This guest article was written by William Laraque who is the Managing Director of US-International Trade Services.
Fintech has barely begun to reach its full potential. In places as diverse as Kenya, China and Sweden, much is made of the advent of the ‘cashless society’. This relates principally to Payments and online purchases and settlement. The prize, the brass ring, is in engaging in the flows of trade in goods, services and financing (including FDI) which will total $85 trillion by 2025, as estimated by the McKinsey Global Trade Institute (GTI) report of 2014. In comparison to this humongous volume of trade flows, payments and transfers are small potatoes.
Most crucial to success in trade is cybersecurity.
In order to capitalize on global trade flows a network or nation must be nurtured and guided by expertise in trade finance, deep knowledge of legal, business culture and compliance issues. Political smarts are also required because regulation and bureaucracy are inevitable aspects of the ecosystem where trade lives.
Most crucial to success in trade is cybersecurity. James Comey, the US FBI Director, has explained how cybercrime will eclipse terrorism as a clear and present danger to all economies in the not too distant future. I have pointed out in other articles that the high level of youth unemployment throughout the world contributes to the occurrence and intensity of cybercrime.
William Laraque, Managing Director, US-International Trade Services
My New Year's resolution is to be positive in 2016, so without further ado, here is the description of a portal/secure platform which provides a competitive advantage to the country/network engaged in the great global trade flows.
The Portal/Platform to Opportunity
The secure portal/platform encourages the creation of firms that are born global. These firms are capable of bilateral and multilateral trade at birth. The fact that they are led or guided by experienced, veteran business people provides the nurturing and coaching which is so necessary to the achievement of global engagement and success in the huge flow of trade in goods, services and investments.
The portal is the door to income participation and income generation for each participant.
Mutually-beneficial trade is two-way or multilateral trade which provides the trifecta of opportunity, employment and wealth for each country, through the portal.
The Portal
The portal is the door to income participation and income generation for each participant. Each of the services described in the platform is provided by a fee-for-service participant, a seller, to a buyer. Each participant is compensated in accordance with its fee-for-service schedule. This schedule is provided to the buyer of the indicated service in accord with a fee-for-service contract. The service categories are indicated in the portal. Each service provider subscribes to the platform in order to advertise the services each provides. Each buyer subscribes for the services required by entering the fee-for-service portal and contracting with individual service providers.
Portal Description
The purpose of a secure portal is to organize and provide structure to the process of obtaining the services necessary to engage in cross-border transactions. The portal would be a secure system which enables buyers and sellers of goods and services to purchase and sell as counterparties and to engage the support services of service providers, in order to successfully conclude international trade purchases, sales and investments.
The portal brings discipline and organization to international trade.
International trade is not a place for those who do not possess a deep knowledge of all these areas. The secure portal permits entrepreneurs and SMEs to take advantage of requisite knowledge without the need to build a staff, and successfully conduct and conclude international trade transactions profitably.
International trade is fraught with fraud and risk, with misconceptions about the fundamentals of how international trade is conducted and financed. The secure service platform permits cross-border transactions to be conducted in a private, safe and secure manner. A secure trade portal is as much an educational platform and compliance discipline as it is a means of executing cross-border transactions.
Expertise and extensive experience with every aspect of international trade make USITS the ideal home to manage and support a secure trade platform for entrepreneurs and SMEs in the United States or in any other country which has a facilitating ecosystem. The benefit is not only creation of well-paying US jobs and jobs in every country where the platform is provided, but creation of entire industries in those areas of the world where unemployment and underemployment are endemic.
Each country should have its own platform/portal. This would ensure the efficient and secure sale of its products and services.
Services Provided Through the Portal
- Access to international trade opportunities in goods, services and investments
- Sales agreement expertise to structure sales agreements and interpret trade terms and techniques
- Trade finance for short-term transactions
- Project finance
- Pre-and post-export working capital
- Bid and performance bonds
- Management of political and commercial risk with export credit insurance (ECI)
- A cybersecure Trading Platform
- Global IP protection
- Currency management
- Access to the programs of the US Ex-Im Bank and the US Small Business Administration (SBA) and ECAs of every country
- Access to Export Credit Insurance (ECI)
- Access to the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and its FDI counterparts
Service Providers on the Portal
- ECI
- Loans by credit unions, community banks, small regional banks
- US Ex-Im Bank and other ECA guarantees
- US SBA guaranties
- Marketing
- Secure Platform
- Export and Import Compliance
- Documentation
- Education
- Trade Finance and Settlement
- Law (Contracts and Agreements)
- Franchising
- PEFCO - Secondary market for Ex-Im guaranteed loans
- Service Delivery
Please feel free to ask any questions of the author.
