International trade opportunities between the United States and Essay - 1

International trade opportunities between the United States and Guatemala - Essay Example In the years between 1950 and 1990, the U.S. supplied the Guatemalan army with guns, military training, and financial resources. This period in Guatemalan history is filled with much political conflict and civilian bloodshed. Despite the growing economy, Guatemala is still a very poor country with 56% of the roughly 12 million inhabitants living below the poverty line. During the civil war as many as 1 million people left Guatemala and took refuge in the United States. Today remittance from Guatemalans working in the U.S. brings an amount of money to the country equalling the value of two-thirds of all exports (Guatemala, 2008). Half of the work force in Guatemala participates in the agriculture industry. The main exports are coffee ($473 million per year), fruits and nuts ($367 million per year), and sugar ($261 million per year) (International Trade Centre, 2005). Textiles, petroleum, perfumes, and other foods including plantains make up most of the other products exported from Guatemala. The manufacturing sector has been an important part of the international export industry. Clothing and textile fabrics account for a large proportion of exports as well. The United States is the recipient of nearly $1.1 billion worth of all of these export items each year. In return, Guatemala imports from the United States more than $676 million each year of grains including wheat and corn, soybeans, meats and animal fats, pharmaceuticals, paper products, and communications equipment. The United States provides over 34% of all Guatemalan imports and takes in over 42% of all its exports, making the U.S. one of its most i mportant trade partners (Guatemala Times, 2008). Current barriers to trade with Guatemala include past allegations of corruption from government officials. Confidence levels of investors may have been weakened by concerns about security in this historically war torn Central American country. However, Guatemala is

Australian Airline (Qantas) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Australian Airline (Qantas) - Essay Example Safety culture and excellence are the key components of the brand that could help in a smoother entry into other markets. Weakness Declining profits and the domestic passengers choosing to fly out of Australia on airlines other than Qantas has forced the airline to think of alternative routes. Significant differences in culture exist between the Asian countries and Australia, which could impact the marketing strategy. So far Qantas has been focusing on the western countries with similar cultures but entering the Asian countries would require alteration in the marketing approach, as the Asians are considered conservative (Articlebase, 2010). People skills would be necessary to compete in the Asian market. To expand in the Southeast, Qantas faces cultural challenges as Australia has low power distance while all Southeast Asian countries have high power distance (Hofstede, n.d.). Culture has a significant effect on problem-recognition, problem-solving and perception and cognition (Gilbe rt & Tsao, 2000). Such cultural differences can impact the satisfaction levels for the same product among global consumers. Opportunity The three most competitive travel markets in Southeast Asia include Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia (Chang & Cheng, 2005). In fact, the best performing airports in the ASEAN region are located in these three countries. Asia’s economic growth and the growing middle-class has helped fueled the growth of the airline industry. This segment continues to grow and provide expansion opportunities to the airlines. Asia is a highly dispersed continent and hence unlike UK and US, surface or rail transport across countries is not feasible. Air travel is the fastest mode of travel for business and leisure... This report approves that while Qantas enjoys its brand equity, it has been seeing profits fall over last several years. Expansion is the only solution and the target market should be the Southeast market, which it has ignored till recently. The opportunities in Southeast Asia are tremendous and Qantas should position itself as a full-service carrier and focus on product differentiation. It already operates a low-cost carrier, namely, Jetstar and hence should concentrate on FSC. Their image in Thailand was tarnished and hence they would need to project itself as a premium airline in all other Southeast Asian countries. Investments would have to be made in brand enhancement as well. Qantas intends using only narrow body aircrafts for the new carrier so that they do not have to fly to Europe. They also have decided to enter into partnership with Malaysian Airlines and they already have alignment with British Airways. This essay makes a conclusion that Qantas may have to apply flexible marketing strategies such as differential pricing, joint venture promotion campaign, multi-sales channel. Qantas has to use the hub as Singapore and focus on development new markets such as India and other nations, away from the Thailand, Hong Kong sectors. India is a promising destination and could also enhance the prospects of tourism for Australia. They could offer differential pricing and special offers for internet booking for developing new customers for added routes and even for their existing customers.