As of January 1, 2024, many domestic and foreign companies operating in the U.S. are required to file a Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) report to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in the US Department of Treasury. The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) enacted in 2021 created this new reporting requirement to learn more about the individuals behind the over two million companies being formed in the U.S. each year. It is part of the U.S. government’s efforts to make it more difficult for “bad actors to hide or to benefit from their ill-gotten gains through shell companies o ..read more

With the U.S. waging “wars of containment” on two fronts, companies are having to navigate an increasingly complex landscape of US trade enforcement measures in 2023 and beyond. Containing Russia Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in March 2022 provided a turning point in its already deteriorating trading relations with the West. The U.S., EU and other Western partners moved to impose sanctions against strategic sectors of the Russian economy, and to restrict trade in specified goods and services. Almost immediately, the U.S. revoked its Most Favored Nation (MFN) status with Rus ..read more

The moratorium on the imposition of customs duties on e-commerce transactions put in place by the World Trade Organization (WTO) is a necessary, but insufficient step for women traders to benefit from the worldwide growth of digital trade. The WTO E-Commerce Moratorium The 1998 WTO Ministerial Declaration on Global Electronic Commerce recognized that the growth of e-commerce was creating new opportunities for trade. This growth encompasses all forms of commerce that has been enabled electronically, however the final product or service is eventually delivered. On the Amazon e-commerce site, fo ..read more

Florida’s new immigration policy which took effect July 1, 2023, is already being challenged in the courts. It may prove to be not only bad law but may also be bad for trade. Immigrants are vital to the US Economy. They make up about 16.7% of the working population and create 25% of new businesses. Only 25% of the total number of US immigrants are undocumented (approx. 10.5 million people). In Florida, undocumented immigrants comprised 18% of the immigrant population and four percent of the total state population in 2016. While only a fraction of the state’s population is directly affected, F ..read more

In honor of the crucial role played by micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the global economy, the United Nations designated June 27th (2023) MSME Day. Worldwide, MSMEs account for 90% of businesses, 60 to 70% of employment, and 50% of GDP. While there is no universally accepted definition of MSMEs, the number of employees is a commonly used indicator. And while small businesses may have as many as 500 employees, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has estimated that 83 percent of all businesses were micro enterprises, having between 1 to 10 employees. If given the pr ..read more

Have you seen any of the latest TIkTok ads? In one, a young black man who runs a boxing school talks about how he was motivated by his mother to start and how much he has been helped by being able to promote his school on TikTok. Meanwhile, university campuses, government agencies, and other public entities around the world have banned or are considering placing a ban on the use of Tik Tok. What is going on? There are growing privacy concerns over how the owners of TikTok, the Chinese company ByteDance, handles user data. Fears are expressed that its very location in China gives the Chinese g ..read more

May is Small Business Month, and it’s a great time to celebrate the contributions of small businesses to the global economy. If you are a small business owner involved in import-export, taking advantage of preferential trade programs can help your business to thrive. The term “preferential trade program” in the broadest sense includes any trading arrangement between two or more countries that extends trade benefits and from which other countries are excluded. Two broad categories exist – 1) Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and 2) Trade Preference Programs. While complying with the rules can be cha ..read more

Climate change is one of the most urgent global challenges of our day, affecting many facets of our life, including the global economy and commerce. Rising temperatures, increased frequency of natural catastrophes, and other climate-related occurrences are wreaking havoc globally. Not only are countries forced to divert funds to address the challenges, they face drops in revenue generation and in service delivery. In this article, we explore the impact of climate change on global trade. Changes in global weather patterns are one of the major ways that climate change is affecting global trade ..read more

Source: LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR  Published: Thursday, March 23, 2023 In a recent interview with Latin America Advisor, Andrea M. Ewart, CEO of DevelopTradeLaw, discussed the rebound of tourism in the Caribbean after the COVID-19 pandemic. With the Caribbean being the most tourism-dependent region in the world, the pandemic had a significant impact on the region’s economy. Tourism to the Caribbean soared last year as 28 million people visited the region, a jump of more than 50 percent as compared to 2021, the Caribbean Tourism Organization announced March 7. The number of visitors to some Du ..read more

Food security! Nearshoring! Digital trade! New Regional Agreements! Climate change! As international trade continues to evolve, women traders are facing several new challenges and opportunities. How well are they prepared to meet and overcome these emerging scenarios in international trade and pursue the opportunities that they present? Food Security: The global pandemic and the war in Ukraine have created severe disruptions to global supply chains, particularly for basic food supplies. Pre-war Ukraine was a major agricultural exporter from which the World Food Programme had procured 40 ..read more