v2.4.0.8
Change in Accounting Principles
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2013
New Accounting Pronouncements and Changes in Accounting Principles [Abstract]  
Changes in Accounting Principles [Text Block]

Note 2Change in Accounting Principles

 

Effective January 1, 2013, we early adopted, on a prospective basis, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2013-05, “Parent's Accounting for the Cumulative Translation Adjustment (CTA) upon Derecognition of Certain Subsidiaries or Groups of Assets within a Foreign Entity or of an Investment in a Foreign Entity.”  This ASU resolves the diversity in practice about whether FASB Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Subtopic 810-10, Consolidation—Overall, or Subtopic 830-30, Foreign Currency Matters—Translation of Financial Statements, applies to the release of the CTA into net income when a parent either sells a part or all of its investment in a foreign entity or no longer holds a controlling financial interest in a subsidiary or group of assets that is a nonprofit activity or a business (other than a sale of in substance real estate or conveyance of oil and gas mineral rights) within a foreign entity. This ASU clarifies that ASC Subtopic 830-30 applies to sales within a foreign entity and thus the CTA should not be released into net income unless those sales represent the complete or substantially complete liquidation of the reporting parent's investment in the broader foreign entity. This ASU also requires the release of all the related CTA into net income upon gaining control in a step acquisition of an equity method investment that is considered to be a standalone foreign entity, and a pro rata release of the related CTA into net income upon a partial sale of an interest in an equity method investment that is considered to be a standalone foreign entity.