Florida: Fun, Sun and Global Trade

Byron Sutton, President of World Trade Center Orlando, shared the following Florida Trade information:

• 1 of every 4 jobs in Florida is related to Global Trade.
• Florida's Trade-related jobs typically pay 25% more than Tourism jobs.
• In 2008, Florida's Trade Industry was valued at $130 billion, compared with $40 billion for Tourism.
• 40% of all U.S. exports to Latin America pass through Florida.

Byron's quote: "Florida did $160 billion in trade (last year). Did you get your share?"

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Global Retail Giants

Wal-Mart is the world's biggest retailer, followed by France's Carrefour S.A., and Germany's Metro AG. The Top 10 are listed below. The top 250 Global Retailers can be found here.

Rank, Company, Retail Sales (US $mil)
1 Wal-Mart Stores, U.S., 401,244
2 Carrefour S.A., France, 127,958
3 Metro AG, Germany, 99,004
4 Tesco plc, United Kingdom, 96,210
5 Schwarz Unternehmens Treuhand, Germany, 79,924
6 The Kroger Co., U.S., 76,000
7 The Home Depot, U.S., 71,288
8 Costco Wholesale, U.S., 70,977
9 Aldi GmbH, Germany, 66,063
10 Target, U.S., 62,884

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Owning a Piece of America

Japan ($768.8 billion) became the top Foreign Buyer of U.S. Securities in December 2009, surpassing China ($755.4), which held the top spot since Sept 2008. For China, the shedding of U.S. debt marks a reversal that it signalled last year when it said it would begin to reduce some of its holdings.

Rounding out the top 6:
United Kingdom, $302.5 billion
Oil Exporters, $186.8 billion
Caribbean Banking Centers, $184.7 billion
Brazil, $160.6 billion

See table and footnotes here.

Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury

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Market Brief: Saudi Arabia

About half (50%) of Saudi Arabia's population is under 18 years old, and it has one of the highest population growth rates in the world. Saudi women visit malls four times a week, on average, and Saudis spend nearly $6 billion on clothes a year. Interested in learning more? Then check out an interview with Amer Kayani, a Senior Commercial Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia. The transcript is available here. The video interview is here. (The video could take about 20 seconds to load).

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China: The New Exporting Champ

China is now the world's largest exporter, surpassing Germany. Read more here.

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Global Branding

How can you build a Global Brand like Apple, Nike or Coca-Cola? Here are 3 steps:

1) Make sure your business or product names make sense to customers in other countries. For ex., sales of Starbucks' gingerbread Lattes zoomed when they began using the German word for "gingerbread" and rebranded the drink, the "Lebkuchen Latte."

2) Make sure product logos or symbols don't offend other cultures. For ex., if you're selling products in some Middle Eastern markets, a logo featuring the face of a woman might not be appropriate.

3) Register trademarks and Internet domain names in other countries to protect your intellectual property. Read more here.

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World Trade Center Orlando