1hemisphere.com

Ex-FTAA Official, 1hemisphere.com COO Says Internet, Smaller Companies Key to Fair Trade

MIAMI, Aug. 15, 2000 --Instead of tear gas and street protests, the solution to America's ongoing debate over globalization and free trade may lie in two economic forces that almost everyone can embrace -- smaller, often family-run businesses and the Internet -- the former executive director of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), Michael Eastman, said today.

"It is now time for policymakers and protesters alike to focus less on what divides them and examine ways in which Internet-based technologies can help to deliver fairer and freer trade for the vast majority of citizens throughout the Americas and across the globe," wrote Eastman, President and COO of international trade portal 1hemisphere.com, in a guest editorial in The Miami Herald.

To date, and for a variety or reasons, small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have been left out of the free-trade equation -- even though SMBs employ most of the world's workers and produce most of its goods and services; in addition, most small- and medium-sized companies practice the good corporate citizenship some Fortune 500 companies may not, said Eastman.

"They don't close local plants in search of cheaper labor in other countries; they don't abandon local suppliers and customers during slow economic times; and, there's little if any evidence to suggest any small- or medium-sized company systematically flaunts local environmental restrictions in the name of higher profits," Eastman said ...

Miami-based internet portal 1hemisphere.com offered small- to mid-sized enterprise users from the U.S., Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean access to affordable e-commerce software and online tools, plus trilingual content produced by a team of researchers, writers and translators that included extensive country surveys and chamber of commerce and industry links, as well as useful country-by-country breakouts of information on import and export regulations.

The portal home page also featured the free, daily online news channel, 1hemisphereNews, with e-mail delivery to opt-in subscribers of the latest news and information on trade, finance and economic developments from throughout the Americas.

In addition to daily news briefs from the region on trade, finance and economics, produced by a team of writers and editors, 1hemisphereNews also carried hyperlinks to original morning news reports in newspapers in-country (see story example below).

Each news brief was accompanied by a thumbnail description of the respective country, the current size of its economy, relevant trade figures and chief imports and exports, along with the identity of its main trading partner.

The thumbnail component included an icon-sized map of the country, showing its size and location in relation to its neighbors in the hemisphere, which was also hyperlinked to a separate web page containing detailed information and trade links.

Information on current weather conditions and currency exchange rates for business travelers were also provided, as were links for feedback and e-mailing the news items with friends or business partners.

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Mexico Assembly Plants Face New Taxes

Oct. 30, 2000 (1hemisphereNews) - The incoming administration of President-elect Vicente Fox is telling owners of maquiladora assembly plants, which manufacture goods specifically for export, that his administration will make every effort to preserve their competitiveness, even in the face of new taxes set to be imposed on the assembly plants on Nov. 20.

A Fox transition team member, Carlos Angulo-Parra, told the daily El Economista that the incoming Mexican president will examine all the tax regimes that apply to the in-bond assembly plants and make a concerted effort to ensure that the plants' competitiveness is not diminished as a result of the new taxes. Angulo-Parra spoke to the newspaper during the convention of the National Convention of the Maquiladora Export industry.

Fox, who was elected in July, is slated to take office less than two weeks after the administration of outgoing President Ernesto Zedillo will be obliged under the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to impose new taxes on the maquiladoras ranging from 5 percent to 25 percent, Bloomberg News Service reported late Monday.

Maquiladora owners at the Cancun convention complained they were unaware of the pending taxes, which were reportedly only determined recently after three years of negotiations between NAFTA partners Mexico, Canada and the United States ...