World Trade - August 2008 - (Page 7)

® INSIDE WORLD TRADE Group Publisher Tom Esposito Publisher Sarah Harding Editorial Director Neil Shister shistern@bnpmedia.com Managing Editor Lara L. Sowinski Art Director Michael T. Powell Contributing Writers Mark Bernstein, Richard Barovick, Gail Dutton, Winn Hardin, Joshua Kurlantzick, Andrea MacDonald, Clay Risen, Jeremy Smith, April Terreri, Amy Zuckerman WORLD TRADE MAGAZINE EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Grant Belanger Ford Motor Company Director South America Operations Steve Palagyi Director, Paciﬁc Region PRTM Consulting Erik Autor Vice President and International Counsel National Retail Federation Susan G. Esserman Chair, International Department Steptoe & Johnson Beth Enslow Global Supply Chain Resiliency Marsh, Inc. Kurt Cavano, Chairman and CEO, TradeCard Frank Vogl, Vogl Communications, Washington D.C. Thomas E. Crocker Co-Chair International Trade and Regulatory Group, Alston & Bird LLP Weathering the Storm obody needs me to tell them that the domestic and global economies are plowing through heavy weather. For a while this spring the skies seemed to be clearing but now, as Q3 concludes, it looks like maybe this was just the eye of the hurricane. The double NEIL SHISTER whammy of a worldwide credit freeze coupled with rising commodity prices (read: oil) bodes ill for a painless recovery—there is no policy quick-ﬁx to this kind of vicious combination. Last summer, there was hope that globalization would help contain the spread of economic virus, that the emerging economies could pick up the slack and soften the down cycle. That argument is no longer taken seriously. Indeed, we are seeing just how integrated the global order has become as economists point out that this is the ﬁrst time in recent memory where the entire world is simultaneously experiencing inﬂation. In this issue of World Trade we continue our ongoing reporting on China, focusing on how to get more value from sourcing in that country. Our authors, two McKinsey partners with extensive experience in trade, argue that most multinational companies have barely scratched the surface in terms of the beneﬁts they can derive from China sourcing; “they don’t yet know just how low prices can be,” they write. In the current economic climate, though, the underlying issue with respect to China’s role as a global player is how it weathers its ﬁrst signiﬁcant cyclical downturn as a capitalist. As the Wall Street Journal recently reported, in the wake of falling demand and increased local prices “many exporters and work shops have closed their door.” The cheap made-inChina household goods, clothing, shoes and toys that U.S. consumers have come to take for granted will cost more (and as a consequence the ‘anti-inﬂation’ buffer that Chinese goods have provided will lessen). N SALES Publisher /Midwest Sales National Sales Director-East Sarah Harding 216.991.4861 hardings@worldtrademag.com Randi Giambruno 516.377.3906 giambrunor@worldtrademag.com Ed Lohmann 925.648.2562 lohmanne@worldtrademag.com Vito Laudati 630.694.4018 Fax: 248.283.6618 laudativ@bnpmedia.com Hong Kong Ofﬁce Publicitas Wendy Lin Tel: 852.2527.3525, Fax: 852.2528.3260 Steve Beyer Tel: 847.516.1977, Cell: 630.699.7625 beyers@bnpmedia.com National Sales Director-West Inside Sales Manager/Print It’s very much anybody’s guess how this economy’s endgame will play out. As I write, Wall Street is ofﬁcially a bear market but recession remains to be declared. On the relative up side, my source at a leading credit risk insurer reports that they think the media is exaggerating dangers of dire contraction; their chief economist sees recovery beginning in Q1 ’09. Meanwhile I’ve kept on my desk the remarks made last November by former Secretary of the Treasury (and Harvard University President) Larry Summers: “In the U.S. today, as in many other countries in the past, conﬁdence will return the ﬁrst day an ofﬁcial statement about the economy proves to have been too pessimistic.” As yet, I’ve not heard an ‘unduly pessimistic’ commentary from a public ofﬁcial. I want to take a moment to address the reminder on the outside of your issue this month. All subscribers must renew their subscriptions once a year, with our renewal cycle beginning in May. If you received a renewal reminder on the outside of this issue, please take a moment to complete and return it, or go online at www.worldtrademag. com/renew to update your subscription. If you take advantage of this early renewal you won’t be asked to renew again until July 2009! Renew now and guarantee your subscription for another full year. 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Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Trade - August 2008

World Trade - August 2008 Contents Weathering the Storm Helping the World’s Poorest Nations Benefit from Global Trade Supply Chain Watch Tradewinds World Trade’s Top U.S. Trading Partners LTL Shipping ‘On the Fly’ Air Cargo Flies a New Heading Getting More from China Sourcing Why 3PLs Need a Seat at the C-TPAT Table Performance-based Supply Chains Drive Total Lifecycle Value SmartWay Navigates Sustainable Transportation Around the World in 80 Days—Hours—Minutes

World Trade - August 2008

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