WBE Net Newsletter
Release
Date: 10-09-07
Watch
Where You Trade
A quick heads-up for WBE-Net
members: some countries go out of
their way to help US exporters, while others are a real headache. Let's focus briefly on the burgeoning export
market in Latin America. According to the World Bank, Panama provides the best environment
for US exporters trying to move containerized goods. Second best is the Dominican Republic, followed by Chile, Costa
Rica and El Salvador. Among the worst countries for US exporters in
terms of red tape, corruption and high container charges: Venezuela,
Haiti, Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay and Guatemala. Of the 31 countries in this survey, Mexico, the US's number-two trading partner, ranked 12th.
Two
Asian Giants: Two Looming Crises
Two ongoing stories show
just how close to the edge huge societies can go, even while all seems normal. Keep in mind that WBE-Net members can offer solutions because you are trained to meet
needs across international borders. But
most Americans don't realize that Japan is in serious food trouble, while China is in deep water over...water.
First,
Japan. This year, Japan's food-making capacity for its own people fell
to 39 percent - dropping below 40 percent for the first time in a decade. Japan has long been challenged by the need
to feed its own population. But as recently as the mid-1960's, the Japanese
met 70 percent of their food needs.
What happened? Western-style
culture. The country is backing away
from its historic staple and main cash crop, rice, and is now eating a more
varied, modern diet. In sum, Japan must import well over half of its
food and is alarmedthat it must depend on the US as its breadbasket, and has now also become dependant on China to fill its plate. Prospects don't look good that Japan will
even be at 45 percent self-sufficiency by 2015.
China, meantime, is moving
full-tilt on it's hyper-modernization program, and is gobbling up (and
wasting) water at a rate far faster
than its aquifers can replenish, expecially in the North. Whole
mega-cities - skyscrapers, apartments, business parks, industrial complexes
- are springing up on top of
over-drained wells and polluted waterways.
Both
nations are seeing the fuses smouldering and are trying to stem disasters. US
exporters can help, and profit from, these situations. Even as these two Asian giants move (we
must hope) to peaceful and strategic solutions
to these potentially crippling shortfalls, there are unprecedented
opportunities for international traders to at least temporarily help fill the
gap. Negotiating agriculture and other
food trade deals with Japanese partners seems like a good idea. Meantime, millionaires are springing up
daily in Chinese cities like Shanghai -
a new class of people with a distaste for drinking water laced with lead
and chemicals. Somewhere, alert US exporters must be lining up lucrative
shipments of Aquafina...or Culligan...or even Perrier, destined for China. This wouldn't fix the root problem, but
would provide some Chinese with clean drinking water- and some Americans with
clean profits.
If
challenges create opportunities, than on behalf of Japan, China and WBE-Net exporters, "bon appetit" and "bottoms up."
Why Consider Exporting?
There is no better time to
export.
Free trade agreements, together with ease of transportation, the Internet, and
U.S. Government programs and partnerships continue to simplify the export
process. All this, the plus the personalized help provided to exporters
by their coaches at the World Business
Exchange Network!
