These latest tariffs could have a serious impact on companies on both sides of the Atlantic. Trade has been a contentious topic for the food industry throughout Trump's presidency, and this 25% import tariff does not seem to be helping the situation. The escalating tariff strategy from the U.S. can hurt businesses financially, and industry groups were quick to voice concern about how this latest move will raise prices for consumers.
Source: Supply Chain Dive
A group of House Democrats who visited Mexico City on Tuesday said U.S. approval of the stalled U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement hinges on Mexico’s full implementation of a new labor law.
The five Democratic lawmakers met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador amid intensifying talks with President Donald Trump’s administration on getting congressional approval in the coming weeks for the accord known as USMCA.
“Our meeting with President López Obrador shed further light on the Mexican government’s desire and intentions to carry out its labor justice reform, but the United States needs to see those assurances put into action,” Richard Neal, the Massachusetts representative leading USMCA discussions, said in a statement after talks.
Source: American Journal of Transportation
U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Trade and the Commerce Department’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance have redesigned the antidumping and countervailing duty case management module in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE).
The module was deployed in CBP’s umbrella computer system on Oct. 5.
CBP said it worked with Commerce for about a year to “streamline” the antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) case messages and case reference data functions for the new ACE module.
Source: Freight Waves
Medicine suppliers are less prepared for a no-deal Brexit now than they were in the run-up to the original deadline for leaving the European Union, the government’s spending watchdog said.
By Sept. 20, pharmaceutical companies surveyed by the Department for Health had sufficient stockpiles for 72% of medicine product lines, the National Audit Office found in its report published last week.
In contrast, 91% of medicine product lines had been stockpiled in mid-February, six weeks before a potential no-deal exit on March 29, the NAO said. More than half of the 12,300 prescription-only and over-the-counter medicines come from the EU, it said.
Source: Bloomberg, Supply Chain Brain
Anyone buying ships over the next few years will have to think green.
The international shipping industry has committed to lower greenhouse-gas emissions by half come 2050, but there is a big catch. Neither the engines nor the fuels are there to back the ambitious target, and tens of billions of dollars must be invested as stricter emissions rules kick in.
There is almost unanimous agreement that ships, which have burned heavy oil, the most polluting propulsion bunker fuel, since they switched from coal in the early 20th century, must clean up. But nobody is quite sure how it can be done.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
The Indian government is again looking to sell its majority stake in the country’s biggest shipping company, but may face the same headwinds that have blocked past privatization efforts.
The Shipping Corp. of India is at the heart of the country’s industrial economy, with about 70 cargo vessels of all types worth some $1.2 billion. That makes it a key target for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bid to sell off state assets.
“A proposal to divest the state’s 63.8% holding has been submitted to the cabinet which will decide later this month,” said a ministry of shipping official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak with the media. “It’s part of a wider move to privatize a number of state assets.”
Source: The Wall Street Journal
