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Trade Fact of the Week | May 27, 2009
Imports From Muslim Countries Have Fallen By Half This Year
President Obama's host Egypt's trade has held up better than most, with sales to the U.S. down by a relatively modest 9 percent from last year. Egyptian goods receive better treatment than most, through a tariff-waiver program called "Qualifying Industrial Zones" that allows duty-free clothing trade.
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Trade Fact of the Week | May 20, 2009
A Seventh of American Seaborne Exports Pass Through the Panama Canal
Last year, 73 million tons of American seaborne cargo transited the Panama Canal: Gulf Coast chemicals and grain bound for China, Korea and Japan; California manufactures and foods for Brazil and Europe, and so on. This was more than a seventh of the US' 486 million tons of outbound goods.
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Trade Fact of the Week | May 13, 2009
American Public Opinion on Trade Has Sharply Improved This Year
Three major polls -- Pew, NYT/CBS and Gallup -- find Americans more optimistic and positive about trade and trade policy.
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Trade Fact of the Week | May 6, 2009
Policy Is Not Everything
Telecommunications technology has cut international phone costs by 80 percent since 2000.
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Trade Fact of the Week | April 29, 2009
More People Are Reading
UNESCO's annual literacy survey estimates that 84 percent of the world's adults are literate -- the highest proportion on record, up from 82 percent at the turn of the century, 76 percent around 1990, and 56 percent in 1950.
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Trade Fact of the Week | April 22, 2009
The WTO Has Handled 391 Disputes Since 1995
The WTO's first five years featured 185 disputes, or roughly three per month. In the next five years, from 2000 to 2004, the dispute panels handled 141 cases, or a bit more than two per month; and since 2004 the total has been 67 cases, for an average of one per month.
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Trade Fact of the Week | April 15, 2009
The U.S. Trade Deficit is Down By 64 Percent.
Trends suggest that this year's trade deficit will be about 2.4 percent of GDP. This would be the lowest dollar-value deficit since 1999 or 1998, and the smallest relative to GDP since 1997.
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Trade Fact of the Week | April 8, 2009
Billionaires Hold One Percent of World Household Wealth
As of 2000, combining the United Nation's estimate of $125 trillion in household assets with Forbes magazine's contemporary estimate of $1.27 trillion in billionaire net worth, they apparently held a penny in each dollar of world private wealth.
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Trade Fact of the Week | April 1, 2009
Peak Cherry-Blossom Days: April 1-4
Japan's crisis contraction, stalemate in the Diet, and long-term declines in population and share of world GDP paint a melancholy picture. But there is also an alternative perspective, drawn from Japan's mix of soft power in culture and science, financial resources, and industrial strength that is more optimistic.
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Trade Fact of the Week | March 25, 2009
Trade is Falling Faster in 2009 Than in 1930
As G-20 members prepare to meet in London a week from Thursday, the International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization offer dark predictions concerning the world economy and trade.
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Trade Fact of the Week | March 18, 2009
Nigeria is Now the World's Most Prolific Filmmaker
Nigeria's National Film and Video Censors Board counted 1,687 new releases in 2007. In total, the film industry is said to generate over $250 million a year in revenue, making it a national industry comparable to cocoa processing.
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Trade Fact of the Week | March 11, 2009
Major U.S. Food and Drug Safety Revisions: 1906, 1938, 1973, 1997, ... 2009?
Launched in January, the House Energy & Commerce Committee's "FDA Globalization Act" proposal is intended to create a system able to inspect overseas factories regularly and fully, and trace each ingredient of a food, medicine, or personal-care product back to its source.
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Trade Fact of the Week | March 4, 2009
Tariffs Are One Percent of American Tax Revenue, But Once Were Half
Of the $604 million in tax revenues in 1909, $301 million came from tariffs (with clothes and food bringing in a quarter of all federal money).
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Trade Fact of the Week | February 25, 2009
Germany Generates Half the World's Solar-Cell Electricity
Germans installed 1131 megawatts of solar cells in 2007 and now have 3862 megawatts of solar cell capacity. The panels produced 4.3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity last year, or 0.7 percent of Germany's total 621 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.
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Trade Fact of the Week | February 18, 2009
Services Workers Are Now Eligible For Trade Adjustment Assistance
Yesterday's stimulus bill signing contained the first fundamental change to the TAA program in a half-century. An accord three years in the making, overseen by Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Charles Grassley (R-IA), reshapes TAA for the 21st century.
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Trade Fact of the Week | February 11, 2009
The World Has Lost 17 Currencies in the Last 12 Years
While the number of countries in the world is steadily increasing, the number of currencies is moving in the opposite direction.
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Trade Fact of the Week | February 4, 2009
IMF Goal for Global 'Stimulus': Two Percent of World GDP
The hopes for the roughly $1.2 trillion program are to support growth, create jobs, pay for projects with lasting value, and encourage international cooperation and coordination against the crisis.
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Trade Fact of the Week | January 28, 2009
The End of Poverty: Not a Dream
A promise to ease world poverty is entirely realistic; and though the poor abroad will not escape the current economic crisis, better trade policy this year can ease the blow.
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Trade Fact of the Week | January 21, 2009
Asia Spends More on Research than Europe
Asia's most sophisticated economies, including Japan and Korea, have been among the world's heaviest researchers for years. Science is reviving in India and China as well. Chinese research spending, relative to GDP, has doubled in a decade from 0.8 percent to 1.5 percent.
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Trade Fact of the Week | January 14, 2009
U.S. Imports Fell by $25 Billion in November
Both this drop, and the five-month decline from the July peak, are the fastest import drops since 1942.
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