Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Our Fashion Protection Webinar Voted a Top 25 Resource in 2015 by SCORE
Our “Fashion Protection: Trademark Basics and Fashion
Compliance” webinar was voted as one of the Top 25 Resources in 2014 by the
U.S. Small Business Association’s “SCORE” program!
In case you missed it, you can access it here
at no charge: http://bit.ly/1voKJZW
Questions/comments? Post below or email me at clark.deanna@gmail.com
On Twitter @fashcompliance
Monday, December 22, 2014
Registration Open for 2015 Africa Trade Conference
Next Fall will be the Trade Winds Business Development Conference in South Africa from Sept. 16 -18, 2015
Leading up to this event, there will be an eight-part webinar series to prepare participating U.S. companies for a more successful experience during the upcoming Trade Winds - Africa Trade Mission.
As
explained on the U.S. Commercial Services website, U.S. trade to and from
Africa has tripled over the past decade and U.S. exports to Sub-Saharan Africa
now top $21 billion. Africa is home to 7
out of the 10 fastest-growing markets in the world.
The
International Monetary Fund projects Sub-Saharan Africa to grow between 5 and 6
percent each year over the next two years.
Whether
your company is new to this region or is looking to tap into new markets, this
is the ideal launching point for expansion throughout the region. The conference portion will be hosted in
South Africa, during which time you can:
· Participate in a focused
business development conference, highlighting opportunities and challenges in
this extremely dynamic region
· Attend high-visibility business
networking events with leading industry and government officials
· Meet
one-on-one with top African business experts from the U.S. Embassies
and Consulates from the region for the latest trade leads and market
entry strategies
· Find a partner or customer
through screened business-to-business meetings in Angola, Ghana, Mozambique,
South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, and Tanzania
In addition, you can increase your benefit
by adding one or more additional participating countries to your itinerary. With increasing efforts by ACTIF and other textile partners, this is a conference the fashion industry may well want to attend. To learn more about it, click on the links above.
Questions/comments?
Post below or email me at clark.deanna@gmail.com
On Twitter @fashcompliance
Friday, December 12, 2014
Ambassador Froman’s Updates on TPP, T-TIP and Support for Greater US Exports
Last week I was privy to a discussion with the U.S. Trade
Representative Michael Froman on international trade and in particular, the
state of two trade agreements currently being negotiated, namely the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (“TPP”) and the Trans Atlantic Trade Partnership (“T-TIP”).
More info. on TPP can be found at http://www.ustr.gov/tpp
More info. on T-TIP can be found at http://www.ustr.gov/ttip
Whether you like it or not, negotiations continue to advance
on both the T-TIP and TTP as the government’s position steadfastly remains that
through trade agreements, foreign markets are opened up allowing for increased
sales of US products.
As described by Ambassador Froman, only 1% of small and
medium sized businesses throughout the nation export. The government wants to streamline procedures
to enable them to engage in greater export sales, including via e-commerce,
since over 90% of exporters are small and medium sized businesses, out of about
a total of 300,000 exporting companies.
Export related jobs pay 13% to 18% more than non-export jobs.
In addition to export increases, other benefits cited
include an ability to create “rules of the road” on things we (in the United
States) care about, including environmental and intellectual property
protections, as well as “leveling the playing field” with respect to worker’s rights.
Ambassador Froman further highlighted the benefits of the “InformationTechnology Agreement” expansion talks which had been postponed for a year but apparently will
support 60,000 new U.S. jobs, in addition to the new "Trade Facilitation Agreement" between
India and the US, which will reduce the costs of trade and other procedures by
10% for developing countries and 14% for developed ones.
Questions/comments?
Post below or email me at clark.deanna@gmail.com
On Twitter @fashcompliance
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