This past March stretched even a seasoned traveler like me me out of my comfort zone, as I undertook my most arduous journey yet. First, I visited the most important scientific meeting of the year on hypoxia (not getting enough oxygen supply to the tissue of a body part, or your whole body) in Whistler, BC from March 3-8. From there, I continued to travel west across the Pacific, visiting Seoul, Korea and Taipei, Taiwan from March 10-17.

The logistics of traveling around China in 10 jam-packed days

While that alone would have been considered a lengthy and busy trip by most standards, I was still building up to the busiest section of my travel schedule. On March 18, I continued by flying into Beijing, China to start an epic “10 City tour” (10 lectures in 10 cities in 10 days), to promote Ruskinn’s Life Sciences products to select universities in China. If you can believe it, this lecture series was originally supposed to be 3 weeks long, and we had to “shorten” it down to this length!

The lectures were set up by our Chinese partner, Beijing Longfujia.

The travel schedule from March 20-31 had to be intense to save money, but this meant traveling to a new city each day for 10 days, as follows:

Over 21,000 miles by plane, train and automobile

In total, from when I left Ottawa March 3 to go to Whistler to when I arrived back there from China in the beginning of April, I travelled a total of 21,270 miles. While it wasn’t quite enough to equal the 24,901 miles it would take to circumnavigate the entire planet, I came awfully close!

In China alone, I travelled 3,913 miles, took 5 plane journeys and 3 high-speed train journeys, gave 10 lectures, and visited 261 total customers. What a trip!

Travelling in China was often stressful, as reaching an airport or train station by car required anywhere from 1- 2 hours each night. The journey itself by air or train would come next, with varying transit times. Finally, traveling from the destination airport or station to the next hotel required yet another 1-2 hours of driving. Traffic is so dense in most Chinese cities that a commute that would normally be a 30 minute car journey in Canada or the U.S. can take 2-4 times as long in the cities mentioned above.

It’s key to find your “zen” and get some massages when enduring this type of travel

I was fortunate to not have a single major snafu during the entire trip, just a handful of travel delays. When I ran into those, I found the best way to deal with it was to internalize, and not let myself get outwardly annoyed. Once or twice we also didn’t have the proper AV equipment for our lectures, but our distributor was miraculous at sourcing whatever items we needed from “down the street” in those instances.

I also had many positives to focus on. One of the things that stood out the most throughout this whirlwind tour was the level of interest shown by the students at the universities. My Sunday seminar had more people than a regular seminar in Canada or the U.S., and it was exciting to see their willingness to learn.

To combat the exhaustion of so much travel for business, we also tried to go for massages whenever there were facilities near our hotel. It was very relaxing and allowed me to share some friendly banter with my traveling companions.

Final assessment – should you embark on such a trip?

If you’re considering a similarly ambitious trip, I should note that, because the experience was so exhausting, I would not take on a trip in China like this again – I’ll plan to stick with seven days next time.

In assessing whether the trip was successful, we certainly got “the nod” from several professors and other researchers indicating they are going to start the buying process with us in mind. While we have a buying cycle of several months, once these clients agreed I knew it was a matter of when, not if they would purchase.

The first orders from that lecture series should start to come out of tender in the next few weeks, and we are confident in gaining somewhere between $100-150,000 in sales from this lecture series alone. All in all, it was a very successful trip.

If you’re interested in seeing more of my time in China, please take a look at the slideshow video that I’ve put together, which you can view by clicking this link.

Please also take a look at the following infographic on some of the most interesting numbers from my trip:

The post Here’s what it’s like to travel for business to 10 different Chinese cities in 10 days appeared first on Trade Ready.

The lights are on, the cameras are rolling, and the crowd has taken their seats. The packed dining hall waits as four international trade experts are welcomed onto the stage by their host.

A recent iPoliticsLIVE event held in Ottawa, Canada, June 20 brought together industry experts to discuss current and future challenges facing Canadian businesses engaging in international trade.

Canada has a long history as a trading nation. But with a shifting trade landscape, what barriers will exist for Canadian exporters moving forward? This, along with questions on NAFTA and Canada’s relationship with China, were just some of key highlights from this discussion.

Catherine Clark, of Catherine Clark Communications, moderates the ‘Barriers to Growth’ panel and welcomes each of the panelists as they take their seats.

Mark Warner and Peter Clark, experts in international trade law, took their seats to the left of the stage as Bodhi Ganguli and Alexander Malaket, CITP, experts in international trade finance, took their seats to the right.

When the panelists settled in, the titular question of the discussion is brought forward.

What, in your opinion, is the biggest barrier to trade growth?

After a moment of thought, each panelist is given an opportunity to answer. The panelists cited protectionism and risk as the key barriers slowing Canadian businesses entry into international markets.

“The two biggest barriers to trade right now are protectionism as well as limits to domestic imagination,” said Mark Warner, Canadian American trade lawyer for MAAW Law. “We need to open up to new markets but we also must get more imaginative with the markets we are already engaged with.”

“Mindset is a barrier,” said Alexander Malaket, CITP, Founder and CEO Opus International Advisory Group, Director.

More education is needed to better prepare professionals for the international marketplace. Trade will always happen. Companies will figure out how to make deals with each other. Education is the key to preparing people to make those deals.”

“The benefits of global trade are far-reaching,” said Bodhi Ganguli, Lead Economist for Dun & Bradstreet’s Country Risk Services. “But the losses are very concentrated. That is a barrier facing Canadian growth.”

“The biggest barrier, in my opinion, is protectionism,” said Peter Clark, President of Grey, Clark, Shih, and Associates Limited. “The U.S. is Canada’s biggest trading partner and all signs are pointing to a modernization of the NAFTA agreement. This will be a barrier moving forward.”

With the topic of NAFTA now brought up, the first of the audience questions prompted the panelists for their thoughts on the subject. With such uncertainty regarding just how extensive the renegotiation would be, attendees wanted to hear the expert’s insights.

What can we expect in upcoming NAFTA negotiations?

“Nobody knows what’s going to happen,” said Clark. “America sees NAFTA as Canada taking. They want it to be a more give and take relationship. For the U.S., NAFTA must be a rebalancing of the scales.”

“NAFTA has been tweaked before,” Clark continued. “What we need to know now is if this will be a tweak like before or a complete renegotiation.”

“NAFTA won’t happen in a vacuum,” said Ganguli. “There is a global move away from multi-lateral trade to bi-lateral trade. Despite this current trend though, globalization isn’t going away. Product lines are now global. Consumers are now global.”

NAFTA needs to be a fact-based discussion,” added in Warner. “To showcase the benefits of NAFTA, we need to start laying the groundwork at home. We need to not just be promoting its benefits to the U.S., but to Canada as well. We need to expand our domestic imagination.”

“We need to consider the long-term nature of the Canada – U.S. relationship as well,” said Malaket. “Trade exports are extremely important to Canada.”

Are Canadian businesses prepared to do business with China?

Next the discussion dove into the practical challenges of doing business in China. Judging from the panelists answers, it was clear doing business with China will be a learn-while-we-go situation.

“How do we trade with China?” asked Warner. “Businesses have little to no experience working in China. Businesses need to be allowed to try and fail over and over, in order to find success.”

“More education would prepare businesses,” added Malaket.

“While education will always be needed,” said Ganguli. “Supply chains are always improving. They will always move faster than education. A shift in how we do things will be needed.”

Should Canada be diversifying its trade partners?

Given the recent political turmoil in the United States, there has been a great deal of uncertainty regarding Canada’s future dealings with its biggest trade partner. The audience leaned in to get the experts’ take on Canada’s trade future. The panelists recommended expanding Canada’s trading partners, touching on how to best work with the U.S. moving forward, and how Canada should approach its exports.

“You can’t get talent for free. If you want more Canadians working in the U.S., Canada has to give the Americans something. We have to give if we want to get,” said Warner.

“There is an inherent laziness because Canada has always relied on the U.S.,” said Malaket. “We need to diversify our partners, if we want to grow. There are tremendous opportunities beyond America.”

“Canada should absolutely be diversifying in terms of partners. When picking new partners, a trade credit is one way to show if one country is a better option than another,” said Ganguli. “The more data you have, the more strategic you can be. Businesses need to be factual and be agile.”

We need a major shift in Canadian policy in terms of agriculture,” said Clark. “We need to be supporting farmers to be exporting to other countries. There is a great potential and the opportunity for the Canadian agriculture sector.”

Do Canadian companies have all the tools they need to be successful in the global market?

The discussion panel ended by shedding a light on the deficits Canadian businesses are facing moving forward. Drawing on their expertise, Ganguli and Malaket offered their advice for Canadian businesses.

“Canadian companies need to be strategic,” said Ganguli. “And the way they can do that is by collecting information. The more data you have, the more proactive you can be at starting a growth strategy.”

“Financing is also an issue,” added Malaket. “A lack of financing is the most difficult issue exporters face, especially in the services sector.”

With that, the panel discussion comes to an end. The topics covered in this brief but ambitious discussion reflected the changes already upsetting the status quo for Canadian trade and businesses. Outside forces are pushing Canada to be more creative and strategic in taking advantage of all the global opportunities available to Canadian businesses.

What do you think? How prepared is Canada for the coming changes in international trade? Let us know in the comments down below.

The post Can Canada compete in the global market? The experts weigh in appeared first on Trade Ready.

Although the RCEP has been in negotiation for several years, its significance has increased sharply following the decision by President Trump to pull the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on his third full day in office.

The TPP was signed on February 4th, 2016, involving 12 nations including the United States. However, there was a major disagreement between the Obama administration and the Trump administration about whether or not the TPP is favorable for America.

The result is that America has now pulled out of the TPP. Following America’s exit from the agreement, the RCEP has the potential to replace it as the dominant trade deal in the Asia-Pacific region.

Who would be included in the RCEP?

While the deal has not been finalized yet, the following nations are all said to be potential members of the RCEP.

South Korea                             Singapore

Japan                                        Brunei

China                                        Thailand

India                                          Indonesia

Myanmar                                  The Philippines

Vietnam                                    Australia

Cambodia                                 New Zealand

These 16 nations have a combined population of 3.27 billion people, or 46% of the world’s population, and a GDP of approximately 19.2 trillion dollars – 24% of global GDP.

What are the most significant implications of the deal?

One of the most significant implications of the RCEP is that the world’s two most populous nations, India and China, would be involved in a large trade bloc. Neither of these nations are a part of the TPP.

The RCEP is set to cover trade in goods, services, and investments, intellectual property issues, economic and technical cooperation, dispute settlement, competition, and a number of other concerns. This deal would be a landmark trade development in the western Pacific region.

The RCEP covers many of the same issues as the TPP, but does not contain as stringent protections for human rights, labor, and the environment as the former agreement.

Ultimately, the RCEP could create one of the largest free trade zones ever enacted and lead to an unprecedented amount of trade activity between member nations. However, both workers and the environment may not enjoy the same protections as they would have had in deals like the TPP.

China and America are moving in opposite directions on free trade

The greatest driving force behind the RCEP appears to be the fact that the leader of the United States believes that it is not beneficial for the country to be involved in enormous multilateral free trade deals, unlike China.

In fact, President Trump campaigned on a platform of opposition to both the TPP and NAFTA, a free trade agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. President Trump even went as far as to call NAFTA “the worst trade deal the U.S. ever signed.”

Trump’s primary opposition to free trade deals is that he believes American workers are losing too many jobs to cheap outsourced labor. In other words, he wants to keep more jobs inside the U.S. Trump has also accused China of currency manipulation, and has stated that the U.S. needs to be reimbursed more for the security it provides around the world.

A combination of all of these things means that the world of international trade could see some major shifts. The U.S., the nation with the world’s largest economy, looks likely to take a much more protectionist stance on trade in the near future.

Perhaps because many jobs flow there due to cheap labor, China appears to be very open to free trade. China has the world’s second largest economy, with a GDP of $15.26 trillion (2016). Considering that Japan has the third largest, and India has the seventh largest, a trade deal involving all three of these nations could be very powerful.

What does this mean for the future of international trade?

The RCEP has not yet been formally signed, but there is a good chance it will go through. In fact, Ganeshan Wignaraja, an advisor with the Asian Development Bank, said “An RCEP agreement seems probable in 2017 due to intensified negotiations.”

So, in the near future, the Pacific region could be dominated by a free trade haven that connects India and Australia with China and many other Asian nations, while the United States adopts increasingly protectionist measures on the other side of the Atlantic.

Countries who wish to trade with the United States in this new era could find themselves facing a new barrage of tariffs, taxes, and duties. It may also be significantly more difficult for American companies to outsource jobs to Asian countries, as the Trump administration looks for continued ways to protect American jobs at the expense of new multilateral trade deals, which would have the potential to create new jobs both in the U.S. and in other countries.

Whether or not other Pacific nations such as Mexico and Canada will ever join the RCEP is yet to be determined. However, if Trump also pulls the United States out of NAFTA, then these two nations may be eager to seek new free trade deals and look to the RCEP in its place.

By pulling out of the TPP, President Trump claims to be doing what he believes is in America’s best interest. However, it was estimated that the TPP could have brought the country an extra $77 billion in revenue per year. So, in order for America to make up this lost revenue, it will have to bring in a substantial amount of money from tariffs, and keep a   jobs in the country.

The tectonic plates of the international trade world are shifting. Once key decisions are made about the RCEP and NAFTA, the trade landscape could be entirely redefined, creating a whole new set of parameters for companies to consider as they do business internationally.

The post What is the RCEP and how could it affect global trade? appeared first on Trade Ready.

Particularly popular articles featured the basics of importing and exporting, as well as how and what you need to know to start your own business. The wider factors affecting Canadian businesses involved in international trade also had people reading.

Whatever matters most to you, we hope this will give you a chance to catch up on some of the hottest articles from the past year that you may have missed, or refresh your memory as we head into 2017.

10. How the lower Canadian dollar is reshaping our economy

The Canadian dollar’s diminishing value has begun to leave its impact on the economy. When compared to United States’ dollar, which has improved in value over the same time period, it might appear to some that Canada is in poor economic shape. While businesses have a reason to be cautious, a weakened dollar actually brings tremendous benefit to Canadian businesses in a variety of industries.

9. Wondering if you should start an import/export business? Here’s what it takes

Global trade is growing, and with it opportunities to increase sales and profits, grow your market share and client base, expand your workforce and reduce the risk to your business. So how can you get in on this trend, and do you have what it takes to be successful in this type of endeavour? We asked two global trade experts who have experience running their own successful businesses about the realities of starting an import/export business.

8. How 3 major challenges to China’s economy will affect Canadian businesses

Recent reports state that China’s economy is showing signs of improvement, after a volatile few years for Canada’s second largest trading partner. However, China continues to face major economic challenges, contributing to what is largely considered to be an unsustainable growth rate.

7. Face Off: Buy Local vs. Buy Global

In the past few decades, the call to support local businesses by patronizing locally sourced and sold products over those that are imported and sold at corporate chains has gained momentum. While there seem to be many benefits to supporting the neighbourhood “mom n’ pop”, not least of which is a warm feeling of doing “the right thing”, is it really best to buy local?

6. Canadian exporters: here’s how to register to do business with the U.S. government

 The good news is that U.S. Government procurement represents a wealth of opportunities for Canadian exporters who are enterprising enough to do the legwork. And, the even better news is that a U.S. Government-wide resource exists, providing details on all proposed procurement actions and contract awards over U.S. $25,000: the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website.

5. 5 ways importing and exporting will be more challenging in Trump’s America

Following the global trend for political change, the United States elected a candidate who has promised to shakeup both the political and economic fabric of the country. Donald Trump has promised to reform his country’s approach to global trade, claiming that he can revive the American economy by bringing back jobs that America has, for decades, exported to other countries. In consequence, those looking to enter the U.S. market may find protectionist measures which will create challenges in bringing their products into the country.

4. Statistics prove these 4 benefits to importing and exporting in global markets

According to several recent studies in Canada, the U.S. and the UK, statistics prove that there are significant benefits for companies who export. While going global will never be completely risk-free, these numbers prove that the potential benefits can outweigh any negatives, and help your company excel like never before.

3. What are service exports, and why are they suddenly so important?

Exports are a hot topic these days, but generally when people talk about exports, they are referring to product exports.   Did you know, though, that the fastest growing type of exports is services?   More and more companies are finding profit in exporting services, and several trends ensure that these exports will grow rapidly.

2. 10 books for import-export professionals that you need to read

Books can be incredibly powerful tools for gaining knowledge on a particular topic. When it comes to international trade, there are a number of books that can help you gain real insight and appreciation for this bustling industry. Here are some excellent books to help you broaden your understanding of global trade.

1. The 5 essential stages in developing a successful supply chain

Supply chain management encompasses such a wide range of functions that it can seem daunting, even to the most experienced international businessperson. However, the process can be effectively modelled by breaking it down into several main strategic areas. One common and very effective model is the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model, developed by the Supply Chain Council to enable managers to address, improve and communicate supply chain management practices effectively.

The post Top 10 most popular global trade articles from 2016 appeared first on Trade Ready.