Dear Subscriber

 

Welcome to the August edition of Wade Trade News - Wade World Trade's own monthly bulletin bringing you news on developments and opportunities in international trade that are worthy of your attention. Read on now for news of opportunities and contacts in Greece, Turkey and Vietnam, amongst others, an opening for trading commodities easily and cheaply, and a site to help you solve those tricky import-export legal problems.

 

The Athens Olympics start next week, so now's a good time to focus in on the trade opportunities in Greece as a whole. Greece is certainly not a newcomer to world trade. It was one of the trading hubs of the ancient world, is still home to one of the world's largest merchant shipping fleets and imported almost US$32 billion of goods last year. Even once the games have finished there will still be a lot of opportunities for import-exporters. Here are a couple of websites worth visiting : The Hellenic (Greek) Foreign Trade Board offers information about Greek industries and investment in Greece at www.hepo.gr, while www.hellasob.com is a trade portal explaining everything you need to know about doing business in Greece.

 

Japan and Malaysia have begun a fourth round of talks on a free trade agreement (FTA). A Japanese trade ministry official said recently that the two countries are preparing a list of goods, services and investment to be liberalised under an FTA. Japan is calling on Malaysia to improve the business environment for foreign investors, while also seeking to end tariffs on cars, textiles and electronics. Malaysia is likely to ask Japan to lift trade barriers on farm product imports and to seek increased support for its efforts to develop its science and technology industries. The two countries are aiming to reach a final agreement by the end of 2004.

Turkey is aiming to becoming a major name in the world fashion and textiles business, using a series of high profile trade fairs to showcase this growing industry. The Istanbul Textile and Apparel Exporters' Association (see www.itkib.org.tr/eng for useful information and contacts) recently hosted the Traditional Turkish Fashion and Cloth Fair at New York's Grand Hyatt Hotel. 51 leading Turkish fashion and textile firms were at the event. This will be followed by a similar fair in London on 17-18 August. Turkey exported US$6.63 billion in ready-to-wear clothing and US$3.91 billion in textiles in 2003.

 

Ireland's exports to non-EU (European Union) countries fell to €2.386 billion last month - a drop of 18%, according to the country's Central Statistics Office (CSO). In the same period imports fell from €1.790bn to €1.560bn, a drop of nearly 13%. Trade figures were affected by a sharp decline in the exports of organic chemicals (down 8%) and computers (down 25%). On a country-by-country the highest falls in exports were to Mexico (down 47%), Norway (26%), Hong Kong (34%) and Singapore (23%). Imports from Japan decreased by 13%, although imports from China increased by 48%. The figures were distorted slightly by the fact that some countries which used to be classified as non-EU joined the EU from May.

 

If you're interested in exploring opportunities in Ireland The Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment can be found at www.entemp.ie, while Ask Ireland at www.askireland.com also has useful links.

Some commodities, like wheat and rubber, are bulky and expensive to trade in. But edible nuts are a relatively easy and cheap commodity to import and export. Every year billions of dollars worth of edible nuts are shipped around the world. As well as being eaten as a snack, nuts and nut oils are used in thousands of food products and even pharmaceuticals where you would least expect them. Consumption of some edible nuts has increased by 100% in the last ten years alone!

 

If you'd like to know more about the opportunities for trading nuts then here are two useful sites to help you get started : The International Tree Nut Council site at www.treenuts.org, and the UK's Combined Edible Nut Trade Association (CENTA) site at www.centa.uk.com. The world's most frequently traded nuts are pistachio, almond, pecan, cashew nut, walnut, hazelnut, macadamia and brazil nut and there are lots of opportunities to uy/sell/trade.

 

The law is different in every country and it's vital for anyone in international trade to be aware of the different legal issues that may affect you. You'll find an invaluable portal to international law on the US Law Library of Congress Guide to Law Online : Nations of the World website at www.loc.gov/law/guide/nations.html. This site has everything you need in a simple, easy to use format. Just enter the country you want and you'll find a page with information about the country's constitution; information about its executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government; legal guides; country profiles; human rights information; statistics; diplomatic contacts; and much more.

 

The Vietnamese Government is hoping to turn Vietnam into a major exporter of quality cocoa beans within the next five years. The new policy has been formed as a result of the uncertainty in world coffee prices over the last few years (Vietnam is the world's largest robusta coffee exporter) and is being funded by the US Department of Agriculture. Already, 1,000 hectares of new cocoa are in production and it is hoped that 14,000 hectares will be in production by 2008 in four southern provinces. A US non-profit group ACDI/VOCA plans to train 17,000 cocoa farmers, and Vietnam recently opened its first chocolate factory!

 

The Vietnam Ministry of Trade Website is www.mot.gov.vn while the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency's site is at www.vietrade.gov.vn (both have English versions).

 

The tips you receive in this bulletin are just a very, very small selection of the help, advice and information Wade World Trade can give you. Wade has been in the business since 1946, so we have decades of experience in international trade information. Our products and services include courses, manuals, advice, information, online resources and worldwide trade and business contacts - more or less everything you need to start and succeed in import-export.

 

For more details of our products and services visit our website at www.wadeworldtrade.com or call us on +44 (0)20 8663 3577.

 

Best Regards

 

Mark Hempshell

Editor