International Trade Blog

To successfully conduct business we all need labor force. More precisely we need highly educated labor force. But is this actually true? Well it might not be.

The general conception is that the higher the education the higher the productivity and effectiveness. As a concept it applies perfectly, but in real life world economy would crumble if there were no more uneducated, cheap labor. Like it or not most economies is based on cheap uneducated labor and low salaries. Today it is almost a must to obtain higher education and it actually does not matter in what sphere. Apparently all you need is a paper that states that you have ‘’obtained’’ a higher education. Somehow we seem to have forgotten about professional education and mostly concentrate on academic education. While on one hand it may be a good thing as we increase overall knowledge level, but on the other hand now we have an overproduction of marketing and communication specialists. Do not misunderstand, I do not want a world of illiteracy, I just think we have to remember that there is a technical side of higher education.

Education is somewhat bad news for business people. The more educated the more demanding the people become, meaning that demand for higher salary will increase. Yes currently the labor force of Asia is the preferred labor market for western manufacturers, but as the overall education level of Asia is rising so will the salary requirements. Sooner or later the labor costs in Asia will reach the general level of other advanced countries. Where will the manufacturers turn their sights? Africa, Central America or maybe they will choose a more science fiction approach – AI and robots. I am not ready to predict that. We will just have to wait and see what the future holds.

The times are hard for everyone, countries are weakened by the global crisis, companies suffer great loses, but the actual biggest looser is the Average Jo; meaning you, me and basically most people in the world. Somehow we tend to forget. But I do not blame anyone because who actually cares about an Average Joe?

When countries and corporations think in billions and millions, all the Average Joe cares is about the next salary and the possibility to feed himself and his family. When corporations are worried about the loss of profits, the only worry for Average Joe is to survive. Today we have lost such a luxury possibility to quit the job if we do not like it because the chance to find a new and better job is very small and most of us simply cannot afford a time of unemployment. So we are ready to do anything or employer asks us to do, we accept salary cuts without any protest, we do extra work without any additional pay. Basically we do anything to stay on the good graces of our employer. The worst part is that the employer knows we have no other choice and many of them, not all of them of course, take full advantage of that. When your employer decides to cut salary does he or she actually prove that the financial situation of the enterprise is bad? More often than not no because they do not have to do that, after all we currently have the global economic crisis and this fact justifies almost anything. So we are screwed and have to accept any cut our employer deems necessary. Of course there are enterprises that have valid reasons to cut salaries to survive the crisis, but I am convinced that some just use the global crisis as a cover to decrease costs and increase profits. Because lets face it if global crisis means that someone is loosing that means that someone has to be winning. I believe there are people who are benefiting and profiting from the crisis.

But after all what can an Average Joe do? Virtually nothing! We have to move with the flow and hope for the best. Of course we can go on strikes and protest marches, but more often then not; this will not provide the necessary the results. We always have been only pawns in this game of chess we call life.

What do I mean with this? It is advertising. Sometimes it my drive you mad, but sometimes it might be quite helpful. Every enterprise needs some sort of advertisement; it just has to be in a healthy amount otherwise it may turn to the dreaded spam advertising.

Today we see advertisements everywhere; on the street, on TV, in newspapers and the internet. I believe that as soon as someone discovers the necessary technology advertisements will be infused also in our dreams. While I sometimes almost have a nervous breakdown because of the advertisements during my favorite TV show, I do understand that the advertisements pay for my show. Yeah, the entrepreneurs need to advertise their product, but I do not think that massive advertising campaigns are necessary the right way to achieve profit. Actually how many times after watching an advertisement you have gone to your local supermarket and bought the advertised item? The more frequently advertised the more I hate the item, but that is just me. I really do not think that TV ads are the most effective means of advertising.

I view internet and newspaper ads somehow different. In a good way I might add. These advertisements have one significant difference from TV ads; they provide the opportunity to ignore them. Of course I am speaking only about the legitimate internet advertisements and not about the pop-up ads, that’s just spam, but I think that I already have covered them in a previous post. All the advertising banners and offers do not bother me, but if I see something that provokes an interest in me I often click them just to see the offer and then on occasion I even buy the product. The same applies to newspapers because sometimes I read the ads sections just for fun, but actually find something interesting and valuable. And I do not care how many advertisements are there because I simply can chose not to read them.

Advertisements are a necessary tool in business, there is no denying that, but be smart sometimes less is more. You will not be able to force people to buy your product with insane amount of advertisements. All you can do is provide an option and hope for the best.

Now is the time of recession, the global economic crisis is ravaging through the world and ordinary people struggle to scrape by. When this all will end or at least when things start to improve? Well not everything is as bad as it sounds. Some small rays of hope start to shine through the dark skies.

I can only speak about the processes in my own country, but probably these things can be applied to a global level. Well our salaries have been cut and the living costs are still high, but something has started to change. Food is becoming increasingly cheaper. Although we already experienced price drops for high end goods, this decrease finally benefits us all. At least the chance to feed the family is somewhat increased. Some services are becoming cheaper and more affordable, for example, in the construction sphere. Basically the construction costs before the crisis had reached ridiculous heights and construction men were making really unfair profits. A simple help earned more than a college professor. At least the crisis cooled them a little bit down. More and more special offers appear on the market as entrepreneurs have understood that only a good offer will convince the potential customer to act.

People will always have the need to relax and travel. If a year ago most popular travel destinations were more exotic countries like Egypt or Turkey, today people are realizing that there are things to see and experience in their own country. It has two positive effects; the costs for traveling can be significantly decreased and all the spent money remains in our own country thus boosting the economy. Despite the economic crisis domestic tourism sector is increasing its productivity. The situation will probably change when the effects of the crisis decrease, but for now we must be happy with what we get.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel and, although I cannot tell you how long this tunnel is, I refuse to give in to despair. If nothing else works remind you one thing – it cannot get much worse as it is now and if we survive today we will surely survive tomorrow.

Internet – the final frontier where no man has gone before. Actually this line is bullshit and should be used only in science fiction movies. Internet has become a part of our everyday life, a simple and ordinary thing. But is it really?

The internet its victory march in 1990’ties and today is used by billions of people worldwide. It made the world grow smaller as it seemingly eliminated the distances between countries. In general term – internet is a large sandbox and everyone is invited to play. All in all a great idea as it vastly improved communication of the whole world. The internet acts also as an unlimited library and you can find anything there. If you can not find something that means it does not exist. Internet also provides an excellent platform for conducting business may it be from a large office building or from your dining room. Still you must remember one rule your parents thought you when you were small – do not speak to strangers. At a certain degree it also applies to the internet.

The internet provides a certain level of anonymity, but a keyword here is ‘’certain’’. Nothing is really anonymous. When communicating with other people on the internet you must be very careful because if you do not know the person in real life how can you be sure of anything he or she tells you. A clever person can find out a lot about another person, starting from the address and finishing personal passwords. Believe me there are some people out there who see the internet as a means to conduct their schemes and scams. So be very careful what kind of information you share because it can hurt you more than it benefits. Let’s not forget about all the pages who offer the possibility to upload personal photos and information. Personally I cannot stand all these homepages (I won’t mention which ones, but you probably can guess), but that’s just my opinion. Dos this mean that I deem the entire internet as evil? Hell no, I just think very carefully what information I divulge.

So what should we do? Well it is sure as hell that I won’t be the one to tell you what you have to do. Only thing I will do is give you this advice – think twice before you speak or in this case write. Not everything out there is all nice and peachy. Act responsibly and everything should be okay.

The global economic crisis has affected us all in one way or another. Fore some the consequences of the crisis was the loss of a job, but those who were luckier it meant only a significant cut in pay. Well in general I understand that to overcome such troubled times we must consolidate our efforts and try to help our respective countries and employers and although I am not that into conspiracies I am starting to believe that someone out there might be using this situation to his or her benefit. Continue reading »

A while back I wrote about the site Alibaba. To understand how this site works and how to benefit from it, the evolution and  history of the site must be examined.

Business-to-Business site Alibaba.com belongs to company Alibaba Group which was founded in 1999. There are several sites which are owned by Alibaba Group. Most of these sites are made to trade, communicate and interact within China. Alibaba.com is for English speaking international trade participants – small and medium sized businesses. Continue reading »

Yes we all know that internet and global market can be very profitable and nowadays you can make money by trading with the whole world. But remember this: where there are opportunities for profit there is also fraud and scam. Not everyone who you might meet on the internet is the honest businessman. There are people in the world whose business idea is to scam other people and turn this into profit. Believe me as the global market is developing so do the scammers. So I will provide with some hopefully useful tips to avoid being scammed. Continue reading »

By Pauline Go

International trade can be broadly termed as exchange of goods and services between two countries or across two international boundaries. Trade between nations existed from ancient times. International trade often had a significant influence in determining the socio-economic, political and cultural scenario of a country.

International trade between two countries is heavily influenced by the existing bilateral relations between the nations. During the early times, international trade was strictly regulated and was under the influence of high tariffs. During this period, countries mainly adopted the policy of mercantilism where the inflow of capital determined the prosperity of the nation. However, with the advent of globalization and industrialization during 19th century, these regulations have been relaxed and the concept of free trade has been adopted. In this model, the trade is not regulated by any government-imposed restrictions which include taxes and tariffs. All the developed and economically powerful nations including United States, United Kingdom and the entire Europe have been the strongest advocates of this policy. Continue reading »

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