President’s Letter – March 31, 2011: Pursuing New
Market Opportunities
Last week TIA hosted a meeting with the Gulf Standards Organization
(GSO), which is the standard setting arm of the Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC) – a developing “common market” of six Gulf
states: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar. (Yemen
also is in the process of joining the GCC.) The nations of the GCC
have a combined population of 38 million, of which 60% are under 18
years of age … and they have money to spend.
The GCC is modeling its common market after the European Union –
eliminating trade and travel barriers between the nations, coordinating
their institutions and working toward the establishment of a common
currency. Currently, products from outside the GCC can be imported
into the region through one point of entry and distributed throughout
the region.
The GSO was formed to work toward integrating product standards and
conformity assessment systems among the states so that products can
qualify to be sold in the region by meeting one set of standards. By
July of this year, the GSO’s objective is to have all toys sold in
the region tested to GCC standards and, subsequently, bearing a GCC
mark.
The GSO is wisely surveying other existing product standards and
conformity assessment systems to craft a scheme that will serve the
needs of their region by drawing upon best practices.
During their meetings in the U.S., representatives from several
industry sectors made a strong case for the flexibility and efficiency
of a system that relies upon private-sector organizations to develop and
maintain sound standards. TIA and its members stressed the
enviable record of safety for toys designed, produced and tested to meet
the federally mandated ASTM F963 toy safety standard. In fact, an
invitation was extended for a representative of ASTM to visit Riyadh to
work with the GSO on their standard development.
DID YOU
KNOW
In China alone, there are 10 million babies
born annually, which is the equivalent of creating a new nation of
Hungary every year.
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Many U.S. industries – including toys – have long satisfied
their growth needs domestically; as our population ages and growth
slows, however, we will need to look across U.S. borders for new
expansion opportunities. The high proportion of youth makes the
GCC common market an attractive emerging opportunity for the toy
industry. There are other such opportunities in developing nations
such as Brazil, India and China.
From our sponsorship of U.S. toy company pavilions in foreign trade
shows to our current focus on bringing additional foreign buyers to
TIA’s go-to-market trade events, TIA is helping to develop those
opportunities for our members. Our participation in the Commerce
Department’s International Buyers Program, for example, brought
buyer delegations from 15 nations to Toy Fair 2011 and, overall, we saw
a 20% increase in attendance by the top global toy retailers. This
program has been a huge success and we look forward to seeing it –
and our other trade-expansion initiatives – continue to
thrive.
If your company is interested in how TIA can help you grow your
exports, please send a note to info@toyassociation.org and
the appropriate member of our TIA team will respond with more
information.
Warm regards to all,
Carter Keithley
ckeithley@toyassociation.org
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