Business Without Borders – International Business and Tax Planning Blog

Posts Tagged ‘export’

Last Friday, Fitch, one of the three leading credit agencies in the EU, further downgraded Italy’s credit rating to BBB+. It based its downgrade on the aftermath of Italy’s recent elections, noting that Italy is “without clear leadership” as coalitions strive to build a coalition government. Fitch does not expect such a coalition building to occur any time soon. Fitch targets Italy’s economy to shrink 1.8% in 2013, following a 2.6% contraction last year.

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Reuters reports: Jeff Immelt, co-CEO of the largest U.S. conglomerate GE and a top adviser to the Obama administration on jobs and the economy, says the U.S. is not trying hard enough to boost exports, which is contributing to the poor economy and high unemployment. He thinks if U.S. companies focus on exporting more goods, making the effort “to compete, educate and sell our products around the world,” the U.S. economy would improve. Immelt notes the vigor with which German manufacturers support Chancellor Merkel in promoting German products around the world and believes that American business should support Obama’s drive to double exports over the next five years in the same way. He believes that the U.S. can compete with China and sees Russia and resource-rich African countries as significant investment opportunities. Ultimately, Immelt notes that stronger growth is the only real answer to the rising disillusionment and unemployment. “The only way to solve this specific problem is growth,” Immelt said. “If unemployment comes down, people will feel better. If unemployment goes up, people will feel worse, no matter what goes on Wall Street.”

U.S. not “trying that hard” on exports: GE’s Immelt

Will the Interest Charge Domestic International Sales Corporation (IC DISC) survive the budget and debt ceiling negotiations in Washington?  Notwithstanding that both Congress and President Obama agree that a strong manufacturing and export base is important to U.S. economic recovery, will the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) be amended to cut back or eliminate the benefits of the IC DISC as part of the budget/debt ceiling negotiations in Washington?

The IC DISC remains, at least through 2012, or sooner if its tax breaks go on the chopping block in Washington, as one of the last big tax break for U.S. companies exporting their wares.

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On January 14^th, 2011, the White House announced that President Obama has ordered significant changes to policies regarding Cuba and has directed Secretaries of State, Treasury and Homeland Security to take certain steps towards changing regulations and policies governing:

1. purposeful travel;
2. non-family remittances; and
3. U.S. airports supporting licensed charter flights to and from Cuba.

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• Doing business in India might be different on September 1, 2010, because the more than one million BlackBerry users there may be without messaging and e-mail.  The Indian government is threatening to ask mobile phone operators to block those BlackBerry services until Canadian-based Research in Motion (RIM) provides access to data transmitted over the handset.  India joins the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - the first country to suggest blocking the BlackBerry  services, Lebanon, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in citing ”national security risks” for their demands.
  UPDATE: Two government officials have stated that RIM has agreed to give government agencies access to messenger services by September 1. 
• Japanese whisky distillers eye the U.S. market (whiskey is spelled without the superfluous “e” in Japan) … albeit a slow and steady expansion.  According to the U.S. Distilled Spirits Council, total whiskey sales in the United States was 46.5 million cases in 2009 .  In 2009, Suntory, a major Japanese whisky producer, launched the Hibiki brand in Europe and the United States with sales of 6,000 cases and hopes to sell 8,000 cases of Hibiki, a whisky blend, and 31,000 cases of Yamazaki, single malt whiskies, this year.
• Meanwhile, Northwest U.S. wineries in Washington and Oregon are eyeing Hong Kong and mainland China with a similar slow and steady strategy.    The elimination of an 80 percent excise tax in Hong Kong in 2008 will likely make any strategy easier to implement.  Wine imports to Hong Kong reached a record $491 million last year.  The U.S. accounts for $40 million, or 8 percent of those imports, making  Hong Kong the fourth-largest export market for U.S. wines.  Most of the wine, 90%, though, came from California.
• While we are on the subject of wine, Middle East winemakers strive for recognition, as they, too, are looking to expansion, targeting international buyers.  Omar Zumot, an organic wine producer near the Syrian border, relies on specially cultivated sheep to ward off pests, their saliva serving as an anti-bacterial and sterilizing trunks, and nitrates produced by fish from a nearby pond to fertilize his vineyard.
• Lastly, a couple of interesting articles on labor in Cuba, Japan, Bangladesh, and globally, here and here.  Why not?

Globalization affects nearly every business.  Companies developing new products or methods have to carefully develop an intellectual property portfolio, including a patent filing strategy, to respond to and compete on an international scale in the global market. For sure, the patent filings start with filings in the companies’ home land, most likely where the inventions were made.   But considerations of foreign filings are a must for developing an international filing strategy that is truly in line with globalization.  Questions of where the newly developed product will be manufactured should be resolved as part of such strategy.  Is the newly developed product or method a candidate for successful distribution or sales abroad?  Where or in what part of the world would such sales be expected? In what countries are the competitors situated?  Often, the most obvious countries, i.e., the immediate neighboring countries, such as Canada and Mexico for U.S. companies, are not considered in a timely fashion.  The company may even wrongly assume that, due to NAFTA agreements, U.S. patent protection would extend into NAFTA states, not realizing that the protection stops at the countries borders.  Although the company may have a manufacturing agreement in place with a foreign manufacturer, which may give the company proprietary rights to any pre-manufacturing or manufacturing tools and molds, it is certainly advisable to include the country of manufacture into the foreign filing strategy.

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