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).

Visible Supply Chain Management acquired logistics and fulfillment company TriCon, Visible said in a news release last week. The acquisition will bring Visible “new expertise in customs brokerage services and international transportation,” it said.

COVID-19 lockdowns sparked a surge in laptop and tablet imports to the U.S. in May, according to Census Bureau data accessed July 10 through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool. The mainstreaming of laptops and tablets was evident in their increasing commoditization as the pandemic progressed.

The American Apparel and Footwear Association is calling on the federal government to temporarily provide reinsurance to insurers that provide trade credit insurance to importers. AAFA CEO Steve Lamar pointed to a report published July 9, and funded by trade credit insurance firms, that lays out the concept. Reinsurance would protect insurers, at least partially, from losses if retailers were not able to pay apparel companies for what the retailers had ordered.

SVS Sound CEO Gary Yacoubian says his company was able to navigate COVID-19 supply-chain disruptions in China because “we built a lot of product in Q4 last year that was intended to be built in Q1 of this year.” SVS negotiated that with its Chinese factories, partly to mitigate the Section 301 List 4A tariffs, he said.

Imports at major U.S. retail container ports are expected to remain significantly below last year’s levels into this fall as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the National Retail Federation reported July 8. The COVID-19 recession “may be easing,” but retailers are sourcing goods from overseas more conservatively due to the economic uncertainty, it said. “The outlook for imports is slowly improving, but these are still some of the lowest numbers we’ve seen in years.” U.S. ports handled 1.53 million 20-foot-long cargo containers or their equivalents in May, down 4.8% from April and 17.2% fewer than in May 2019, NRF said. June imports were estimated to be down 5.8% from a year earlier. July is forecast to be down 14.1%, with a 13.3% decline expected in August and a 12.3% decline forecast for September.

U.S. importers sourced 4.22 million TVs from all countries in May, a 73.5% increase from April, and up 44.5% from May 2019, according to Census Bureau data accessed July 7 through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool. It was the largest monthly volume for TV imports since October, when 4.71 million sets were shipped here in preparation for the 2019 holiday selling season.

A letter from 41 trade groups -- including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the U.S.-China Business Council, and others in information technology, apparel, agriculture and pharmaceuticals -- asks both Chinese and American lead negotiators to “redouble efforts to implement all aspects of the Agreement, including purchases of U.S. manufactured goods, energy products, services, and agricultural goods, where implementation seems to be lagging.”