Dear Subscriber

Welcome to the June edition of Wade Trade News - our exclusive, free monthly bulletin that keeps you up to date on important developments in international trade and opportunities you can take advantage of. In this issue you'll find news on China, Singapore, Vietnam and Switzerland, details of sites that will help you trade with California or trade in Scotch whisky, and two invaluable sites to help you with your research.

China-Singapore Trade To Rise To US$50 Billion
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China-Singapore trade could rise to as much as US$50 billion by 2010. Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress, made the announcement in his keynote speech at the China-Singapore Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum in Singapore recently. He said that the two countries should move quickly to further consolidate the basis for trade ties, as well as stepping up co-operation in multilateral trade arenas worldwide.

As you'll know, there's so much happening in China it's difficult to know how to keep up with it all. China Radio International's English service at www.crienglish.com is a great site where you can keep informed on trade and other news, gain an insight to Chinese life and culture and listen to their radio programmes too.

Swiss-US Trading Opportunities To Rise ?
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According to Swissinfo - Switzerland's news and information platform at www.swissinfo.org - the Swiss Government is facing increasing calls to open up talks with the USA about a bilateral free trade agreement. After requests in parliament, the Government says it will soon decide whether or not to open negotiations with US officials. Martin Naville, CEO of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce, recently said that 'politicians should act now to take advantage of a unique and limited window of opportunity'.

A Swiss-USA FTA could increase trading opportunities sharply and make trade much simpler. The USA is already Switzerland's second largest export market after the
 
European Union countries, while Switzerland is the eighth largest purchaser of US services, the sixth largest foreign investor in the US and the fourth most important destination for US direct investment.

Vietnam Hoping To Enter WTO This Year
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Vietnam is accelerating multilateral and bilateral negotiations, as well as law reform, and hopes to enter the World Trade Organisation (WTO) later this year. The country has already completed negotiations on opening up goods and services markets with seven WTO members - the European Union, Singapore, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Chile and Uruguay. Now the country is focussing on reaching agreement with another 20 trading partners including China, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea and Canada, and hopes to conclude talks with the USA later this month. Additionally, the country is speeding up law making to meet WTO regulations.

The Vietnam Economy website at www.vneconomy.com.vn/eng, run by the Vietnam Economic Times, is one of the best sources of trade news and leads we've found.

Invaluable For Research : World Facts & Figures
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If you're researching a new market it's important to have facts, figures and good quality background information to aid your decision making. In the past this kind of research could take several days in the library, but now you can do it all in minutes at the following website : World Facts and Figures at www.worldfactsandfigures.com. It's a great source of information on populations, finance, key industries, government, geography, politics and law and there's even information on the weather, national flags and even maps too. If, for example, you need to know whether Afghanistan might be an emerging market for trucks, or what exports are available from Croatia, you'll find the information here.


Tax Needn't Be Taxing
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When you're trading with another country one of the most important - and tricky - things you need to know about is tax. You need to find out about import duties, what value added or sales taxes might apply …. and even if you might be liable for income tax in the country concerned. It's often been difficult to find this information before but here's a useful site to help you do just this : International Tax Laws By Country at www.law-library.info/page/tax-international.htm. This site provides hundreds of links to sites on tax
 
for most of the world's major countries. There are sites explaining tax policy, regulations, various types of taxes, instructions, advice and tax software and much more. Well worth a visit!

Toast Your Trading Success With Whisky !
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Whisky is, without a doubt, one of Scotland's most famous exports. Over one billion bottles of whisky are produced for export every year, and markets in most countries are showing steady growth. You can trade Scotch whisky worldwide but the market is particularly buoyant in Europe (especially France and Spain), the Far East (especially Japan and South Korea) and the USA. If you want to get involved trading this world famous Scottish export then visit the whisky section of the UK250 site at www.uk250.co.uk/whisky. You'll find links to information on history, production, types of whisky, how to appreciate whisky and links to actual producers in Scotland.

Why Not Trade With …. California ?
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Everyone knows that the United States is a big country, but some parts of it are so big that they're almost a trading nation in their own right. The biggest of them all is the state of California. California is the USA's most populated state, has the largest labour force and the largest Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It has more high tech. industries than any other state and is the second largest producer of exported goods. If California was an independent country it would be the eighth largest economy in the world!

If you want to trade with California then visit TradePort at www.tradeport.org. TradePort is a repository of free information and resources for businesses that wish to conduct international trade to and from California. It provides extensive information, contacts and resources for online learning, collaboration and web conferencing to assist California businesses and their global partners with trade initiatives.

More Help Available At Wadetrade.com
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Have you visited our website at www.wadetrade.com recently? If you haven't, you'll find lots of new and useful information there. There are details of all our recently updated courses, information on joining our World Trader's Club where you can meet 10,000 other members worldwide, and lots of useful, free links for import-export. Plus, in the event that you've only subscribed to this bulletin recently, you access back issues of
 
Wade Trade News direct from the site. Please drop in and visit us soon …. and let us know what you think.

Best Regards

Mark Hempshell
Editor