Country analysis. Marketing resarch

US conventional long form is United States of America (USA) and conventional short form is United States (US). US is strong democratic nation with Constitution-based federal republic government type. Its capital is Washington DC. US have 50 states and one district. US was declared an independent nation on 4 July 1776 and was recognized by Great Britain on 3 September 1783. Its constitution was formed on 17 September 1787 and become effective from 4 March 1789.

There are just few companies that produce alternative medicine. Alternative medicines compete with conventional medicines, although they are not included as a part of conventional medicines but they face competition from these medicines. Alternative medicine industry covers all medicines and health care products that are not covered under conventional modern medicine.

In healthcare industry competition is limited because licensing is important and licensing limits entry. Regulations make sure that minimum quality is maintained and for this many professionals replace licensing with certification. And when the market of alternative medicine faces direct competition on quality and price , government set minimum quality standards should be reassessed (Danzon, 2002).

Competition not well investigated

Canada

4.1 Country Profile:

4.1.1 Country Overview

Geography:

Canada is locate at the Northern of the North America , bordering the North Atlantic ocean and North Pacific Ocean. Area wise, Canada is located at the strategic point between Russia and US through north polar route and is the second largest country in the world after Russia. Canada is little larger than US. Around 300km near the US- Canada border , approximately 85% of the population live. Its south has temperate climate and north has arctic and sub-arctic climate. Canada is mostly plain country with mountains in west and lowlands in south-east. Its highest point is Mount Logan 5,959 m and lowest point is Atlantic Ocean 0m (Canada, 2012) .

Demography:

As per July 2011 estimates, Canada has 34.03 million population, covering 9,984,670 million sq km area. Its capital is Ottawa city. Canada is the land of multicultural people who have settled from all over the world. The country has two official languages; English and French. There are several religions followed in Canada, namely, Roman Catholic 43%, protestant 23%, other Christian 4%, Muslim 1% and some other 11% and none 16% (Canada, 2012).

Government:

Canada is a federal state with democratic system with constitutional monarchy and government is based on Westminster model (Canada, 2012).

Your discussion is scattered. You can put these section together.

Economy:

As per 2011 survey, Canada’s nominal GDP is US$ 1,737 billion. In Canada, around 19 million people are working as labour force and unemployment rate is 7.5%. Canada’s major industries are automobile manufacturing industries, pulp and paper industry, extraction of fossil fuels industry, agriculture, iron and steel work, machinery and equipment manufacturing and mining industry. As per 2011, its gross government debt is C$ 1460 billion, government debt is 85% of GDP

Background:

After developments in the USA, that is after the endfinish of civil war, a mew movement of unification of the colonies of British North America begins. It has resulted in the formation of new nation called the Dominion of Canada. Canada was created by the British North America Act of 1867 and proclaimed in Canada on 1 July 1867.

4.1.2 International business/ trade:

Canada is the member of many international groups like North America Free Trade Association (NAFTA); North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); Organization American States (OAS); G8, G20; World Trade organization(WTO); La Francophonie (Canada, 2012).

Country’s export as per 2011 estimation is US $ 462.4 billion. Canada mainly exports commodities like machinery and equipment, automobile and parts, high-technology products, oil, natural gas, forest and farm products and metals. Imports were recorded at US$ 493 billion by importing commodities like motor vehicle and parts, mineral fuels and oils, industry goods, plastic, machinery, electrical machinery and equipment.

Canada mostly trade and invest in the US? in British companies of all sizes dealing in all business activities. Canada is positioned among one of the top 10 countries with advance industrial power and is one of the world’s richest and most developed country. People living in Canada enjoy high standard of living. Canada offers good trading options to British companies because of its stability, I economic growth and low inflation. Major area open for trade are energy, food and drink, aerospace and biotechnology. In 2002, the Canadian government announced to invest $108m in the Canadian digital content industry. Its service sector is also flourishing by making it privatized. There are also good opportunities for technology transfer between UK and Canadian companies by establishing strategic business partnerships.

In trading goods, Canada is UK’s third largest export market after US and China. In 2011, the total goods exported to Canada amount £4.5 billion comprising of energy products, industrial goods and machinery equipments. And in trading services, Canada is UK’s 11th largest market. For Canada, UK is the second largest foreign direct investor after US.

What is the relevance of UK here? I thought your destination was Saudi Arabia.

4.2 Political Characteristics and Governance:

4.2.1 Political Conditions

There are many political parties at federal and provincial level. Federal level parties are: Conservative party, Liberal party, Bloc Quebecois and New Democratic Party (NDP). Provincial levels parties are; The Progressive Conservative party, the Parti Quebecois in Quebec, the Saskatchewan Party and the Yukon party (Canada, 2012).

There are 308 electoral districts in Canada and voters in each district elect one Member of Parliament (MP) to send to the House of Commons. The Canadian parliament consists of two chambers namely, the House of Commons and the Senate. Direct voting assign members for the House of Commons for five years. And the Senate members are assigned by Governor general to serve until they reach 75 years of age, these members are selected on the advice of the Prime Minister.

4.2.2 Government’s international trade and investment policy

Canada has friendly relations with US and United States is the main trading partner of Canada with Mexico , in the North America Free Trade Association (NAFTA). Canada and us are the members of NATO. Canada is also a member of World Trade organization (WTO) and has also expanded free trade areas. Canada is also involved in many other foreign policies like promoting international peace or security through multilateral bodies and also respect human rights. In 2011, Canada‘s participation in the NATO mission in Libya has worked and contributed towards maintaining stability in Afghanistan. In November 2011, when combat troops were withdrawal, Canada begins its training mission in Afghanistan

4.2.3 Regulatory Barriers

Before exporting to Canada, there are few things that should be kept in mind. Doing business in Canada is not similar to doing business in US. You should be aware that Canadian market is slightly smaller than US market because Canada’s population is one tenth the population of US. It should also be remembered that Canada is an international market with its own trade customs and regulations. So exporters have to be little cautious while exporting goods to Canada. Canada cities like Toronto and Montreal holds 90% of the markets for all goods and services. This shows that exporters need to concentrate on only few selected areas. Exporters need to establish their agents in country that help to form a close relationship in these locations.

There are few main barriers to US imports of goods as compared to other countries. Initially there are import tariffs but after the trade agreements between US and Canada , all import tariffs have been eliminated. But still Canada continues with its regulatory requirements of trade on US imports. Another issue which was raising concern was labeling, most provinces in Canada requires labeling to be done in both languages English and French (Exporting to Canada).

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4.3 Physical and Commercial Infrastructure
4.3.1 Physical infrastructure

Physical resources in Canada includes all the things that we need to carry our livelihood. It includes, roads, power plants, communication equipment, public service buildings, military assets, properties, furnishings, warehousing, transportation and many more (Infrastructure, 2010).

Nations infrastructure includes all the things that are used by public like transportation, communications, distribution, energy, engineering, cultural and military assets etc. All these things represents development of a nation, if these things are well developed and improves people lifestyles, it reflects that nation is developing or developed. From last many decades physical resources are being used and few of them have obsolete and need renewing. To meet the ongoing progress, Canada also needs to make use of advance technology to build new infrastructure. Use at least grammar check in word.

There is uneven growth and distribution of physical resources across the nation, this is due to Canada’s geography, and distribution of natural resources. Therefore, there is a need to establish a more equitable future development of infrastructure physical resources by utilizing the technology so that Canada can grow progressively (Infrastructure, 2010).

You don’thave data here!

4.3.2 Business Operating Environment

Canada’s currency is dollar known as “Loonie”. Its convertibility is 1 dollar is equal to 100 cents. Loonie refers to a native bird (Canada, 2012).

As per 2011 estimates its inflation rate is 2.9%.

Each Canadian province and territory has their own set of governing laws to carry out business. When establishing business operations in Canada, companies consider tax processes, business processes and form of business organizations. From tax perspective, it is always advisable to open a business organization through a subsidiary corporation instead through a branch. While other forms of business organizations popular in Canada are Co-operative Corporation, Joint Venture, limited partnership, general partnership, licensing, distribution, agency or franchising arrangement.

In establishing incorporations in Canada the following provisions needs to be followed; The corporate name should be different, it should have different trade name or trade-mark. The corporate name should not include legal element like Ltd. or inc. Corporate may issue unlimited number of shares belonging to different classes. Corporation should have a minimum number of directors at least one unless it is a public company. Shareholders share limited liability (wright, 2010).

Again, section 4 is all about data and you don’t have enough of that

4.4 Source country experience in the target country you misunderstood this section

Its major trading partners are United States, UK, Japan and China. In Canada small businesses are less satisfied with the operations of banks and are more likely to switch off their bank services. These businesses have doubled their deposits in average retail customers and taken four times higher loans for doing business.

4.5 Product/Service fit:

It has been found that Canadian choose alternative medicines when they fail to get any help from conventional medicines to treat their health problem. People who do not faith conventional medicines are the major consumers of alternative medicines. In Canada, people consume alternative medicine not because they believe in its benefits but because they have negative past experience of taking conventional medicine which informing them to choose alternative medicine with no other option left. Therefore people in Canada are selecting alternative medicine for pragmatic reasons.

But now , people have start believing the alternative medicines, and this population does not choose to take conventional medicine at the same time. People consuming alternative medicines are paying out of their own pocket, as there is no insurance involved with alternative medicines. This means that if people stick to the conventional health care method of treatments, they have the chance to reimburse from government but if they use other options then they have to bear the cost of tehir healthcare.

Most people who become the followers of alternative medicines are those who suffer from chronic diseases and does not receive any help from conventional medicines. People opt alternative medicine not just because of the nature and duration of the illness, but also due to age, gender, and educational level and health beliefs. Other factors that decide the acceptance of alternative medicine is knowledge of available treatment and level of income.

People who are choosing to try alternative treatments had taken their well-being and health in their own hands and are going beyond conventional practice and are also taking the risk of using treatments that have yet to be validated by scientific evidence (Wellman).

Similar comment as for U.S.

4.6 Target Market Characteristics:

Before starting alternative medicine in Canada it should be understand that this product can be rewarding but at the same time requires lots of challenges like regulations, financing, licensing, taxation, management, advertising, and much more. It has been estimated that demand for alternative medicine continue to grow in Canadian market. Canadians used alternative therapies an average of 8.6 times during the year previous to the 2006 survey.

There are some practitioners who choose to sell these alternative medicines under cosmetic category for retail aspect. Establishing this business requires appropriate licensing and permits. In Canada, you must involve municipality along with provincial/territorial and federal governments while creating any business. Business has to obtain license under its jurisdiction , this shows that there is no uniformity throughout the country regarding municipal licenses for businesses (Starting an Alternative and Complementary Health Care Business).

4.7 Competition and competitive barriers:

Licensing have limited the competition in healthcare industry and has increased the costs of the treatments. Canadian alternative medicine markets are run by few companies because it requires licensing. Alternative medicine competes with conventional medicines and mainly all the alternative medicines are domestically produced in Canada so are not expensive also.

References
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Canada. (2012, September 20). Retrieved November 17, 2012, from http://www.fco.gov.uk/: http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/country-profile/north-central-america/canada/
Cathy Wong. (2004, June 03). Alternative Medicine Use on the Rise in the US. Retrieved November 17, 2012, from http://altmedicine.about.com: http://altmedicine.about.com/od/alternativemedicinebasics/a/CAMuse.htm
Chapter 4 Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights.
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Danzon, P. M. (2002). Health Care Industry. Retrieved November 17, 2012, from http://econlib.org: http://econlib.org/library/Enc1/HealthCareIndustry.html
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Wellman, M. K. (n.d.). HEALTH CARE AND CONSUMER CHOICE: MEDICAL AND ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES. Retrieved November 17, 2012, from http://www.utoronto.ca/: http://www.utoronto.ca/CAMlab/publications/col_health_care_consumer_choice.html
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wright, D. (2010). Guide to Doing Business in Canada. Canada.

PLAGIARISED PART SHOULD BE REDONE AND RESUBMITTED!!!!