International Business and Technology Blog

Living in the USA, browsing with Google.com, your search results are invariably in English. If you search for a product then Google tells you where to find it locally. The internet is mostly in English, right?

We all know Bruce Springsteen’s view on getting paid. Clearly, the European Payments Council (EPC), the decision-making and coordination body of the European banking industry in relation to payments, charged with developing the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), had the Boss in mind, when scoping out this innovative program.

Every year, the European Union's (EU) 28 countries import 100’s of billions of dollars worth of goods and services from the USA. This year, the figure is expected to be >$0.5 Tn. In 2013, the USA and the EU remained, and have always been, each other’s largest export/import (>$1 Tn annual flow) and investor partners (>$300 Bn annual flow). This is not a new situation, the transatlantic relationship is key for US exporters, and is not one that is likely to change in the near future.

"The Single Market is the European Unions’ grown jewel, and online is its natural new home. So let’s bring down those barriers”, announced Neelie Kroes (Vice President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda for Europe) in June 2014, preceding the Global Ecommerce Summit in Barcelona, Spain.

European economic ills are back in the financial headlines, as GDP numbers disappoint. I was enjoying not being gloomy, a little bit upbeat, reporting on steady economic upticks. This was supposed to be the turnaround year. How quickly that can change. We now know that the Eurozone economies (18 of them) collectively failed to grow in Q2.2014. You might like to know who and why.

Overall an interestingly +ve picture of the EU economic growth. But as they say the devil is in the detail, so we are here to help you know your EU markets and sectors. The story remains coherent with eastern and northern European economic growth well established and continuing, but the southern countries such as Greece, Italy, France and Spain (to be watched as the next turn-around case study) remain stubbornly at zero or worse.

The USA has over 250 Foreign Trade Zones (FTZ) with different rules, processes, advantages and tax implications. But what is a Foreign Trade Zone?  It is a secure area defined by US law as being outside the Customs Territory of the USA. They are associated with an air or sea port of entry, no duty is paid upon admittance and in certain states local and federal taxes are eliminated. Once the goods leave the FTZ and enter the USA then US Customs Territory, duty and taxes apply.

Europe remains a great export destination, despite all its complexities. It is the largest destination for US exports and together, the US and Europe make up over half of world GDP and a third of global trade. While Europe is the world’s second-smallest continent, it boasts a GDP of over $17.5 trillion, with 11 of the world’s 20 largest consumer markets.

What is the agreement about? In the last six years, Canada has concluded free trade agreements with nine countries: Colombia, Peru, Jordan, Panama, Honduras, and the European Free Trade Association that includes Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. 

Last month The Wall Street Journey's Hannah Karp published an interesting article entitled “Teaching Americans to Export*."  It covers the recent success in Los Angeles, where export volume is growing at 31%/yr. vs. 10% for other US ports.  Key to this is a regional focus on export, where their success is even more remarkable given that only 15% of California's manufacturers are exporting.