Managing expatriates in a global company brings challenges large and small, from whether to guarantee them a position when they return home to whether to pay for their nanny to join them abroad. At LAN airlines, the company offers tax counseling, relocation services, help with permanent residency visas and many other perks to ease the transition of moving abroad and either staying or returning home, said Debra Hernandez, LAN’s human resources director for North America. Hernandez led the discussion on expatriate issues at the July 16 meeting of HR Connections… Read More
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WorldCity President Ken Roberts
Central America taking a beating in 2009
The last year South Florida did not tally more than $50 billion in import-export trade through August was 2006. Through August 2009, the Miami Customs district topped $50 billion, but barely, and remained 15.51 percent off the $59.52 billion record total through August of 2008.
With data for more than two-thirds of the year in place, it is clear the biggest losers in 2009, those suffering the most at the hands of the global recession, are the Central American nations of Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador. All of them have seen their trade with Miami drop below levels of 2002.
Honduras, South Florida’s No. 7-ranked trade partner, has seen its trade fall 24.58 percent through the first eight months of the year, when compared to the same eight months of 2008, and 6.28 percent when compared to the same time period in 2002. During the same 7-year period, Miami’s overall trade with the world increased 54.64 percent.
No. 8 Costa Rica’s trade is off 23.70 percent compared with 2008 and 4 percent from the 2002 level; Guatemala, No. 13, is off 14.91 percent from 2008 and 6.15 percent from 2002; and El Salvador, No. 16, has fallen 11.67 percent from 2008 and 17.65 percent from 2002. Those four countries alone have given back more than half a billion dollars in import-export trade from 2002, at the same Miami’s trade has increased $17.77 billion.
With Honduras and Costa Rica, the damage is greatest on the export side, shipments from South Florida’s airports and seaports. The primary exports to the two countries are quite different, however. Exports to Honduras tend to center around the apparel industry — cotton, fabric, yarn, for example — while Costa Rica’s are largely either technology-related — copmputer chips, computer parts, cell phones — or construction-related.
Guatemala, on the other hand, has seen a decrease in its imports into Miami. Like Honduras, Guatemala’s imports are led by the apparel industry, products like suits, sweaters, T-shirts, and fruits and vegetables. El Salvador’s losses are fairly evenly spread between exports and imports.
The impact on Honduras can be viewed another way, as well. For the previous two years, in data through August, Miami ran trade surpluses with Honduras, as the poor Central American nation’s buying power increased. Through August of 2009, what had grown to a $165.12 million surplus the year before is now a $122.68 milion deficit.
Miami has a $1.03 billion surplus with Costa Rica through the first eight months of 2008; by 2009, that had nearly evaporated, falling to $89.16 million and nearly erasing at least seven consecutive years of surpluses.
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