Breaking Waves
- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates may have taken the point on free trade agreements in the Obama Administration, surprisingly backing the U.S.-Colombia FTA. You remember – one of the three FTAs that Obama has so far refused to ask Congress to pass, despite much polite rhetoric.
- While we’re talking about free trade agreements, Democrats in Congress are pushing for an expansion of the U.S.-Israel trade agreement. I have no objection to that, but shouldn’t we hold the interests of the pro-Israel lobby hostage to passing the three stillborn FTAs with Colombia, Panama and South Korea? Or are we saying that Israel is more important than those three? I just glanced at the list of America’s top trading partners in 2009. South Korea comes in at #7, behind the U.K. and ahead of France. Israel doesn’t make the list. Which one do you think should get priority attention from the U.S. Congress?
- Many companies need to check patents in foreign markets and, of course, the most well developed patent institutions on the globe or those of the United States, Japan and the European Union. I recently heard about a site called SumoBrain (gotta love it) that does free searches of all three. Might save you a bit of time, though it might cost your patent attorney a little revenue (from you). I haven’t used, so let me know how it works for you.
- Our friends at FITA’s Really Useful Sites recommend using GlobalSources if you are looking to source products from China. They claim that these are “verified” suppliers. May work for you, but – as always – caveat emptor. And let us know if it works – or doesn’t.
- I last posted about the travel industry and Cuba back on March 31. A coalition of U.S. business organizations sent a joint letter to all Members of Congress on Tuesday, asking for immediate removal of travel restrictions to Cuba. Unfortunately, they did not also ask for an easing of U.S. restrictions on investment in Cuba. Opening up travel makes political and ideological sense, but there is no point in just giving the economic benefits to our competitors in the travel industry.
- U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke was pressing major American companies this week to get involved in rebuilding Chile. Not only is it a good thing to do, it is likely to prove profitable, too.
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on Saturday, April 17th, 2010 at 6:40 am and is filed under Business Opportunities, China, Cuba, Tourism, Trade Policy.
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