It’s a textbook case in the need to diversify sources of supply: The US imports about 97% of its limes from Mexico and, right now, limes are a scarce and expensive commodity in Mexico. Disease and bad weather have combined to reduce crop yields, shortages have boosted...
Russians have launched a retaliatory Internet campaign of tongue-in-cheek sanctions against US President Obama, Reuters reports. It includes Twitter users forbidding Obama from Russian vodka under the hashtag “MySanctions” (#МоиСанкции). There’s every chance Obama...
In taking over Jim Beam, makers of the world’s best-selling bourbon, Suntory is not only aiming for a bigger presence in the US market, say analysts. The Japanese company is also banking on the world’s growing thirst for the spirit that Congress declared a...
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Latin American team reports Venezuelan GDP has slowed to 1.1% in the third quarter from 2.6% in the second quarter. The EIU analysts are particularly struck by a third-quarter contraction in Venezuelan imports of goods and services of...
Hoping to curb Mexican consumption of sugary soft drinks, President Enrique Pena Nieto has proposed a peso per liter tax on soda as part of a package of tax reforms. The public-health conscious measure follows a UN Food & Agriculture Organization report that...
Is this the curse of commodities export dependence at work? Peru's gross domestic product expanded 5.0% in May, lower than the expected 5.5 to 6.0% growth, the government announced last week. Barely two weeks earlier, President Ollanta Humala was remarking on Peru’s...
The US consumes most of what Mexico produces, but global markets are demanding a share of tequila. BusinessWeek reports that Mexico’s distillers are primed to conquer the Chinese market, now that China’s government has ended restrictions that blocked imports of the...
Spotlight on Pacific Alliance trade bloc casts unflattering light on Mercosur “While Pacific Alliance thrives, Mercosur withers,” headlines a recent Andres Oppenheimer opinion piece in the Miami Herald. The Pacific Alliance’s May 23 Cali summit, capped by an agreement...
Key to success in exporting to CA: market research, careful planning and preparation. Datamyne blog anchor Bill Armbruster’s e-mail interview with the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA ) continues in this second installment covering Central...
Success story: US exports to CAFTA-DR partners have increased 79% through 2012. Datamyne blog anchor Bill Armbruster recently conducted an e-mail interview with the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA). This first installment focuses on US...
