18 June 03 Trade Newsletter on Australia, Trade Barriers and more

[Federation of International Trade Associations]

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Really Useful Sites for International Trade Professionals Issue 61 Volume 3 
Number 13
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June 18, 2003
Issue 61
VOLUME 3 Number 13
 
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 IN THIS ISSUE
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OUR FEATURED COUNTRY SITE -- AUSTRALIA
WORLDINFORMATION.COM
2003 REPORT ON FOREIGN TRADE BARRIERS
NATIONMASTER.COM


Here's your latest issue of Really Useful Sites for International Trade 
Professionals. 
This free bi-weekly newsletter reviews useful Web sites from the Web Resources 
database 
at FITA's International Trade/ Import-Export Portal at http://www.fita.org, an 
excellent 
source for trade leads, news, events, and a link library of 5,000+ sites 
related to 
international trade. 

My name is John McDonnell, and for years I've been writing about useful Web 
sites for 
businesspeople, in various publications. Now I've focused on international 
trade, using 
my Web research skills to find sites that are useful for international 
businesspeople, 
and some sites that are just plain fun for anyone.


Here are the sites:


OUR FEATURED COUNTRY SITE -- AUSTRALIA
http://www.austrade.gov.au

I never knew much about Australia, except that it's the birthplace of Mel 
Gibson, it has more kangaroos than people, and one of my faworite beers, 
Foster's, comes from there. But there's a lot going on in this island continent 
if you're interested in international trade. Australia was the fifteenth 
largest U.S. trading partner in 2000, and its economy has remained strong even 
during the global slump of the past few years. If you want to look into 
opportunities for trade with this southern dynamo, a good place to start is 
Austrade <http://www.austrade.gov.au/> ( http://www.austrade.gov.au ). This 
Australian government site will help you get started if you're interested in 
doing business with Australian companies. You can search a database of 
Australian suppliers, read overviews of Australian industries, search for 
upcoming trade shows and events, get the facts on establishing a business in 
Australia, scan useful links about Australia, and much more. 
Another great site is the Australian Trade Community magazine 
<http://www.australiantradecommunity.com/> ( 
http://www.australiantradecommunity.com ). It's a monthly publication that can 
be downloaded at no charge and has practical articles on things like: 
Australian dairy exports to China, requirements of Indian markets, and the 
current economic climate in the Netherlands. You can also search trade leads, 
look for Australian companies, submit trade leads, read about Australian 
products, and more. If you are an importer or exporter, or are interested in 
becoming one then the Australian Trade Community magazine is a must read. 
There are many more links to Australia at the FITA site. Go to 
<http://fita.org/webindex>, click on Regional Resources and Multi-Lateral 
Trading Areas in the left column, then scroll down to Australia, New Zealand, 
and Oceania and click on Australia in the drop-down box. Or simply type 
"Australia" in the search box at <http://www.fita.org>.  

WORLDINFORMATION.COM
http://www.worldinformation.com

Here's a good research site I came across. It's called worldinformation.com 
<http://www.worldinformation.com/> ( http://www.worldinformation.com ), and 
it's an easy-to-use site that has a ton of useful information about countries 
around the world. The way you use this site is to click on a region and country 
at the home page, then you'll go to a page with key facts about that country. 
For more information, you can click a button at the top and find out the 
weather, maps, a visitor's guide, news, key economic indicators, business 
contacts, hotel and car rental information, and useful Web links. For a fee you 
can get detailed research reports, but there's plenty of useful information 
here for free.  


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2003 REPORT ON FOREIGN TRADE BARRIERS
http://www.ustr.gov/reports/nte/2003/index.htm

One of the first steps in researching a foreign market is to determine if there 
are trade barriers that will impede you. The U.S. government prepares a report 
every year on foreign trade barriers, and you can find the latest one at 2003 
National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers 
<http://www.ustr.gov/reports/nte/2003/index.htm> ( 
http://www.ustr.gov/reports/nte/2003/index.htm ). This report is in Adobe PDF 
format (if you don't have Adobe, you can download it for free by clicking on 
the button at the top of the page), and it details the trade barriers for 
countries from the Arab League to Zimbabwe. It's a must-read for anyone doing 
market research. 

NATIONMASTER.COM
http://www.nationmaster.com

Here's a statistic I wish I knew when I was 25: in Latvia there are five women 
for every four men. I learned this fact at nationmaster.com 
<http://www.nationmaster.com/> (http://www.nationmaster.com), a site with 
interesting and useful facts about the world. You can spend hours here finding 
out which country has the most televisions (Christmas Island), the longest life 
expectancy (Andorra), the most educated people (Norway), the most land per 
capita (Greenland), and plenty of other fun facts. The focus here is on fun 
facts, as opposed to worldinformation.com, profiled above, which has business 
statistics. And by the way, in the interest of equality, the country with the 
best ratio of men to women is Qatar, which has almost two men for every woman. 





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As part of FITA's Global Trade Shop 
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the Global Trade Book Store <http://fita.m.xtenit.com/ct.jsp?uz327937Biz90817> 
( http://www.fita.org/marketplace/books.php ), a source of important books at 
huge discounts for running your international business. Featured books change 
often. Today's featured titles include A Basic Guide To Importing 
<http://fita.m.xtenit.com/ct.jsp?uz327937Biz90818>, Starting an Import/Export 
Business <http://fita.m.xtenit.com/ct.jsp?uz327937Biz90819>, and Start your own 
Import/Export Business <http://fita.m.xtenit.com/ct.jsp?uz327937Biz90820>, 
among others. Take a look! 
If you'd like to search back issues of Really Useful Sites for International 
Trade Professionals, there's a search page at 
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If you'd like to see all back issues of Really Useful Sites for International 
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