Gebruder Weiss is expanding its import consulting operations in the U.S., the transport and logistic company said in an Aug. 4 news release. “By expanding our import consulting services, we're demonstrating our commitment to our customers so that they have a true partner in the U.S. import process,” Mark McCullough, CEO of Gebruder Weiss USA, said in a statement.
Buyers of transformers and transformer components have formed a trade group called The Core Coalition to argue that imports of transformers, cores, laminations and other transformer inputs “do not threaten the national security of the United States,” even if those imports increased after tariffs were placed on steel.
May PC monitor imports soared from April at a rate nearly four times that of laptops and tablets, the connectivity tools most commonly associated with COVID-19 stay-at-home mandates, according to Census Bureau figures accessed July 26 through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb. May brought the highest monthly unit imports of monitors in 10 months.
Combining trade software companies International Trade Systems and GMS International will result in “one of the most powerful cloud-based logistics software platforms on the market,” ITS said in a July 21 news release. “Representing second-generation companies that have been leaders in logistics technology for 30+ years, ITS and GMS are combining their assets, wisdom, and experience to form one powerhouse entity,” ITS said. The companies will jointly launch “ITS NextGen 2.0, a new and innovative system which will provide an integrated online customs brokerage and freight forwarding cloud-based platform,” it said.
Nearly 200 unions and nonprofit organizations asked fashion brands “to cut all ties with suppliers implicated in forced labor and end all sourcing from the Uyghur Region, from cotton to finished garments, within twelve months,” a July 23 news release said. The groups criticized a Retail Industry Leaders Association statement that it does not tolerate forced labor, and that conditions in Xinjiang make auditing supply chains difficult. The advocates say that RILA has “offered no credible explanation” as to how apparel brands and retailers can avoid forced labor “while continuing to do business in a region where forced labor is rife.”
The $38 million in Section 301 tariff costs iRobot incurred in 2019 inflicted a hit of three percentage points on its gross margin for the year, CEO Colin Angle said. IRobot assumes the List 3 tariff exclusion it landed in April on the robotic vacuum cleaners it sources from China will expire at the end of 2020, he said. The reinstatement of 25% tariffs on Chinese goods will result in a “similar contraction” to 2021 gross margin, he said. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer “made it quite explicit” in congressional testimony last month that any granted List 3 exemptions “would expire at the end of the year,” Angle said. Lighthizer’s testimony “is the most explicit guidance that we have been given,” he said July 22 following quarterly results.
The idea that the COVID-19 pandemic shock will “only accelerate retrenchment and deglobalization appears premature. The survey points to supply chains being reshaped, rather than reshored,” according to HSBC, which conducted a survey of 2,604 businesses in 14 countries between late April and early May.
A PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 400 executives found that only two-thirds are familiar with USMCA, but of those who are, 88% said their firms have taken action to comply with the changes from NAFTA. For firms that said they were taking action in February, 54% were evaluating their supply chains; 38% hiring new workers and 26% moving manufacturing. It's not clear how the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 pandemic may have affected these plans.
It takes a lot for companies to move supply chains, said John Murphy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce senior vice president-international policy, on a Flexport webinar July 14. National security concerns about such items as 5G could spur such action, Murphy said, but strong government action requiring companies to move supply chains would be limited to “a few select sectors.”
COVID-19's stay-at-home mandates didn’t quite have the same invigorating effect on May smartphone imports to the U.S. as on connectivity tools like laptops and tablets, according to Census Bureau data accessed July 11 through the International Trade Commission's DataWeb tool. Lockdowns sent May laptop and tablet imports soaring by double digits compared with April and May 2019 (see 2007100031).