View original at logisticsviewpoints.com

There’s never a dull moment in the supply chain. That statement seems especially true thus far in 2017. We’re just over two months into the new year and there is already a myriad of questions about the market, the business landscape and how companies will be affected going forward. With issues such as changes to global trade deals, regulations and fluctuating capacity, we are quite certain that there will be an impact on the supply chain in 2017, and beyond, making it is vital for shippers, carriers and logistics service providers to keep a pulse on what’s going on in the industry. The New Administration and Trade There was a lot of talk leading up to the presidential election concerning changes that would be made to the United States’ trade agreements with other countries. And within the first week of the new administration, we have already started seeing those changes come to fruition. The U.S. pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and has escalated talks around renegotiating NAFTA or implementing a border tax. Pulling out of TPP was not a surprise, but it doesn’t mean that the U.S. won’t be trading with partners in Asia It just means that we won’t be signing a large and comprehensive trade pact with that region and we’ll rely on individual relationships with trading partners in that part of the globe. That might happen with NAFTA as well, but it’s far too early to tell. Right now, it appears that we’re examining all of our trade agreements to see if there are better deals out there for the U.S. While some of the rhetoric is disconcerting, I don’t anticipate a significant near-term impact. Mexico and Canada are our two largest exporting partners, and those relationships create a significant number of jobs in […]