Archive for January, 2010

January 28th, 2010

Customs: has your company been fully compliant?

Louise Chevanelle, Formation en Douane Louise Chevanelle, who has often provided training workshops and coaching on customs procedures to Laval companies, sent a self-evaluation grid for exporting SME. It presents major questions you should ask yourself as a leader, to ensure your business is in accordance with customs procedures. As she points out, business leaders tend to delegate all customs procedures with customs brokers, without carrying out control work on it. Without questioning their skills, customs brokers are not infallible and do not know your products as well as you.

It is important to remember that in case of error, it is you who are responsible and that fines for misrepresentation could be imposed upon you, even if no customs duties are applied to your products. In addition, customs authorities can and will ask you retroactive adjustments up to 5 years!

Without becoming an expert in customs procedures, it is crucial that you understand the process of customs declaration for your product and make regular follow-up on statements made by your broker or employees. For more information, please contact us and / or consult different sources as this Step-by-Step Guide to Exporting published by the Canada Border Services Agency.

Bruno Séguin

January 21st, 2010

Beware of words and commercials related to the Olympic Games in 2010!

Micheline Dessureault, a lawyer and officer of trademarks and also director of the intellectual property department at Joli-Cœur Lacasse sent us a very interesting statement last December on the restrictions imposed by law on the Olympic and Paralympics marks adopted by Canada to obtain the 2010 Vancouver Games. She noted that the use of common words like “2010″, “Winter”, “Gold”, “Silver”, “Bronze” and others will be prohibited in certain formulations and certain contexts. For all of 2010, companies will have no right to suggest they are associated with the Olympic Games, Paralympics Games or any organizing committee. The same restriction applies to images.

Bruno Séguin

January 18th, 2010

Are you an “In” or an “Out” Leader?

I recently read a very interesting article by Gill Corkindale, an executive coach based in London who’s come up with a new set of characteristics to define a good leader.  Corckindale says that executives have a preference for one arena, depending on their personality or culture. She’s drawn up a list of activities to help executives figure out what kind of leaders they are, and once they do, Corckindale suggests that they work to adopt a style that will make them more effective.

Read the article and see if you agree. Are you an IN or OUT leader

Samir Naoum

January 12th, 2010

Export forecast 2010: a guide for exporters

EDC issued during fall its forecasts for the year 2010. The table below summarizes the many perspectives presented in the document.

Global GDP Forecast by Country (%)

Top Markets

Share of World Economy (2008)

2008

Global Outlook 2009 (f)

Global Outlook 2010 (f)
NAFTA

24.9

0.5

-2.8

2.1
US

20.8

0.4

-2.5

2.1
Canada

1.9

0.4

-2.3

1.9
Mexico

2.2

1.4

-6.5

2.5
Western Europe

20.2

1.0

-4.1

0.8
UK

3.2

0.7

-4.5

1.9
EMU

15.3

1.0

-4.2

0.6
Other Countries

1.7

0.8

-3.3

0.2
Japan

6.3

-0.7

-6.0

0.7
Australia and New-Zealand

1.3

2.1

0.2

1.8
Asia & Pacific total

24.5

6.8

4.7

6.5
China, P.R. : Mainland

11.4

9.0

8.0

8.3
India

4.7

7.3

5.8

6.2
Asian NIEs

3.7

2.3

-2.6

4.1
ASEAN-4

3.1

4.8

0.4

4.5
Other East Asia & Pacific

0.5

6.6

4.0

4.98
Other South Asia

1.1

3.7

2.7

3.6
Eastern Europe & Central Asia

8.4

4.4

-7.2

1.0
Russia

3.3

5.6

-8.8

1.4
South America

5.8

5.3

-0.2

2.5
Argentina

0.8

6.8

1.3

2.0
Brazil

2.9

5.1

-.03

1.4
Central America

0.6

3.3

-1.2

1.4
Middle East & North Africa

4.8

5.9

1.7

3.7
Sub-Saharan Africa

2.0

5.5

0.3

3.9
Industrialized Countries

54.2

0.6

-3.4

1.6
Developing Countries

45.8

6.0

1.2

4.4
Total Global Economy

100.0

3.0

-1.3

2.9

Source: Global Export Forecast – Fall 2009, page 12. EDC Economics.

I consult annually the document produced by EDC and I consider this data in my annual planning. However, I attach great importance to the needs of my clients when selecting new markets in which to offer our activities.

If I make the parallel with you who are entrepreneurs, you should consider the document as a guide. Overall, it is Asia, with the help of China and India, which has the best potential for growth. Also, you must know your customers and your competition in order to properly direct your market development. I believe that there’s always room in the market for high value-added niche products, even in a market that is experiencing a contraction.

Véronique Proulx