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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 7,000+ 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:
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OUR FEATURED COUNTRY
SITE -- MALAYSIA
I'm not a big fan of reality t.v. shows, but I did watch a little
of last summer's "Survivor". I liked the setting, which was
the
Malaysian island of Pulau Tiga. Malaysia is an attractive
destination not only for reality t.v., but also for international
trade. This Southeast Asian country of 22 million people, is the
11th largest trading partner of the U.S. In the first quarter of
2001, Malaysian exports to the U.S. totaled U.S.$5.5 billion and
imports were U.S.$2.7 billion. It's a good country to investigate
if you're looking for trade opportunities in Asia, and here's an
excellent place to start your research.
Business-in-Malaysia.net
( http://www.business-in-malaysia.net/malaysia.htm) has
links to Malaysian news and information, statistics and
research, travel tips, advice on business etiquette, translations
of useful phrases, a glossary of international trade terms,
and more. This is the Web site of a trade consulting company,
but you can find plenty of useful information here without
becoming a client.
There are many more links to Malaysia at the FITA
site. Go to http://fita.org/webindex/index.html,
click on Regional Resources and Multi-Lateral Trading Areas
in the left column, then scroll down to Asia and click on
Malaysia in the drop-down box. Or simply type "Malaysia"
in the search box at http://www.fita.org.
GLOBAL INFORMATION NETWORK FOR SMES
Here's one for the little guys. If you have a small or medium-sized
business, the Global
Information Network for SMEs (http://www.gin.sme.ne.jp
) is a good site to check out. Createdby Ministers of the
G7 countries and members of the European Commission, this
network has links to useful trade information for dozens of
countries worldwide. You'll find information about local companies,
contact numbers for government and local business service
centers, policy information for investment and financing of
SMEs, tips on starting up an SME, economic data, news, and
research. No matter how small your business, you'll increase
your odds of trade success with these links.
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ANNOUNCING
WORLD POINTSSM -- the
rewards program that absolutely puts you first
http://www.applyonlinenow.com/us/FU2A-A000000WOI
You don't need another credit card - you need
a better one! The FITA Platinum Plus®
Visa® credit card with WorldPointsSM
is now available to U.S.-based subscribers to Really
Useful Sites for International Trade Professionals.
The FITA WorldPoints Visa card, issued by MBNA America
Bank, offers you the chance to earn everything from
tickets on any major U.S. airline (with no
black-out dates), car rentals or hotel stays in the
U.S., merchandise, even unlimited cash rewards.
What’s more, you can now take advantage of a 0%
Introductory Annual Percentage Rate (APR) on
all cash advances, including balance transfers, good
through your first 12 statement closing dates!+ All
this with no annual fee and unsurpassed benefits, perfect
for the international trade professional. To learn more
about WorldPoints benefits or to apply, click on http://www.applyonlinenow.com/us/FU2A-A000000WOI
(or copy this address into the location/address
field of your browser) Apply on-line now!
+ For rate, fees, features, and benefits
associated with the use of the card; or to apply, click
on http://www.applyonlinenow.com/us/FU2A-A000000WOI
and refer to the disclosures accompanying the online
credit card application.
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CUSTOMS, TARIFFS,
IMPORT DUTIES
Since a huge part of Hong Kong's economy depends on
trade, you'd figure they'd know a lot about customs duties
for other countries. And you'd be right. The Hong Kong Trade
Development Council's page of Customs,
Tariffs Import Duties ( http://my.tdctrade.com/webdir/directory_header.asp?catid=16
) has links to customs information for hundreds of countries
worldwide. Here you'll find information on documentation,
customs clearance time, taxes, fees charges, import and export
restrictions, contacts, and lots more useful information for
countries all over the world.
EARTH CALENDAR
I'm all for holidays; I think any day that gives us
an excuse to celebrate is a good thing. There are thousands
of holidays worldwide, and you can find a listing of them
at Earth
Calendar ( http://www.earthcalendar.net ). This handy
site lets you search for holidays by country, date, and religion,
and it's an effective tool for planning your business and
personal trips (after all, you don't want to schedule a trip
during a national holiday, when all the businesses will be
closed). There's also a chart that shows the phases of the
moon and eclipses for the year, although that may only be
of interest to sea captains and moon worshippers. All in all,
though, this is a worthwhile site.
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If you'd like to search back issues of Really Useful Sites for International Trade Professionals, there's a search page at http://fita.org/useful/search.html.
If you'd like to see all back issues of Really Useful Sites for International Trade Professionals, the full list is at http://www.fita.org/useful/archives.
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Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to others.
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Published by Federation of International Trade Associations
Copyright © 2003 Federation of International Trade Associations. All rights reserved.
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