2006) ... 314
5. Wal-Mart Finally Gets It (July 31, 2006) ... 310
6. Starbucks Global Sales (August 29, 2006) ... 272
7. World's Poorest Countries (October 22, 2006) ... 236
8. China's Top Trading Partners (June 26, 2006) ... 224
9. Highest Taxed Countries (September 24, 2006) ... 204
10. Risky Russian Trade (September 21, 2006) ... 179

There were some 3,900 Google searches in October 2006.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in September 2006

1. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 252 page views
2. Starbucks Global Sales (August 29, 2006) ... 213 page views
3. Wal-Mart Finally Gets It (July 31, 2006) ... 194 page views
4. China's Top Trading Partners (June 26, 2006) ... 146 page views
5. Starbucks Sues Copycats (August 31, 2006) ... 96 page views
6. T-Shirt Sweatshops (September 11, 2006) ... 94 page views
7. Slot Machine Monster (August 21, 2006) ... 92 page views
8. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 79 page views
9. Top Ten 'Pop' Stats (June 5, 2006) ... 78 page views
10. Top Chinese Investment Picks (June 28, 2006) ... 76 page views

There were some 1,600 Google searches in September 2006.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Other advantages are that a strong and stable Euro has helped to:

• Avoid exchange rate crises and market speculation that troubled the old currencies
• Make imports into the EU less expensive, including oil
• Increase trade and investment among countries within the EU zone
• Facilitate travel in Europe and lessened trip costs
• Share pricing information and therefore improve competition
• Attract foreign direct investment.

The Euro was not always a roaring success. For the first 2 years after its introduction in January 2002, the Euro's value went down significantly.

There have been growing pains. A survey published by the European Commission shows that almost one third of EU consumers believe that the Euro has caused prices to increase. In reality, inflation has increased only by slightly more than 2%.

Surveys also reveal that some are clinging to the old currencies, even now. More than 20% of participants still calculate their daily purchases in the old currency. For big purchases, the old currencies are used 40% of the time.

Economists point to the inability of the Euro to create the right conditions for a more balanced, supportive environment among all EU countries.

On January 1, 2007, new EU member Slovania became the 13th country to join the eurozone (nations that officially use the Euro). At least 6 other mini-states and territories use the Euro as legal tender without approval from the European Central Bank.

Ex-communist country Slovania joins other official EU members using the Euro, namely: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. In 2008 Cyprus and Malta are scheduled to adopt the Euro.

While the Euro has stimulated the EU's success in international trade, it is not close to rivaling the U.S. greenback as a reserve currency to the world.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Since the end of September 2006, Canadian manufacturer Bombardier has seen a substantial rise in the number of contracts the Montreal-based company has won around the world.

While Bombardier's jet division continues to struggle both with sales and operating margins, the firm's transportation division has signed more than 15 large deals ranging from a joint venture in Shanghai, China for building subway trains to an upgrade project on the moving sidewalks at a Las Vegas airport.

Over the timeframe in which those deals were announced, Bombardier's stock price (BBD.B on TSX) has seen a double-digit increase from about $3.50 to $4. If Bombardier continues its success in selling transportation contracts, Bombardier's stock may well represent the comeback of 2007 for a Canadian manufacturing company thanks to thriving customer demand and international trade.

Below are some of the headlines announcing deals signed by Bombardier in the latter part of 2006.

• Bombardier Transportation Signs $549 Million US Contract With Spanish National Railways RENFE To Supply 100 Traxx Locomotives (December 28, 2006)
• Bombardier To Supply 50 VIRM Intercity Trains Worth $569 Million US To Dutch National Railways (December 27, 2006)
• Bombardier Wins $61 Million US Contract For Electrical Multiple Units In Perth, Western Australia (December 21, 2006)
• Bombardier Signs Contract To Build 234 Subway Cars For Toronto (December 21, 2006)
• Bombardier Wins AU$80 Million Contract For Electrical Multiple Units In Queensland, Australia (December 19, 2006)
• Bombardier Wins 467 Million Euro Order From SNCF For 112 Additional High-Capacity AGC Trains (November 24, 2006)
• Bombardier Awarded $99 Million US Contract For Advanced Rapid Transit Cars In Vancouver (November 23, 2006)
• Bombardier Transportation France Signs 2.7 Billion Euro Contract With French National Railways SNCF To Supply 372 Trains For The Greater Paris / Ile-De-France Suburban Network (November 22, 2006)
• Bombardier Signs $43 Million US Contract for Additional Work On The Airport People Mover System in Las Vegas, USA (November 09, 2006)
• Bombardier Selected By Spanish National Railways RENFE To Supply 100 TRAXX Locomotives (November 08, 2006)
• Bombardier: Swiss BLS Orders 13 Multiple Unit Commuter Trains For 58 Million Euros (November 08, 2006)
• Bombardier And Chinese Joint Venture Partners Win 257 Million Euro Order For MOVIA Metro Cars In Shanghai (November 06, 2006)
• Bombardier Selected By French National Railways SNCF To Supply The Future Ile-de-France Commuter Train For 2.7 Billion Euros (October 25, 2006)
• Bombardier Consortium Awarded Contract For Advanced Rapid Transit Cars In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (October 13, 2006)
• Bombardier: Deutsche Bahn Orders 42 New Prize-Winning Double-Deckers For $73 Million US (October 09, 2006)
• Bombardier Signs US $1,650 Million Contracts For Rapid Rail System In South Africa (September 28, 2006)

Posted by Daniel Workman

According to Joe McDonald of the Associated Press, Chinese piracy takes away up to US $50 billion per year in sales from legitimate international trade.

This past July, Beijing launched a 100-day crackdown on vendors who sell pirated goods. China's anti-piracy campaign was renewed on the eve of trade talks with U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

The current campaign targets producers and distributors of illegally copied movies, music, software and books. Furthermore, Beijing will severely punish the smuggling of equipment used to make pirated products. This includes CD- and DVD-burners used for criminal purposes.

If Beijing fails to contain its piracy problem, Washington has advised that China may face a formal complaint in the World Trade Organization. That process could result in trade sanctions and other penalties against the People's Republic.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Germany, the world's largest exporter, saw its exports surge 23% to US$23 billion - the highest since the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990.

According to MarketWatch, the U.S. trade deficit narrowed by 8.4% in October to $58.9 billion, the largest decrease in the deficit since December 2001. October's reported deficit was well below the $63.1-billion imbalance forecast by Wall Street economists.

American exports to its trade buddies rose to a new record in October, while imports fell by the largest amount in almost five years.

Despite the improvement, the U.S. trade deficit with China widened to a record $24.4 billion in October compared with $20.4 billion in the same month last year and $23.0 billion this past September.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson warned China in early December that the world was frustrated waiting for China to appreciate the Chinese yen and to remove trade constraints, measures that would make other countries' exports more competitive.

China has responded that its exchange rate is a matter of national sovereignty, but has agreed to respond positively to America at high-level discussions in China this week.

China's trade surplus in November 2006 was $22.9 billion, slightly lower than October's record $23.8 billion and more than twice the surplus for November 2005.

Posted by Daniel Workman

The 15 million loyalty cards sold during last year's holiday shopping season produced almost $170 million in revenues for Starbucks once they were redeemed. Those cards accounted for 12% of the company's North American revenues for the holiday quarter, surpassing management expectations.

Sales in North America excelled such that Starbucks launched its loyalty card in selected overseas markets.

Early last month Starbucks began offering its loyalty card in the United Kingdom. Customers bought so many cards that the company had to more than double the number of cards in the initial batch to keep up with demand.

Starbucks also made its card available in Japan, Germany, Greece, Australia and Thailand.

Although international sales statistics are not available, the Associated Press reports that Starbucks is pleased with how well its card is selling in overseas market. So much so that the American coffee giant plans to expand its loyalty card into other countries, although Starbucks isn't saying where or when.

If the 12% boost in North American revenues last year is any indication, Starbucks global sales should pick up respectably in the current holiday season and into the new year.

There are no reports on whether copycats are counterfeiting Starbucks loyalty card like has happened with other Starbucks' brand items. Wendy's, McDonald's and Burger King have all followed Starbucks' lead and are offering customers reloadable convenience cards.

Posted by Daniel Workman

European Christmas trees are traditionally unsheared. North Americans prefer close-sheared trees with dense foliage but with comparatively less space on which to hold decorations.

According to the National Christmas Tree Association, each year almost 200,000 real Christmas trees are sold via the Internet or catalogue and are shipped mail-order in the U.S.

A typical retail Christmas tree is from 6 to 7 feet tall and takes about 7 years to grow. For each Christmas tree harvested, up to 3 seedlings are planted in its place during the following spring.

America has about 21,000 Christmas Tree growers, with over 100,000 full- or part-time employees. Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Washington are the top Christmas-producing states. The U.S. has about 500,000 acres of Christmas trees, which supplies the daily oxygen needs of about 9 million people.

While real Christmas trees are renewable and recyclable, artificial trees contain non-biodegradable plastics and potentially toxic metals like lead. Some 85% of artificial trees sold in the U.S. comes from China, America's second-largest import trade buddy (after Canada).

Some consumers prefer the convenience of artificial trees, finding that they can be used for several years and are therefore less expensive than real trees. At the end of the Christmas season artificial trees can be disassembled and stored compactly.

Yet the U.S. has found great success in exporting natural Christmas trees notably to Japan and Mexico.

Japan imports Christmas trees grown principally from Pacific Northwest states as well as British Columbia, Canada. Most trees exported to Japan are from 2 to 3 feet tall, small enough to fit on a table.

America exports almost one million Christmas trees to Mexico annually. Mexico is America's largest export market, but Mexico also imposes stiff restrictions on tree exports. For example, Mexico requires that Christmas trees be "shook" before export to Mexico. This forces American exporters to pay for expensive machinery to shake the Christmas trees. Also frustrating is the time-consuming paperwork to satisfy the Mexican bureaucracy that trees are "shooked". Some U.S. Christmas tree producers are throwing up their hands and are instead focusing on domestic markets where free trade is attainable.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Some 7,300 Google searches have led a growing audience to our international trade site.

The list below shows the articles with the most page views in November with the original publication date in brackets. The number of page views for the month is also shown.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in November 2006

1. World's Richest Countries (October 11, 2006) ... 2,433 page views
2. World's Poorest Countries (October 22, 2006) ... 1,287
3. Richest EU Countries (November 11, 2006) ... 675
4. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 494
5. McDonald's Global Sales (October 24, 2006) ... 430
6. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 319
7. Top Ten Banana Countries (November 1, 2006) ... 290
8. Wal-Mart Finally Gets It (July 31, 2006) ... 284
9. Micky Dee Sues Copycats (October 26, 2006) ... 265
10. Starbucks Global Sales (August 29, 2006) ... 242

Top Ten International Trade Articles in October 2006

1. World's Richest Countries (October 11, 2006) ... 1,045 page views
2. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 416
3. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 320
4. World's Top Competitive Countries (September 28, 2006) ... 314
5. Wal-Mart Finally Gets It (July 31, 2006) ... 310
6. Starbucks Global Sales (August 29, 2006) ... 272
7. World's Poorest Countries (October 22, 2006) ... 236
8. China's Top Trading Partners (June 26, 2006) ... 224
9. Highest Taxed Countries (September 24, 2006) ... 204
10. Risky Russian Trade (September 21, 2006) ... 179

Some 3,900 Google searches in October 2006.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in September 2006

1. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 252 page views
2. Starbucks Global Sales (August 29, 2006) ... 213 page views
3. Wal-Mart Finally Gets It (July 31, 2006) ... 194 page views
4. China's Top Trading Partners (June 26, 2006) ... 146 page views
5. Starbucks Sues Copycats (August 31, 2006) ... 96 page views
6. T-Shirt Sweatshops (September 11, 2006) ... 94 page views
7. Slot Machine Monster (August 21, 2006) ... 92 page views
8. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 79 page views
9. Top Ten 'Pop' Stats (June 5, 2006) ... 78 page views
10. Top Chinese Investment Picks (June 28, 2006) ... 76 page views

Some 1,600 Google searches in September 2006.

Posted by Daniel Workman

As we reported back in July, Japan was first to slap trade sanctions after Jong-il's ballistic missile tests.

But the more recent trade restrictions appear to include a blatant message for the North Korean leader. Some journalists believe that some banned luxury items were deliberately chosen to personally annoy Jong-il.

UN members have some flexibility in deciding what luxury items to block from trade with North Korea. Canada has chosen lobsters, furs, cigarettes, cigars and cognac as well as many items also specified by the U.S. The American list includes luxury automobiles and electric scooters. Kim Jong-il's tastes include expensive whiskey and high-end cars.

Both Canada and the U.S. have outlawed perfume, jewellery, gems, precious metals, alcoholic beverages, watches and sporting goods as eligible exports to North Korea. The American list also includes musical instruments, large TVs, laptop computers and artwork.

These penalties result from North Korea's nuclear missile test on October 9, 2006.

There can be no doubt that the international ban is intended to be a slap in Jong-il's face, and to perhaps galvanize the masses. As reported by the Associated Press, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez commented "While North Korea's people continue to starve and suffer, there is simply no excuse for the regime to be splurging on cognac and cigars."

Posted by Daniel Workman

Mom-and-pop & other small specialty shops dominate India's retail landscape, which resembles a farmers' market with many smaller proprietors but few big-box stores. India's retail environment started to change when earlier this month Indian conglomerate Reliance launched 11 neighbourhood supermarkets in Hyperabad, the fastest-growing city in India - the world's second-most highly populated country.

Over 95% of Indian stores are 500 square feet or less. Analysts expect India's retail market to more than double from about $300 billion in sales in 2005 to over $600 billion by 2015.

For years, Wal-Mart has been frustrated by Indian restrictions that bar foreign companies from operating multi-product retail chains in India. To comply with existing Indian rules, Wal-Mart has signed an equal partnership deal with Bharti Enterprises whose company Bharti Airtel Ltd. is the country's largest cellular phone service provider with more than 30 million users. Like Wal-Mart, Bharti is cash-rich and has the capacity to scale up quickly.

Indian big-box stores will be franchisee-owned. However, it isn't immediately clear whether Wal-Mart has given up plans to set up its own stores in India, where resistance from political groups and domestic businesses has prevented the government from allowing foreign companies to operate multi-product retail chains.

Lured by the 30% annual growth of India's retail sector, global retail giants such as Wal-Mart and Germany's Metro AG have been lobbying the Indian government for years. Rising middle class incomes and an increase in demand for branded products make India a compelling marketplace for global retail companies.

India would appear to be a key part of Wal-Mart's global retail growth strategy, as we discussed in the article Wal-Mart Finally Gets It.

As for Indian exports, in 2006 Wal-Mart has sourced products worth some US$2 billion (euro1.6 billion) from India for its worldwide stores. However, the figure is small compared to US$18 billion (euro13.73 billion) worth of goods that the world's biggest retailer exports from China.

Read our analyses on India's great potential both as an international trade partner and as part of an exciting Brazil-Russia-India-China Exchange Trade Fund (ETF) investment.

Posted by Daniel Workman

With global sales of about US$23-billion per year, Magna is the world's third largest auto maker.

Headquartered in Aurora, Ontario, the Canadian auto parts company operates 228 manufacturing plants and 64 product development centers in 23 countries around the world. Until now, Magna had no presence in Russia. In the late 1980s the company ran a tooling shop in neighbouring Ukraine which was closed after only 3 years.

Magna signs an agreement with the Russian GAZ Group on November 18. The agreement was drafted to meet growing demand for vehicles in Russia. Magna will implement modern production techniques to make auto components in partnership with GAZ Group and its holding company Russkiye Mashiny. Both companies are owned by Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska.

As reported by Bloomberg News, the announcement to sign the agreement didn't mention details about the size of the Russian project, investment, location, types of parts, job numbers or when production in Russia will start.

What is clear is that Russia continues to experience an economic boom as described in our article Risky Russian Trade. Growth in the former Soviet Union has proceeded for 8 years now, and has significantly increased consumer spending in including demand for automobiles.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Taking into consideration foreign exchange, McDonald's sales rose 6.6% both for October and for the first 10 months of 2006 in constant currencies.

Revenues from McDonald's Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa restaurants were up 7.7% in constant currencies for 2006 so far.

European McDonald's saw sales up 6.5% in constant currencies, boosted by strong results in Germany and France.

U.S. revenues were up 5.7% in constant currencies for the first 10 months of 2006. Growth was fueled by McDonald's breakfast menu, the snack wrap, as well as chicken selects and premium chicken sandwiches as popularized by McDonald's ongoing Monopoly game promotion.

For more interesting facts, scan McDonald's Global Sales. For a look at some amusing legal stories in which Ronald McDonald stars, see Micky Dee Sues Copycats.

Posted by Daniel Workman

The Wall Street Journal published Toyota's global master plan to grab 15% of the international car market by 2010.

The Tokyo-based manufacturer's plan predicts that overall global auto sales will soar from 65 million vehicles in 2005 to 73 million in 2010.

While the big three U.S. automakers struggle with high labour costs including pension and benefit liabilities, Toyota has taken advantage of component-based automation to focus on producing high-quality vehicles that meet or surpass customer expectations.

Currently number two behind General Motors, Toyota is counting on surging demand from Brazil, Russia, India and China to fuel the company's rapid expansion.

Some analysts point out that Toyota plants in North America provide jobs to Americans, Canadians and Mexicans. At the end of the day, however, car maker profits are flowing out of North America and into the increasingly deep pockets of the Japanese corporation.

Posted by Daniel Workman

From an international trade perspective, the big winner for this deal is China. The 306 Movia subway trains will be used in China's largest metro system in one of Asia's busiest urban centres. Transportation systems are vital to moving people and other resources, and China's commitment to building an efficient infrastructure for its traffic flow and economic growth bodes well for the future.

Bombardier has a proven history of delivering transportation systems around the world. By contracting the design and construction work to an international specialist, the People's Republic gains valuable experience at a competitive cost.

Bombardier expects to deliver the 51 trains in phases, starting in the second quarter of 2008. The overall project completion date is set for 2009.

Shareholders of Bombardier stock (BBD.B on TSX) have reason to cheer the news. However, workers in China - not Canada - will benefit the most from the jobs that production of the new subway cars will provide.

Posted by Daniel Workman

iShares: FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI on NYSE) has soared over 30% from US$66 to about $86 since we first presented our analysis of Top Chinese Investment Picks back in June.

Now some bad news.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) has successfully sued FXI which publishes an index for a futures contract of Chinese shares traded in Singapore. The financial index company was found in violation of its contract with the exchange. FXI was ordered to pay a $20,000 fine, and its contract with the SSE was cancelled.

FXI is a joint venture owned by the Financial Times, the London Stock Exchange, and Xinhua Financial (a Tokyo-listed financial information and media group).

FXI says that the court action threatens the free-flow of publicly available financial information from mainland China. A formal complaint against China will be filed with the World Trade Organization.

The company sees no need for a legal agreement with the SSE as to how FXI chooses to licence their index to third parties including other exchanges, particularly since the index is based on FXI's own mathematical formulas. As reported by the Financial Times November 1, 2006 edition, Morgan Stanley, Standard & Poor's and Dow Jones all publish China indices without an agreement.

In the coming months, Chinese authorities plan to launch stock index futures on the mainland. Perhaps Shanghai's real motivation is that China wants more control - and a bigger piece of the stock index futures pie for itself.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Some 3,900 Google searches have led a growing audience to our international trade site.

The list below shows the articles with the most page views in October with the original publication date in brackets. The number of page views for the month is also shown.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in October 2006

1. World's Richest Countries (October 11, 2006) ... 1,045 page views
2. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 416
3. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 320
4. World's Top Competitive Countries (September 28, 2006) ... 314
5. Wal-Mart Finally Gets It (July 31, 2006) ... 310
6. Starbucks Global Sales (August 29, 2006) ... 272
7. World's Poorest Countries (October 24, 2006) ... 236
8. China's Top Trading Partners (June 26, 2006) ... 224
9. Highest Taxed Countries (September 24, 2006) ... 204
10. Risky Russian Trade (September 21, 2006) ... 179

Top Ten International Trade Articles in September 2006

1. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 252 page views
2. Starbucks Global Sales (August 29, 2006) ... 213 page views
3. Wal-Mart Finally Gets It (July 31, 2006) ... 194 page views
4. China's Top Trading Partners (June 26, 2006) ... 146 page views
5. Starbucks Sues Copycats (August 31, 2006) ... 96 page views
6. T-Shirt Sweatshops (September 11, 2006) ... 94 page views
7. Slot Machine Monster (August 21, 2006) ... 92 page views
8. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 79 page views
9. Top Ten 'Pop' Stats (June 5, 2006) ... 78 page views
10. Top Chinese Investment Picks (June 28, 2006) ... 76 page views

Some 1,600 Google searches in September 2006.

Posted by Daniel Workman

European Union (EU) imports of Chinese shoes have more than doubled from US$2.5 billion in 2000 to $6 billion in 2005. Similarly imports of electronic goods like laptops and cellphones from China have surged from $20 billion to some $47 billion over the same period.

EU's trade deficit with the People's Republic swelled to US$135 billion in 2005 from $61 billion five years earlier. The accelerating deficit is pushing the European Commission to demand that Beijing open Chinese markets more fully to European goods and services, crack down on technology copycats, and to allow the Chinese currency to strengthen.

If China's fails to fully embrace EU's proposals for a more level playing field, EU will impose new anti-dumping duties on a range of products imported from China. Currently EU already has punitive anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese shoes and more than 30 other imported goods.

Posted by Daniel Workman

The world's biggest wind turbine maker, Vestas Wind, and India's Suzian Energy Ltd. continue to grow their alternative energy businesses in China.

Wind energy is of particular interest to China. With two-thirds of its power coming from coal, the People's Republic is striving to cut pollution.

China added nearly 500 megawatts of wind energy capacity in 2005, double the increase in 2004. In 2006, China is expected to add about 2,000 megawatts in available wind energy. China's goal is to reach 5,000 megawatts by 2010 and 30,000 megawatts by 2020.

China National Offshore Corp, the country's third-largest oil company, is analyzing the feasibility of building wind farms off of Chinese coasts.

Bloomberg News reports that Germany is the world's largest wind market, with some 18,500 megawatts of wind power capacity. Japan's government has drafted a plan to triple wind power generation to 3,000 megawatts by March 2011.

Posted by Daniel Workman

According to the Toronto Star October 18, 2006 edition, Google's solar panels will produce about 1.6 megawatts of electricity. This alternative energy source could power about 1,000 homes.

Google says that solar energy can eventually provide up to 30% of the company's power at the million-square-foot campus in Mountain View, a suburb south of San Francisco.

Solar energy gives another alternative fuel that may help reduce America's dependency on Middle East oil in international trade.

El Solutions from Pasadena, California is the company managing the solar-panel project. Entrepreneur Bill Gross, who developed the concept to link ads to Google search results, leads the alternative energy project.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Wal-Mart's purchase of the Chinese chain of stores follows the exit of the world's biggest retailer from unprofitable forays into Germany and South Korea.

As reported by the Associated Press on October 17, 2006, the deal is subject to the approval of Chinese regulators.

If successful, Wal-Mart will surpass Carrefour SA of France which currently owns the most hypermarkets in China.

With the price of gas falling, consumers can make more trips to Wal-Mart stores bring more cash in their pockets. So the future of Wal-Mart looks very bright indeed.

Posted by Daniel Workman

To be successful i reducing world oil supplies, OPEC will require a united front from all 11 member nations. OPEC's existing production ceiling is 28 million bpd.

According to Tom Ashby of Reuters, three OPEC countries (Iran, Venezuela and Indonesia) have not produced up to their individual OPEC quotas. The other 8 OPEC countries have either met their individual OPEC quotas, or in the notable cases of top exporter Saudi Arabia and Algeria have significantly topped their production limits.

Going into the October 19 meeting in Qatar, most analysts agree that the overall OPEC production cut should be proportioned among member countries based on their average actual output level over the past 12 months. Without this approach, Saudi Arabia would suffer the most from a percentage cut imposed across-the-board to all member countries.

OPEC's failure to agree on an oil quota will weaken its stature as the world's foremost agency with power to influence crude oil supplies.

Late on Thursday, October 19 OPEC agreed to cut output by 1.2 million bpd at its emergency meeting in Doha, Qatar.

However, the market didn't believe that OPEC member countries will be able to implement across-the-board production cuts. OPEC countries have a history of cheating on production quotas, by flooding world markets with oil when prices are high. Therefore many equity analysts are betting that OPEC member countries will overproduce.

As a result, the price of oil fell to an 11-month low below US$57 for the week ending October 20.

Because OPEC member countries don't always work together to control oil production output, prices aren't strictly tied to OPEC decisions. Instead, market psychology and simple laws of supply and demand determine oil price futures.

And let's not forget George W. Bush, who many analysts say has a strong say in oil prices, albeit behind the scenes.

Personally, I have bought 200 shares of Imperial Oil (IMO on TSZ and NYSE) at C$36.20 and C$35.20. My thinking is that if the OPEC quota goes through then oil stocks will stage a brief rally. If not, I plan to lock in half profits before the October 19 meeting. There are many other factors that influence the price of oil like natural disasters, threats of war with Iran and Nigeria's rebels. To me, the price of oil and oil company shares look low.

Oil remains a valued commodity in international trade, and the upcoming winter looks to be a cold one. At least so far in October in Canada.

Posted by Daniel Workman

The October 13, 2006 edition of the Toronto Star reports that U.S. restaurants are the strongest contributors to McDonald's three-year streak of improved results. Three factors have propelled McDonald's rejuvenation:

• Extended restaurant hours (some stores are now open 24/7)
• Popularity of breakfast items (including coffee & muffin combos)
• New products (like burritos and specialty salads).

Growth of McDonald sales was particularly strong in Germany, France and Britain. Overall, European same-store sales jumped 9% in September and rose 7.6% in the quarter.

Same-store sales in Asia, the Mideast and Africa increased 6.6% in September.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Washington Bureau Chief Peter Morton for the Financial Post reports that the U.S. deficit was 3 billion higher than economists had forecasted.

Crude oil prices had reached a high of $77.03 in July and since have fallen to around $58 in the first week of October. America is a net importer of oil so higher prices in July and August significantly increased what the U.S. paid for imports during those months.

Lower oil prices in October will not show up in American trade statistics until later in the year.

Meanwhile the American trade deficit with China swelled almost 13% to a record $22 billion in August. The U.S. deficit is up some 14% last year when it hit $202 billion - the highest deficit recorded with a single trading partner. A major roadblock remains the Chinese yen, which the U.S. says is undervalued which makes Chinese products cheaper to import into the U.S. and conversely causes American-dollar exports more expensive in China.

China's foreign exchange reserves are fast approaching a mind-boggling $1 trillion propelled by China's booming trade surplus.

Some economists say the bright side to the U.S. deficit is that increased imports show that consumers are still spending. Most pragmatic economists warn that the balooning deficit will eventually provide a strong drag slowing down the world's largest economy.

Canada's trade surplus increased 9.1% to $4.2 billion in August, in part due to a rise of 19% in wheat exports. Demand for Canadian wheat soared as a drought in Australia led to a 44% decrease in wheat supplied from that country.

Posted by Daniel Workman

According to Bloomberg News, Petrotec plans to open new biodiesel processing plant in the U.S. and the U.K.

American president George Bush is looking for this type of renewable energy which would free the U.S. from its dependence on Middle East oil. By 2010, the European Union plans for biofuels to account for 5.75% of car fuel for its 25-member countries.

Petrotec AG plans to sell shares in an initial public offering. This will finance the new processing plants outside Germany. Ronald McDonald's company will provide used cooking fat as raw materials for the biodiesel fuel.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Thinking big is Starbucks mantra.

From the beverages currently served in 12,000 Starbucks stores around the globe, to robust sales growth in those cafes, to management's recently announced long-term goal of 40,000 coffee stores with more than 14,000 worldwide stores by fall 2007, Starbucks management continues to go forward boldly.

Fans of Starbucks coffee are aware of the three supersized beverages available at Starbucks omnipresent cafes around the world. And well they should. since even the smallest size (Tall) of the Strawberries & Creme Frappuccino with whip cream has 420 calories and 12 grams of fat. The Grande size has 580 calories and 17 grams of fat, while the Venti size has 770 calories and 19 grams of fat.

And if the number of calories in many of Starbucks exotic drinks are impressive, so are management's expansion plans. According to the Associated Press, the coffee retailer will more than triple its stores to 40,000 - albeit without committing to a firm deadline. Of those new stores 20,000 will be in countries outside the U.S. including fast-growing Brazil, India and Russia starting in 2007 as well as Egypt.

This frenzied pace of world expansion will be accompanies by soothing music: Starbucks announced that its coffee stores will play songs from Apple's iTunes online music service so that customers can listen to while enjoying Starbucks' big-time beverages. Drinkers can also purchase iTunes at Starbucks' cafes around the world.

Posted by Daniel Workman

The list below shows the articles with the most page views in September with the original publication date in brackets. The number of page views for the month is also shown.

Top Ten International Trade Articles in September 2006

1. Top Ten Oil Countries (May 18, 2006) ... 252 page views
2. Starbucks Global Sales (August 29, 2006) ... 213 page views
3. Wal-Mart Finally Gets It (July 31, 2006) ... 194 page views
4. China's Top Trading Partners (June 26, 2006) ... 146 page views
5. Starbucks Sues Copycats (August 31, 2006) ... 96 page views
6. T-Shirt Sweatshops (September 11, 2006) ... 94 page views
7. Slot Machine Monster (August 21, 2006) ... 92 page views
8. Brazil's Trade Buddies (September 13, 2006) ... 79 page views
9. Top Ten 'Pop' Stats (June 5, 2006) ... 78 page views
10. Top Chinese Investment Picks (June 28, 2006) ... 76 page views

Some 1,600 Google searches have led a growing audience to our international trade site.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Announced on September 8, Yahoo's global reach and promotional strength will help the NFL deliver football game broadcasts to millions of sports fans outside the U.S.

For the first time, fans in Asia, Europe, South America, Australia and Africa will be able to watch live NFL games on the Internet. A service called NFL Game Pass powered by Yahoo! Sportstv will enable foreign sports fans to see nearly every NFL game in its entirey for the full season. For more details see www.nfl.com/nflgamepass.

The new online subscription service costs US$24.99 per week or $249 for the full season. Each game is archived for viewing for up to 24 hours.

A leading global brand and the world's leading advertiser, Yahoo has an audience of more than 500 million visitors each month. Yahoo maintains 38 country-specific sites around the world.

Eight sites can be found in North America with separate ones for English and French in Canada, and Chinese and Spanish in the U.S. The Asia-Pacific region has sites in 14 countries, including highly populated nations like China, India and Indonesia. Asia also has an English language site. Fifteen European countries have their own Yahoo sites.

Analysts say that global online sports betting will accelerate should the audience for NFL games expand via the Web.

Posted by Daniel Workman

First let's define BRIC as an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China. With the exception of Russia, we have written in some detail about the fast growth of these countries.

In mid-September, Claymore Investments launched its Claymore BRIC Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) which trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the ticker CBQ. The ETF is expected to start trading in the United States in October (EEB on NYSE).

The BRIC ETF is weighted 48% in Brazil, 33% in China, 14% in India with about 7% in Russia. The fund closely resembles the Bank of New York BRIC Select ADR Index.

Within the BRIC Fund, 31% is in energy stocks, 17% is in telecom, and 15% is in materials. The fund owns both common and preferred shares of Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR on NYSE) for a considerable 15.53% of BRIC ETF's total holdings. PBR's price recently moved down on news that Bolivia's oil fields may be nationalized. Watch how movement in PBR's stock price affects the unit price for the BRIC ETF.

According to Claymore, BRIC countries should grow at an annual rate of over 8% over the next 10 years which should outpace more developed nations like the United States, England and France. As well, the 8% growth also betters estimated growth rates for Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe.

Although Suite101 does not give investment advice, I'd like to share some of my own personal investing.

Putting my international trade insights to work, I bought 100 shares of CBQ for $19.59 on September 11, 2006. A week later it was trading for $20.45. On June 5, 2007 CBQ closed at $29.76 up 52% in less than 9 months.

On June 4, 2007, Claymore has launched a Global Water Exchange Traded Fund.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Don't miss our article on how anti-HIV drugs have been elevated to a special status in international trade, thanks to the initiatives of the Clinton Foundation and such commercial entities as Gilead and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Gilead Sciences aims to improve accessibility to AIDS drugs in underprivileged nations by:

• offering anti-HIV medications at no-profit prices;
• providing its medications for clinical studies designed to help determine the best treatment strategies for resource-limited settings; and
• dedicating Gilead staff to support and mentor through treatment programs based on Gilead medicines like Truvada.

The 97 countries that benefit from the Gilead Access Program are:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda

Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi

Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire

Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic

Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia

Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guyana

Haiti, Honduras

Indonesia, Jamaica

Kenya, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan

Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya

Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar

Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria

Pakistan, Papua New Guinea

Republic of Congo, Rwanda

St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syria

Tajikistan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Tuvalu

Uganda, Uzbekistan

Vanuatu, Vietnam

Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Source: Gilead Access Program

Posted by Daniel Workman

Coke has named its new brand of premium coffee products as Far Coast.

Already the largest beverage supplier to the the restaurant industry, Coke will provide its trademarked expresso machines and brewing systems to clients in the entertainment and food services sectors including movie theatres.

Coke is targeting the growing cohort of well-heeled baby boomers. In early September 2006, the company introduced one new retail outlet in Toronto's upscale Yorkville area as part of a global test market.

As reported by the Globe and Mail, Coke says that it doesn't plan to open more retail stores nor does the company intend to compete with Starbucks or Tim Hortons.

We beg to differ. Coke will aggressively expand into the world hot beverage market if it proves to be profitable.

And profitable it is.

Market share for specialty coffee sales has increased some 15 percent annually for the past 10 years. Coffee is the number one beverage in Canada, with two-thirds of Canadians drinking coffee daily. In the U.S. soft drinks are still king, but coffee is a close second with 53% of Americans drinking coffee at least once per day.

Coca-Cola (COKE on NYSE) closed at US$58.38 on September 1, 2006.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Here's a list of investments with links to our original articles.

Exchange Traded Funds

iShares: FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI on NYSE)

Price $65.50 on June 14/06

Price $78.38 on August 25/06 +19.7%

Power Shares Golden Dragon (PGJ on NYSE)

Price $14.20 on June 14/06

Price $15.63 on August 25/06 +10.1%

iShares: MSCI South Korea (EWY on NYSE)

Price $40 on June 14/06

Price $45.16 on August 25/06 +12.9%

For more details see Top Chinese Investment Tips

International Alcohol Stocks

Diageo (DEO on NYSE)

Price $65.25 on July 19/06

Price $71.89 on August 25/06 +10.2%

For more details see King of Alcoholic Beverages

Central European Distribution (CEDC on NASDAQ)

Price $23.40 on July 21/06

Price $22.65 on August 25/06 -3.2%

For more details see Polish Liquor Power

Constellation Brands (STZ on NYSE)

Price $24.40 on July 28/06

Price $26.26 on August 25/06 +7.6%

For more details see Wine Giant Still Thirsty

Note: Suite101 does not offer investment advice. Instead, we seek to educate and inform our readers by writing about the latest trends in world trade. Armed with these insights, you are in a much better position to make your own decisions. We encourage you to add your thoughts to our analysis by starting a discussion below.

Posted by Daniel Workman

This was my first stint as a project manager, so our staff really didn't know what we were in for. On Saturday August 12 we registered over 15,000 delegates. Lineups were huge. Our attendees were understandably impatient with waiting times in line for over 4 hours.

Some of our staff were doing registrations for the first time and broke down in tears. Some were so stressed that they left and simply never returned. We had one attendee in line faint; another went into labour. Tempers were short at times, and we had to close the doors at about 6 pm just to be able to keep up with the volume.

For those who stayed, perserverence paid off. I had the pleasure of guiding Mr. Roble Olhaye, Canada's ambassador to Djibouti (country in Northeast Africa, population 500,000) to his group presentation room. Similarly, I helped Aileen Carroll, Canada's former Minister for International Cooperation, moderate a session titled Learning from the Leadership of Young People and Positive Youth in the Global Response to HIV/AIDS.

While I was on Level 200 of the Metro Convention Centre I saw a lady in a wheelchair outside the entrance doors with her head in her hands. Security was not allowing her in the building. I went out and listened to her story. She was HIV positive and had travelled all the way from New Zealand to share her personal story speaking at a session, but security was blocking her from entering because her 12-year-old daughter didn't have a security badge. There was no way I could leave her in such pain after she had shown such courage in coming to Toronto to share her message. I had an extra security badge in my pocket which I put around the daughter's neck and gained entry. I then went to Guest Services and found out where the elevator was, and personally accompanied our New Zealand friends to the Speakers Centre on Level 300 of the North Building. I'll never forget the lady in the wheelchair's smile as I left her in the Speakers Centre; I could tell her spirits were uplifted.

Some of our other NASCO event staff had similar stories. Musa is a gentleman from Jordan. We had an HIV positive guest from the Middle East who could not speak a word of English and who had nowhere to stay in Toronto. Musa was the only person who could speak Arabic, and he took initiative to speak with the delegate. Musa explained the issue, and we were able to arrange that gentleman to stay at a care centre.

On Wednesday, Bill Clinton arrived through a secret passageway in the South Building where our staff were handing out delegate bags. Mr. Clinton took it upon himself to shake hands with each and every staff behind the counter, even though he had a busy schedule of multiple speaking engagements with the fight against AIDS. Everyone who met Bill was inspired; for some it was a life-changing experience.

So what does an HIV-AIDS conference have to do with International Trade? Plenty. On one level it's about getting affordable medication to AIDS survivors in places like Africa, the world's poorest continent.

But more than that, the HIV-AIDS conference shows us how people from all countries across the world can work together to rise above the trials and tribulations of a killer pandemic to bring to the table the best each person has to offer. I may not be as bright or as articulate as Mr. Bill Clinton or Mr. Bill Gates. But I now know that I share something with these great leaders: I'm part of the international human spirit which can overcome any barrier to defeat AIDS.

It may be a cliche, but if there's a will there's a way.

Posted by Daniel Workman

On July 4, 2006 we published an article A Softwood Shaft that explained that the proposed timber trade deal was unacceptable to Canadian business interests. Two days later we reinforced that position with another article Canada's Trade Follies.

Emerson issued the following statement on July 13:

"We should be very clear this agreement will go to Parliament... This agreement will have to be decided on by Parliament."

The Trade Minister overlooked that fact that the July 1 timber settlement was conditional on 95% of the Canadian lumber companies approving the deal before Parliament could enact the deal.

Their signatures would mean foregoing US$1-billion in duties that stronger negotiation would return to these Canadian companies. Also the Canadian timber firms would have to drop all legal actions even though many prior WTO decisions were going Canada's way. Not exactly good business, regardless of Emerson's political spin.

And Emerson seems to finally get it. He issued a statement on July 31 that stated in part: "If we do not have sufficient buy-infrom industry there really isn't an agreement to bring before Parliament. We have to ... get the agreement supported by the appropriate number of players in the industry. Otherwise, you're dead before arrival."

Forest companies like Canfor says that much work needs to be done on the agreement before anything can be salvaged. Two powerful B.C. lumberers - West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. and International Forest Products Ltd. - flatly rejected the proposed deal.

We were ahead of the curve on this issue, as you'll read in our July 6 blog Softwood Talk, Talk, Talk.

Now let's change that to Softwood Deal Dead, Dead, Dead.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Our topic Wal-Mart Finally Gets It paints a fairly rosy picture of Wal-Mart's recent success in international trade from a business perspective. But there is a darker side to this coin.

Wal-Mart is shifting its manufacturing to foreign countries particularly in Asia. The reason for this can be summed up in two words: cheap labour.

One Wal-Mart factory in Southern China produces toys including battery-operated trucks for a paltry hourly wage of 33 cents. Factory workers are crowded into hot dormitories and work for up to 13 hours a day seven days a week. During the August peak production period, factory temperatures swelter above 90 degrees with 93 percent humidity. The pace is exhausting, since a worker has to paint one truck ever 14 seconds. And should an employee become ill from inhaling the paint fumes, it is the worker who is responsible for paying any medical bills.

In fact workers are denied health insurance, maternity leave, paid holiday leave, marital leave or leave to bury family members.

And factory inspections of Chinese sweatshops are not working. Factory workers are told exactly what to say to inspectors. Leading labour researchers in China are demanding open investigations by independent authorities like China Labor Watch. Also required is more thorough worker training so that laborers know their rights and can speak their minds.

It's gotten to a point where WalMart hides the location of its factories in China from the public. But out-of-sight is not-out-of-mind. For a more detailed discussion of Wal-Mart pros and cons, visit wakeupwalmart.com.

This just in from Beijing. On Saturday July 29, 2006, employees of Wal-Mart set up their first trade union in China. Twenty-five employees of a Wal-Mart store in Quanzhou in the southeastern province of Fujian, established the union. The union is a branch of the state-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Not only had four other websites published my article without permission, Google's search engine now ranks the copycat articles higher than Suite101's original Web page.

Here's a link to the original Wine Treasure article on suite101.com.

The topic originated from insightful discussions that I had with a Chinese friend who runs Ying Ying Soy Foods which sells a unique line of gourmet tofu at the lower level of the south building in Toronto's historic St. Lawrence market.

Direct from mainland China, the top-ranked copycat is China Wines Information Website. Much of the site is in Chinese language symbols, so I can't be sure of the copycat's mission statement or editorial policies. China Wines does mention www.suite101.com and my name as author. But that certainly doesn't bestow the Chinese website with the unconditional right to publish our articles. Suite101's Terms & Policies page clearly articulates that our articles are protected by copyright, and that reproduction requires written prior permission. To add insult to injury, China Wines is a for-profit commercial website. Although most of the text on their site is written in Chinese symbols, you can clearly see photos of wine bottles with corresponding prices underneath on their home page.

In second place we have All Asia a blogger that adds some fancy graphics to a counterfeit reproduction of our good old China's Wine Treasure article. This time, instead of naming me as the author, one Li Fang Wei takes credit as the article's "poster" (or is that "imposter"?). The fact that Suite101.com is listed as a source makes a mockery of copyrighted material since we are not a "source" that can be copied and pasted on a whim. I was able to post a comment on the copycat site, specifying that the original article is on Suite101 and also mentioning several links to other articles that may be of interest to the Asian audience.

The third-ranked copycat is China Food & Beverage Online, a buy-and-sell site in China. Again, while I'm flattered by being published by such a large and prestigious site, neither Suite101 nor I received any compensation from them for our work.

The fourth site was Wine Life Today, wine news for wine lovers by wine lovers. I guess they loved the China's Wine Treasure article, because it was posted in its entirety and had received several "Toast" awards from viewers. When I posted a comment explaining that Suite101 owned the original story, the site administrators immediately took down the counterfeit copies of the story. The site now directly links to the original article at Suite101, certainly a welcome change from the other copycats. By the way, our editor-in-chief is investigating and has the legal tools to enforce our copyright.

Finally, coming in at number 5 on Google search engine we have the original China's Wine Treasure article at Suite101.

On reflection, it's supremely ironic that I subsequently wrote an article entitled Copycats Hurt Trade. Hopefully this won't turn out to be the first chapter in my autobiography as a Web writer. But my article does discuss how difficult it is to impose copyrights and trademarks across borders generally and into China specifically, which may be why we're finding the counterfeit articles on China's Wine Treasure. That doesn't mean that the copycats are right, however.

It's very unfair to both Suite101 and in particular our fellow Web writers who are paid based on page views on the Suite101 site. Who knows how many page views I've lost to some of these Chinese sites that have posted the article without permission? I do know that mainland China represents a huge potential market for our articles - one to which we should have fair and unfettered access. After all, we did all that hard work.

Or, as our fearless editor-in-chief at Suite101 would say, "Sheesh!"

Posted by Daniel Workman

Ready for their morning runs, trucks line up on either side of a narrow "friendship bridge" across the Yalu River between North Korea and China. Each day more than 200 trucks cross into Korea from China, delivering 70 percent of the North Korea's imports.

Chinese trucks transport electrical equipment, stainless steel goods, and new appliances into North Korea. In contrast, the North uses open-bed trucks to export scrap iron, crushed rock, sacks of mineral powder, and coal to China.

Another country that is committed to a stable North Korea is South Korea. That's because a collapse of North Korea could force an exodus of refugees and a potential security crisis. This might bring the America military to the borders of China and South Korea.

Kim Jong Il's diplomatic relations have also improved with Russia, which has considerable oil reserves. North Korea's leader has already visited twice Russia's Vladimir Putin who calls Jong Il "man I can deal with." Recently Moscow discussed a gas pipeline with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (the North's official name).

The North has even improved its relations with regional states like nearby Mongolia.

As one Russian diplomat who lives in the North's capital city of Pyongyang observed, "The amount of goods coming into the North doubled last year." With international trade growing at such a robust rate, the collapse of North Korea does not appear to be imminent. And certainly not with trade partners that include China, South Korea and Russia.

Posted by Daniel Workman

To help give further perspective on Canada's current trade situation, it's useful to look at some high-level categories for Canada's exports and imports.

The list below shows Canadian exports in 2005 (in C$ billions):

• Machinery and equipment $94.6 (22% of total exports)
• Automotive products $88.2 (20.5%)
• Energy products $86.9 (20.2%)
• Industrial goods and materials $84.6 (19.7%)
• Forestry products $36.6 (8.5%)
• Agricultural and fishing products $30.2 (7%)
• Other consumer goods $8.3 (1.9%)

The list below shows Canadian imports in 2005 (in C$ billions):

• Machinery and equipment $110.9 (29.5% of total exports)
• Industrial goods and materials $78.6 (20.9%)
• Automotive products $78.4 (20.8%)
• Other consumer goods $49.5 (13.2%)
• Energy products $33.7 (9%)
• Agricultural and fishing products $22 (5.8%)
• Forestry products $3.1 (0.8%)

As the above numbers show, Canada runs a positive trade balance for the following product categories: energy (+$53.2 billion), forestry (+$33.5b), agricultural and fishing (+$8.2b), automotive products (+$9.8b) and industrial goods and materials (+$6b).

Source: Statistics Canada

Posted by Daniel Workman

On Larry King Live on the evening of his birthday, president George Bush stressed that "When history looks back, I'd rather be judged as solving problems and being correct, rather than being popular."

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who met with Bush on George's birthday, appears to have a different agenda. Harper and his supporting cast prefer to avoid addressing difficult challenges such as softwood exports. Their highest priority is to be politically correct.

Instead of taking a firmer position on Canadian softwood lumber exports to America, Harper took softwood off the table so that he and president Bush could be free to discuss Ottawa's concerns about looming border restrictions to be placed on travelers entering the U.S. from Canada and a range of other issues from the environment to the upcoming G-8 summit in Moscow. Both leaders briefly expressed relief at the recently signed softwood deal that appears to end an irritant to trade relations between the two countries.

But it's not over. As we point out in our article Canada's Trade Follies, many Canadian provinces and lumber companies are flat-out rejecting the deal.

Sure Canada's Trade Minister David Emerson would beg to differ.

Emerson, who initialed the softwood agreement on July 1, points to the fact that Canada's largest lumber exporter (Canfor Corp) announced that it can live with the new softwood accord.

However, Vancouver-based Canfor Corp carefully chose its words; "can live with" does not translate into a Canadian trade victory. It's somewhat like a used-car salesperson quipping "This baby can really get you to where you want to go!"

Besides, David Emerson used to be the Chief Executive Officer of Canfor and no doubt still exerts significant influence on what the forestry giant has to say.

Being politically correct often does not translate to being correct.

Unfortunately, world trade relations are complex and it sometimes takes years for the full damages of a trade deal to be assessed.

And just like when you buy that "lemon" of a vehicle, the used-car spiels won't mean much when Canadians have to pay the price for a poorly negotiated agreement that will probably lower profits and therefore cost Canadian jobs.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Compared with China's surplus of US$101 billion, and when contrasted against the U.S. deficit of US$792 billion in 2005, Canada's trade picture may resemble the Goldilock's economy: not too hot, not too cold - just right.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development agrees that Canada's performance has been great, but that the Canadian government needs to spur productivity and find the right policies to deal with an aging population.

In particular, kudos to Alberta which finished 2005 with a record Cdn$8.7-billion surplus thanks to soaring oil and natural gas prices.

What happens why the cyclical resource sectors turns downward? We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

For now Canadians should be happy and celebrate Canada Day with a smile.

Cheers!

Posted by Daniel Workman

Let me come right out and say that while I don't appreciate some overly aggressive and at times blustering American personalities, I fully support America's entrepreneurial spirit.

Fact is I am a descendant from a Montreal-area line of Workmans who led a strong annexation movement in the late 1880s calling for Canada to join the U.S.

Like most Canadians, I do appreciate the economic advantages and the security gained from living in the shadow of America's powerful military-industrial complex.

In my career as a technical writer and as an international convention specialist, I have been personally treated first-class by my American co-workers and clients.

Sure Canadians have beefs with Americans - like the softwood lumber trade squabble - just as Americans have their beefs with us. We do have a right to clearly articulate our positions, which is what makes a vehicle like suite101.com so great.

Tell you what: I promise to deliver some facts on Canada-US trade in upcoming articles so we can get perspective. What I have seen of the facts so far show me that the US is in sideways mode, with a new world trade superpower China emerging.

Enough of this rant.

Let's put aside our family feuds and start thinking logically about how Canada and the U.S. can work together as a team to profit from a new world order with a future increasingly tilted towards Asia.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Similarly fewer Chinese yuan will flow out of China to buy U.S. imports. Net result is a fattening bottom-line surplus in Chinese-to-the-world trade.

In addition to currency gains, China's robust economy will gain further momentum from the increased demand for its exports.

Currency gains plus an accelerating economy gives China a winning hand.

For some potentional China-related stock tips, you may want to peruse Top Chinese Investment Tips.

For more insights on China's trade position, please see China Trade Dwarfs US - Stats, China Trade Dwarfs US - Growth and China's Top Trading Partners.

Posted by Daniel Workman

In 2005 China's auto industry slows to a 10% growth rate and is considered a disappointment. For the rest of the world, 10% would be considered an accomplishment.

Fact is that Chinese demand for vehicles has risen by double and triple digits since the late 1990s. American, European and Japanese automakers have invested tens of billions of dollars in China as a way to ride the boom in Chinese auto sales.

In short, China is where the money is, baby. The 10% slowdown is just a blip in the tidal wave of Chinese auto demand.

And that's why we wanted to focus on China's automotive exports and imports. To share in a piece of this Chinese pie, other countries are launching branch plants and joint ventures within China.

Posted by Daniel Workman

It should be no wonder that many countries are agressively looking for alternative fuels.

For example, Norwegian oil company Norsk Hydro ASA and paper maker Norske Skog ASA are exploring ways to produce biodiesel from wood. Biodiesel can already be made mainly from vegetable oil.

In our article Moonshine Fuel Replaces Oil we learn about one major South American country that has successfully introduced an alternative to gasoline.

But we shouldn't let our idealistic quest for alternative fuels get ahead of what's real now that oil prices have skyrocketed.

This weekend I went on a cruise of Toronto's harbourfront. The tour guide mentioned that the CN Tower, the world's tallest building at 1815.5 feet, sometimes sways 3 feet in either direction in a storm. Also, the tower is hit by lightning hundreds of times each year. However, that doesn't mean that the CN Tower will topple over any time soon. Most of the concrete in the tower is below ground level, which provides substantial support for the vast majority of stresses that hit above ground.

The same idea applies for replacing oil. Too many countries have invested too much in their oil industries for us to expect an overnight switch to more environmentally friendly fuels.

Think of car manufacturers whose vehicles are designed to run principally on gas. And the manufacturing processes that are fuelled by oil products. How expensive would it be to switch to an alternative fuel source? Probably exponentially expensive not to mention disruptive to the world economy.

The bottom-line on oil is that it does not by itself cause recessions. Rather it is the monetary policies that accompany oil price shocks that lead to substantial slowdowns in economic activity.

Don't just keep your eye on the gas gauge when evaluating the effects of oil and gas prices. Instead pay close attention to the rate and frequency of accompanying interest rate increases that can and probably will cause a global recession starting later this year.

And don't forget the winners, specifically the oil-exporting countries with deep reserves that we discussed in our article Top Ten Oil Countries.

Posted by Daniel Workman

Before we start putting on our Chicken Little suits, let's be clear: oil is not going to run out. But the era of cheap oil is probably over.

Canada's tar sands and oil shale do offer the world a possible new source for world oil exports. And what's being discussed in the U.S. House of Representatives is the need for alternative sources of energy.

Until replenishments or a replacement for oil is found, we need to carefully evaluate the fact that the U.S. relies heavily on oil reserves from the Middle East, where the U.S. is not popular.

So take a look at the facts in the article Top Ten Oil Countries. And think about the potential impact on the world economy.

Posted by Daniel Workman

One of the most energizing aspects of researching international trade articles is when we realize that newspapers do not tell the full story. That's up to us.

Take iPods. Sure they get a lot of press. But the fact is that iTunes represent only 7% of music industry sales. Besides iPod users download only one song at a time, and buy albums on CD.

Now look at Internet movies. Do you think that people will download scenes from movies? And with more and more high-definition TVs being sold, will Internet movies replace DVDs?

Traditionally wine has had minimal sales in China, seen as "soda pop" or "fruit juices" by many hard-drinking Chinese who prefer beer and liquor especially in eastern China near Russia. With the growing wealthy class in Chinese cities, is there an opportunity to export top-end wines into China?

Notice how asking the right questions often leads to superior answers. So, do you have any questions?

Posted by Daniel Workman

When I read that bird flu could cost the world economy up to US$800 billion per year I was shocked. When I read that chicken is the most consumed meat in the U.S. the threat of avarian flu really got me scared.

Then, I relaxed.

Hadn't we survived SARS? Sure SARS had a serious impact on the tourist and hospitality industries notably here in Toronto. But we recovered.

And yes, mad cow disease cost Western Canadian farmers until our U.S. neighbours agreed to lift the ban on Canadian beef.

I remembered from an Anthony Robbins tape the question "Isn't your greatest challenge or disappointment an opportunity to improve or excel in the face of adversity?"

In that light, International Trade articles will share insights on competitive advantages and opportunities. We'll start with bird flu, then look at whether Internet movies can eliminate DVDs.

We'll also write about the wine industry in China. Had any good Chinese wine lately?