New York SBDC Research Network

From eMarketer : When it comes to shopping online, consumers have a variety of different payment methods they can choose from. Most prefer PayPal—or something equivalent to it, like Stripe, Google Wallet or Amazon Payments. October 2016 research from postal industry service provider International Post Corporation surveyed cross-border digital buyers across 26 countries. More than four in 10 respondents—who purchased goods online in the past three months and made a cross-border purchase online in the past year—said they prefer to pay for their online purchases via PayPal, or an equivalent service.

This week, the Office of Advocacy, an independent office within the U.S. Small Business Administration, released an issue brief entitled “Small Businesses Key Players in International Trade.”  The issue brief spotlights the role U.S. small businesses play in international trade, and finds that small businesses are important to consider when assessing U.S. export potential and policy tools such as free trade agreements.”  Find the full Issue Brief  here . International trade makes up 30 percent of the U.S. economy, and U.S. exports of goods and services reached a record $2.3 trillion in 2014.1 While total exports have grown 44 percent since 2009, the pace of export growth has been slowing in recent years.2 U.S. businesses, particularly small businesses (firms with less than 500 employees), face a host of challenges when selling products and services abroad; these may include high tariffs, financial risks, and customs clearance delays. Despite the challenges, internati...

By  Eileen Sánchez , SBA Official Small business owners often tell us that they have many questions about how to enter a new market - and those questions are magnified when it comes to doing business with Cuba.  There have been several changes to the bilateral relationship in recent months, and, to address your questions, I hope that you will join SBA Administrator Contreras-Sweet and other senior officials on July 29 at 4:00 p.m. ET to discuss the opportunities that exist for exporting to Cuba. Today’s re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba and reopening of embassies in Washington and Havana is an historic step marking the new direction in U.S.-Cuba relations announced by President Obama last December. This step was preceded by a series of significant measures: in January, the Departments of Commerce and Treasury amended their regulations to increase travel, trade and the free flow of information to and from Cuba.  In April, during the Summit of the A...

The United States Commerce Department will host a free webinar on  Thursday November 12, 2014 , which will provide an overview of the US Department of Commerce March 2015 Executive-led Business Development Mission to Morocco, Algeria and Egypt. Speakers from the US Commercial Service in Morocco, Algeria and Egypt will provide a brief market overview and discuss opportunities for American exporters in these markets.   Specific opportunities for U.S. companies include but are not limited to: all security and safety equipment and related solutions for seaports, airports, border crossings, security and safety agencies such as the police, and buildings; integrated monitoring and surveillance solutions; luggage screening devices; fire prevention and control equipment, alarm equipment for building safety, emergency evacuation systems; radio communication systems; and inspection equipment for containers and seaport cargo, border and perimeter control, bomb detection equipmen...

#1 The fake freight forwarder company scam. The fraudulent forwarders pose as legitimate companies with spare cargo capacity. Their truck arrives on-time to collect the freight and then disappears, never again to be seen. The Scoop: Here is how it works: Once a signed and sealed agency agreement is in place between both parties and business starts, all appears to be normal. This is until the cargo arrives at the port and no-one has received the original bill of lading from the forwarder in China. When contacted, the forwarder demands a large ransom for the release of the original bill of lading. Companies which refuse to pay find themselves on an expensive rollercoaster ride of meetings with customers, lawyers, insurers and shipping lines in order to obtain the original bill of lading so the cargo can be released. By spreading shipments around a number of shipping lines, fraudulent forwarders can make this recovery process even more onerous. These forwarders may be real companies w...

The Data Analysis team within the Office of Trade and Economic Analysis (OTEA), as part of the International Trade Administration, seeks to provide a solid foundation of trade and industry data to support the development of national trade policies. The Office of Trade and Economic Analysis provides industry and policy decision makers with information on the impacts of economic and regulatory policies on U.S. manufacturing and services industries, as well as provides a solid foundation of trade and industry data to support the development of national trade policies. OTEA performs in-depth industry analysis on the effects of both domestic and foreign policy developments on U.S. business competitiveness. Our core projects are benchmarking the environment facing U.S. industry, analyzing regulatory reform outcomes, issuing antitrust exemption certificates for export trading company mergers, and assessing foreign investments in the United States. OTEA publishes research papers that an...

Check out the Trade Finance Guide: A Quick Reference for U.S. Exporters. Spanish version now available! This guide is designed to help U.S. companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, learn the basics of trade finance so that they can turn their export opportunities into actual sales and achieve the ultimate goal of getting paid—especially on time—for those sales. Visit this site to download your copy - in English or Spanish!

From World Economic Forum : The Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012 assesses the competitiveness landscape of 144 economies, providing insight into the drivers of their productivity and prosperity. The Report series remains the most comprehensive assessment of national competitiveness worldwide.

From Karen G. Mills, Administrator, U.S. Small Business Administration Your business has already succeeded in the most competitive market on the planet – the USA – so just imagine what you can do abroad. In foreign markets, you will find fewer competitors and you start with a significant advantage: consumers around the world trust the words "Made In America." There are free resources to help your business begin exporting, provided by the US government. To discover what is available, visit www.export.gov . There, you can connect to counselors, market matchmakers, and banks. You can also learn how U.S. government export insurance, working capital loans, and foreign buyer financing can protect you and your bank from transaction risk. Export.gov helps you access the experience of successful exporters, who will show you: How to manage the risk of doing business overseas Which markets and trade partners to select Where to secure capital on favorable terms ...

According to the expert panel of patent law attorneys that GAO surveyed, small businesses that are considering whether to seek patent protection abroad should identify and assess the full “cradle-to-grave” costs of acquiring, maintaining, and enforcing foreign patents. Other considerations should include the locations where small businesses intend to sell or manufacture their invention and whether the range of benefits obtained from foreign patents, such as increased sales or higher company value, is sufficient to justify their cost. Furthermore, small businesses should try to understand foreign patent laws and systems and the quality of foreign patent enforcement, the expert panelists said. The small businesses that GAO surveyed agreed that foreign patent costs, benefits, and potential locations were important factors in their decisions to patent abroad. However, some small businesses did not properly evaluate long-term costs and could not determine whether foreign patent benefits ou...

Source: Heinrich Boll Foundation In June 2012, heads of state will gather at the Rio+20 conference in Brazil to explore the theme “The Future We Want.” The focus of the conference is the green economy. Exactly what a green economy is and should be, and with what measures and instruments it should be implemented, has not yet been defined and is the topic of intense political debate. Nevertheless, efforts are being made to develop a “Green Economy Roadmap.” Rio+20 should not simply be a repetition of previous international conferences. Instead it must offer a true breakthrough on the path to a social, just, low-carbon and resource-efficient world. The UN General Assembly called with Resolution 44/228 of December 22, 1989, for the convening of the first United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Summit, in 1992. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was assigned to promote the transition from an economic model...

From Transparency International: Bribing public officials when doing business abroad is a regular occurrence, according to a survey of 3,000 business executives from developed and developing countries. Transparency International’s 2011 Bribe Payers Index ... ranks 28 leading international and regional exporting countries by the likelihood of their firms to bribe abroad. Companies from Russia and China, who invested US $120 billion overseas in 2010, are seen as most likely to pay bribes abroad. Companies from the Netherlands and Switzerland are seen as least likely to bribe. More HERE .

UN COMTRADE is the pseudonym for United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database. Over 170 reporter countries provide the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) with their annual international trade statistics data detailed by commodities and partner countries. These data are subsequently transformed into the United Nations Statistics Division standard format with consistent coding and valuation using the UN/OECD CoprA internal processing system. The UN COMTRADE is the largest depository of international trade data. It contains well over 1.7 billion data records for 45 years and is available on the internet! All commodity values are converted from national currency into US dollars using exchange rates supplied by the reporter countries, or derived from monthly market rates and volume of trade. Quantities, when provided with the reporter country data and when possible, are converted into metric units. Commodities are reported in the current classification and revision (HS2002 in ...

The Census Bureau has introduced a new, user-friendly Internet tool that takes all the guesswork out of finding, downloading and using data from economic indicators. For the first time, users can access data from multiple indicators in one place and all in the same format. This tool provides an easy way to create data tables in ASCII text or time series charts in your favorite spreadsheet format. Users can select an indicator and choose data by item, time period and other dimensions using drop-down menus. Of the Census Bureau's 12 economic indicators, four are operational in the new tool now — international trade, manufactures' shipments, monthly wholesale trade and quarterly services; the remainder are expected to be available in this database throughout the course of 2011. See also a blog on this tool.

The Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS) is the primary resource for determining tariff classifications for goods imported into the United States. The U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule, like Harmonized System tariff schedules generally, classifies a good (assigns it a ten-digit tariff classification number) based on such things as its name, use, and/or the material used in its construction. The tariff schedule is divided into Chapters 1 through 99 plus numerous additional sections such as various appendices and indexes. There are over 17,000 unique ten-digit HTS classification code numbers. Chapters are divided into a varying number of headings, and headings are divided into a varying number of subheadings. Raw materials or basic substances often appear in the early chapters and in earlier headings within a chapter, where highly processed goods and manufactured articles often appear in later chapters and headings. Agricultural products are generally provided for in ch...

Report for March 2010 . *Export-supported jobs linked to manufacturing account for an estimated 3.1 percent of New York's total private-sector employment. More than one-fifth (20.9 percent) of all manufacturing workers in New York depend on exports for their jobs. (2008 data are the latest available.) *A total of 27,329 companies exported goods from New York locations in 2007, the third highest number among the 50 states. Of those, 94 percent, or 25,657 firms, were small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with fewer than 500 employees. *SMEs generated more than half (55 percent) of New York's total exports of merchandise in 2007. That is the third highest percentage among the 50 states and well above the national average of 30 percent. *In 2007, foreign-controlled companies employed 433,600 workers in New York. This was the second largest total among the 50 states (only California was greater). Major sources of New York's foreign investment in 2007 were the United Kingdom...

Canada at a glance presents the current Canadian demographic, education, health, justice, housing, income, labour market, economic, travel, financial, and foreign trade statistics. This booklet also includes important international comparisons, so that readers can see how Canada stacks up against its neighbours. Updated yearly, Canada at a glance is a very useful reference for those who want quick access to current Canadian statistics. Remember, Canada Day is July 1.

The World Trade Organization has recently published " International Trade Statistics 2007 " on its website. For SBDC clients engaged in importing and/or exporting , Section II ("Merchandise trade by product") and Section III ("Trade in Commercial Services by Category") would seem to be the most useful. Keep it handy.

This World Bank site offers a picture of the regulatory costs of doing business. You can look at a map decorated with different colored flags to indicate the level of difficulty of doing business there - ranking issues like starting a business, obtaining licenses, employing workers, registering property, paying taxes and closing a business. For instance, the US ranks as number 3 for ease/difficulty of starting a business, with a 22 for obtaining licenses and a 6 for enforcing contracts. Taiwan ranks in at 62 for enforcing contracts and 148 for obtaining licenses. The Dealing with Licenses Report totals up the number of procedures and days to producing a license; the Trading Across Borders has a summary of number documents needed for export, cost to export per container. Singapore tops the chart for ease of starting a business, followed by New Zealand, United States, Canada and Hong Kong. The site also offers a tidy summary for each country like this one for Denmark .