Stop whining. Start Importing.

U.S. Textile Makers To Seek Strict Limits On China Imports The quota system will soon be lifted, removing the (unfair) limits on the number of goods imported from our trading partners, including China. As with any economic policiy decision, there will be winners and losers. In life, the losers will always whine. Complaining is easier than adapting, yet the fact is that America established its independence on the basis of free trade and rose to greatness as an ardent support of economic liberalism and globalizaition. Jobs in the American textile industry will be lost, to be sure. But the cost of clothing, one of the most fundamental human needs, will fall almost immediately. And our partners and friends in the import trade will continue to make a tidy living...

Give up already...

United States pushes for flexible exchange rates but China's not budging. The IMF said last week China should move to flexibility ``without undue delay''. Members of the Group of Seven, the richest industrialised countries, are in talks to consider including China in their October meeting of finance ministers. These guys at the IMF really piss me off. They go around telling everybody what their PhD analysts have determined is necessary, and small, heavily-indebted countries have no choice but to follow their recommendations. Citizens often riot. Economies nearly always suffer. And yet they have the audacity to keep telling countries what to do like clockwork. China is sitting on $470 billion in foreign reserves. They don't owe the IMF anything, and so have no obligation to listen to the arrogant technocrats in Washington. For now, China is more intent on containing inflation and improving its troubled banks than exiting its pegged-currency policy. God bless 'em.

Yuan envy...

House Members Ask President to Take Action on China's Currency Policy. The U.S. House of Representatives is urging President Bush to take action against China, saying that its policy of undervaluing the Yuan allows it to export goods below their fair market values. With the election coming up, Bush may face enough pressure to cave in to their demands. But I think the free-marketer within him will understand that the provision of cheap Chinese labor allowed by this undervaluing is a good thing for our economy.

Selling against Wal Mart

Anita Cambell of Small Business Trends reports that the biggest obstacle faced by small businesses is competing with Wal Mart. Our clients complain from time to time that Wal Mart (or another big box retailer) has picked up a product we've found for them. While it may be possible to beat their price, you won't beat it by enough to lure customers away from the convenience of buying everything in one place. How to survive in this environment then? Stay ahead of the big boys. Smaller importers are leaner and able to adapt more quickly than their enormous competitors. You must constantly source new and innovative products, keeping yourself out of the corporate superpowers' paths. And if you ever get big enough, you might be able to get one of your products into Wal Mart. The behometh retailer (and world's biggest conmpany) generally requires you to provide thousands of units up front and you can exepct it to take at least 3 months before you see any money at all. What's more, if your product experiences a defect rate of 20 percent or more (let's hope you are not dealing with this, but many Chinese products score much worse), you are almost guaranteed to lose money. Still, if you succeed in supplying Wal Mart, you will be raking in millions of dollars of income without any need for an expensive marketing effort.

Keep on Reading

Another great resource for import businesses is the Academy of Entrepreneurship Journals. You'll find hours and hours of excellent reading material that should give you some interesting ideas for boosting your bottom line. Keep an eye on the clock though, because you can spend days buried in these articles...

Looking for trade leads?

Who isn't? The Federation of International Trade Associations is a great place to start. The site contains links to hundreds of other trade lead sites, industry-specific, regional, global and everything in between. FITA easily makes our list of top resources on the Web for U.S.-based importers. There is no substitute for good infromation.

Don't forget about India...

India looks to boost exports with special economic zones. Peering over the Himalayas at booming China, India has spotted an idea that offers to promote its own economy: special economic zones with relaxed taxes and regulations for exporters. Our firm hasn't done a whole lot of business with India--besides outsourcing a few Web and software development projects. We'll keep an eye on some of these new zones to see whether any partnership opportunities may arrise. In the meantime, if you want to follow trends in outsourcing to India and elsewhere, check out The Outsourcing Weblog.

Couldn't they have come up with a cooler name for it though?

Chinese mega-ship makes maiden call at Long Beach. The COSCO Long Beach, the biggest ship in the fleet of China's largest shipping company completed its first trans-Pacific journey on August 25th, arriving in the Port of Long Beach, California. The ship is more than three football fields long and will carry 8,000 containers. China has been making a huge push to increase its domestic ship-building capacity, an industry largely dominated by Korean and Japanese firms (read Hyundai and Mitsubishi). In fact, the China State Shipbuilding Corporation recently announced its intentions to work more closely with the Japanese to help close the technological and industrial gaps. Lets just hope they don't name the rest of their ships after bad neighborhoods in L.A.