by Bill Armbruster, blog anchor Financing is often the most crucial issue for US exporters, even more than the price of their goods. If commercial banks won’t provide the necessary credit, or the foreign buyers require assistance with financing so they can pay for the...
Duties to Put a Chill on Refrigerant Dumping on US Market
The Department of Commerce International Trade Administration (ITA) has reached a preliminary determination that 1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane from China is being sold at below fair value in the US and calculated countervailing duties. Mexichem Fluor, which markets the...
Follow BIG Shipment Volumes to Smallest Prices in Chemicals
by Brian J. McCormick, guest columnist Chemcost’s approach to global price discovery is based on the theory that volumes shipped point the way to competitive pricing. Call it a volume-centric approach. And we typically find in using this approach that global shipment...
South American Healthcare Market Leader Brazil Hosts Hospitalar
About 40% of the exhibitors at next week’s Hospitalar healthcare fair in Brazil will be from foreign countries – recognition of the strength of demand for imports in the country’s US$167-billion healthcare market. The US Commercial Service will be at Hospitalar to...
Without a Twist: Limes in Short Supply as Cinco de Mayo Nears
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...
Getting Governments to Shop for Best Value, Not Lowball Bids
by Bill Armbruster, blog anchor A new US program and a revised World Trade Organization agreement aimed at getting governments to shop for best value instead of lowest cost may open significant opportunities for US companies to sell in foreign markets. The US Trade...
Intellectual Property Rights & Wrongs: CBP Counterfeit Seizures
by Peter Quinter, guest columnist Customs and Border Protection (CBP) just issued its 2013 annual report on seizures of counterfeit merchandise that attempted to enter the US illegally. The statistics on CBP counterfeit seizures continue to climb year after year in...
Best Price Data Yields Best Savings from EU-Sourced Chemicals
by Brian J. McCormick, guest columnist This is not another April Fool’s story. Finding what we at Chemcost Interactive* call “The New Cheap” – the markets that offer the lowest prices for chemicals commodities – takes digging into the data on global buying and selling...
Growing Trade in Palm Oil Drives Quest for Sustainability
Kellogg’s announcement that all its palm oil suppliers must source the low-trans-fat oil in a way that is “environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable” is a major win for environmentalists. Kellogg will be working through its supply chain...
Russia Sanctions: What about Vodka?
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...