Aspects of International Business

International Business The fundamental premise of all business, is trade. International trade is the basis of international business. International trade involved fulfilling the needs and wants of another country by selling products to that country. (Exporting)

It also involves bringing in products to satisfy the wants and needs of its own consumers. (Importing)

Exporting & Importing Exporting is the process of enabling products grown or made domestically to travel to a foreign country. Importing is the process of enabling goods to enter the domestic market.

Companies must carefully choose the products they wish to import or export. Example: If imported grapevines are discovered to have earth on them – they will be rejected and returned. If an agricultural product has been quarantined – it will probably be burned.

Cars must follow pollution guidelines if they are to be shipped to a country. (The reason we don’t always have the same cars as in the U.S.) If there are outbreaks of disease, that commodity will not be allowed in. Mad Cow disease has affected us in Canada since 2003… S. Korea is finally buying our beef again as of February 2012!

Importing There are various reasons to import: More convenient More economical (lower price) Better quality

Importing Where do you begin? We will read over ‘So you want to import?’ together. Finding the most cost effective but also the most reliable supplier is very important when importing goods.

Activity Using the ‘BBB4M Supplier Information Sheet’ handout – you are to find two different suppliers of the USB band (bracelet) the class is going to be selling. Let’s look over the form together….