Really Useful Sites for International Trade Professionals


	Wednesday, May 7, 2003	Issue 58	Volume 3 Number 10

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:

OUR FEATURED COUNTRY SITE -- BRAZIL

http://www.brazilcham.com

Trying to do business in South America without having a foothold in Brazil is like ignoring a 500 pound gorilla in your bedroom. Brazil is South America's biggest and most influential country, and takes up almost half the continent. It has the 10th largest economy in the world, and is among the top 20 U.S. trading partners, with U.S. exports topping $16 billion in 2002. This is a land of many opportunities for international trade, and there are lots of sites to help you get started.

One very good one is the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce ( http://www.brazilcham.com ). Here you'll find links to government agencies, political parties, newspapers, Brazilian Chambers of Commerce, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and several trade lead networks.

There are many more links to Brazil 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 Latin America and click on Brazil in the drop-down box. Or simply type "Brazil" in the search box at http://www.fita.org.

PORTALS TO THE WORLD

http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html

In Internet jargon, a "portal" is a Web site that offers a large collection of links to a specific subject. Portals to the World ( http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html ) is an amazing project from the Library of Congress, with content-rich links to countries of the world. The links were selected by Area Specialists and other Library staff, so the sites are all useful and reliable. Each country's section has a wide range of broad categories (Business, Culture, Genealogy, Media, National Security, Travel, etc.), to make it more comprehensive. Note: this project is not yet complete, and some portals have a higher quantity and quality of links than others. As an example, the portal for Brazil has dozens of links in the Business, Commerce, Economy category, while the portals for China and Canada have only three links in that category, and they're probably not the most useful ones available.

VIRTUAL OFFICE.
All the benefits of a full-time office.
At a fraction of the cost.
http://www.HQ.com/redirect.asp?URL=Fitaenews2

For over 40 years, HQ has provided international businesses the ability to quickly establish a local presence in virtually every major US city - all at prestigious business addresses combined with a local phone number supported by live telephone answering.

"As an organization based in Canada, it was important for us to have a presence in our key US markets close to our clients. With HQ we were able to immediately get a presence in California, Texas and Boston, and have access to support services without the cost burden of traditional office space". Donna Artelle, Manager, Facilities, QNX Software Systems Ltd.

With HQ you can build your own Virtual Office:

Choose your own prominent business address from more than 200 locations
Book a furnished, private office or conference room whenever you need it hourly or daily
Get a local telephone number consistent with your business address, complete with 24/7 digital voicemail
Have an executive assistant answer your calls, forward your mail and support your administrative needs

Call 1.866.I-NEED-HQ (1.866.463.3347), mention FITA and receive one-month free membership on a six-month agreement. Click here to learn more ( http://www.HQ.com/redirect.asp?URL=Fitaenews2 ).

COUNTRY RANKINGS

http://www.photius.com/rankings/economy.html

I always thought Hong Kong was the most densely populated place in the world, but the Chinese territory of Macau, with a population density of almost 21,000 people per square kilometer, makes Hong Kong look like a ghost town. I learned this fact at Country Rankings ( http://www.photius.com/rankings/economy.html ), a nifty site that uses CIA World Factbook Data to rank countries by such things as population, income, size, birth and death rates, and lots of other parameters. It's a user-friendly way to get a feel for where a country ranks among the community of nations.

HEMISPHERIC DATABASE

http://198.186.239.122

If you need to find out tariff information or trade statistics for countries in North or South America, the best place to go is the Hemispheric Database of the Free Trade Area of the Americas ( http://198.186.239.122 ). There's a searchable database of information that's up to date and easy to navigate. There's even a handy User's Manual that will help you to get the most out of this useful site.

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.

If you are reading this because it was forwarded to you by a colleague and want to subscribe, click on "Subscribe" on the bottom of this page or click here and enter your email address.

Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to others.

TELL A FRIEND