Tax Triumphs & Trade Troubles: What You Need to Know for 2018 Cross-border Trade

They say that two things are certain: death and taxes. But another certainty is that once you've built your business around a particular tax structure, it will change.

Since the new tax plan was officially announced three months ago, companies that operate in or with the United States are still scrambling to understand it, especially along with new trade restrictions, import regulations, and tariffs. Some changes, such as the import restrictions on solar panels and washing machines, have been released in full, but others remain mere speculation, making an importer's job all the more difficult this year.

source https://blog.amberroad.com/blog/tax-triumphs-trade-troubles-what-you-need-to-know-for-2018-cross-border-trade

Warning! Prop 65 Requires Compliance Beyond CA Borders

CA Proposition 65 (Prop 65) is a major concern for brands that will heavily influence California’s consumer product regulations. All manufacturers, distributors, and retailers that sell or distribute consumer products in California will be required to comply with the state’s new warning requirement regulations—meaning your compliance with product testing standards has to extend beyond California borders.

These new regulations, implemented under California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, are intended to manage liability risks by requiring warnings on products and premises that can potentially expose consumers to any of the 900+ specified chemicals. The new regulations will come into effect on August 30, 2018.

source https://blog.amberroad.com/blog/warning-prop-65-requires-compliance-beyond-ca-borders

Brexit Resources: Are Your Import and Export Compliance Teams Ready?

We are officially one year away (well, 364 days if you want to be exact): On March 29, 2019, the United Kingdom is scheduled to leave the European Union. While Britain is still searching for an independent customs bill that could legislate trade relations outside customs union membership, global trade professionals must prepare for the various scenarios at hand. Although we have known about this impending Brexit since June of 2016, many questions are left unanswered - are your import and export compliance teams ready for the challenges ahead?

source https://blog.amberroad.com/blog/brexit-resources-are-your-import-and-export-compliance-teams-ready

Blockchain For Supply Chain: Will It Enhance Your Global Trade Management?

Blockchain just might be the biggest buzzword of this year, but what is it and how can we use it? While it’s still a developing technology, blockchain has already shown promise for its potential application for supply chain solutions. As we continue to move forward into the digital age and engage in a digital supply chain transformation, blockchain for global trade management seems like the next logical step.

source https://blog.amberroad.com/blog/blockchain-for-supply-chain-will-it-enhance-your-global-trade-management

Trade Sanctions Update: The Hotbed Gets Hotter

In recent years, importers and exporters have needed to stay on their toes regarding changes to trade rules of all kinds, and that is rightly causing trepidation. 

Economic and trade sanctions are the most widespread and powerful means of displaying disdain for one country’s actions on the world stage. Unilateral or bilateral sanctions are strong penalties that restrict trading activity of goods imported from or to a country. They might also be used to assess duties on particular goods in retaliation for another country’s trade sanctions.

source https://blog.amberroad.com/blog/trade-sanctions-update-the-hotbed-gets-hotter

Trade Sanctions Update: The Hotbed Getters Hotter

In recent years, importers and exporters have needed to stay on their toes regarding changes to trade rules of all kinds, and that is rightly causing trepidation. 

Economic and trade sanctions are the most widespread and powerful means of displaying disdain for one country’s actions on the world stage. Unilateral or bilateral sanctions are strong penalties that restrict trading activity of goods imported from or to a country. They might also be used to assess duties on particular goods in retaliation for another country’s trade sanctions.

source https://blog.amberroad.com/blog/trade-sanctions-update-the-hotbed-getters-hotter

Annual ‘Souper Bowl’ Food Drive Feeds Thousands in the Raleigh Community

In 2017 Forbes ranked Raleigh, NC, the site of one of Amber Road's biggest offices, as the #1 City in America to Raise a Family.  In 2016, Forbes ranked the city #2 in America’s Hottest Spots for Tech Jobs. For so many people in our community, Raleigh is a great place to live and work.  Yet in the midst of the 34 counties of Central and Eastern NC, there are 630,000 people that struggle to access nutritious and adequate amounts of food necessary for a healthy life.

For the past 12 years during the lead-up to the Super Bowl, Amber Road employees have participated in their own “Souper Bowl” competition in the form of a food drive. Year-over-year, the big winner is the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.

In the last 12 years, Amber Road’s Raleigh office has collected and donated 104,301 pounds to the Food Bank. Just last month, the team collected 33,201 pounds, equating to 27,958 nourishing meals for local families thanks to the herculean efforts by Amber Road’s passionate employees.

“Though Raleigh is a great place to live and work, there are over 630,000 people among the 34 counties of Central and Eastern NC that struggle to access nutritious and adequate amounts of food,” explained Stephanie Miles, Senior Vice President, Commercial Services for Amber Road. “Corporate social responsibility through our annual Souper Bowl Food Drive has been an integral part of our office culture and tradition for the past 12 years. Our intention is to continue the momentum and make the program contagious in our community, so that ‘No One Goes Hungry’,” added Miles.   

source https://blog.amberroad.com/blog/annual-souper-bowl-food-drive-feeds-thousands-in-the-raleigh-community

The Odds Aren’t in Favor of Your Global Sourcing and Logistics Relationship

Only 1 in 4 shippers connects sourcing and logistics on a single platform. If your organization falls into the majority (and the odds are you do) you likely miss out on opportunities to optimize global performance through the utilization of free trade agreements.

Recent American Shipper research reveals that the odds aren't in favor of your global sourcing and logistics relationship, as illustrated by Amber Road's infographic: Bridging the Sourcing-Global Trade Divide.

source https://blog.amberroad.com/blog/odds-arent-in-favor-of-your-global-sourcing-and-logistics-relationship

Webinar: Blockchain for the Global Supply Chain

There is no doubt that blockchain technology has the powerful potential to improve supply chains and global trade management. But how?

Don't miss next week's webinar, Blockchain for Global Supply Chain: Ghost in the Machine or Breakthrough Technology? on Thursday, March 22, at 2PM EDT.

During the webinar, Dan Gardner, VP of Supply Chain for Lakeshore Learning Materials and co-founder of Trade Facilitators, Inc., and Amber Road’s Ty Bordner will analyze the blockchain value proposition and how this technology can be leveraged to improve global supply chain management functions, and ultimately, improve end-to-end performance.

source https://blog.amberroad.com/blog/webinar-blockchain-for-the-global-supply-chain

Webinar: Don’t Be Blindsided by Customs Law & Import Regulations!

Customs laws and regulations are continuously changing. This challenges social compliance across labor regulations and foreign products, making it increasingly easy to get blindsided by penalties at the border.

At the same time, changing trade regulations and enhanced interagency enforcement techniques are delaying the clearance time of imports. This results in longer lead times and higher costs associated with customs exams and storage fees. 

Join Amber Road’s Global Trade Academy as we tackle the changes and potential pitfalls for importers during our webinar, Your Shipment Was Stopped? Don't Get Blindsided By Customs Laws & Regulations! It will broadcast live on Tuesday, March 20^th at 2pm EDT.

source https://blog.amberroad.com/blog/webinar-dont-be-blindsided-by-customs-law-import-regulations

Amber Road Loves Customer Engagement – Watch This New Video

We’d like to thank our global customers for engaging with Amber Road! We love hearing your comments and suggestions here at Marketing@AmberRoad, and on our GTM Best Practices LinkedIn Group and @GTMBestPractice. Your Customer Success Director always appreciates hearing from you too – so please keep engaging!

Most of all, we love when we get the opportunity to see our customers in-person. This past May, we hosted our eVOLVE User Conference at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor just outside of Washington, DC. This was a fantastic event because we took the time to celebrate our world renowned customers including; GE, Abercrombie & Fitch, Regal Beloit, Caleres, TE Connectivity and many more!

The user conference consisted of user-driven case studies, product updates, and best practice sessions from industry leaders. eVOLVE’s highlights and customer insights were beautifully captured in this short recap video.

 

source https://blog.amberroad.com/blog/evolution-of-global-trade-management-user-conference-highlights

As Trade with India Grows, Trade Automation Helps Pave the Way

The latest trade data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows a steep increase in U.S. exports to India for 2017 – 18 percent – making it our 15th largest export market. India is the 11th biggest importer of goods to the U.S. as well, growing by a modest 5.6 percent from 2016 to 2017. The second-most populous country in the world, India is home to 1.3 billion people and a growing middle class. These figures help explain why India is increasing in attractiveness to U.S. companies looking to expand their global footprint.

source https://blog.amberroad.com/blog/as-trade-with-india-grows-trade-automation-helps-pave-the-way

Stop Throwing Cash Overboard: How to Avoid Demurrage and Detention Fees

Chances are, you’re not the only one looking to reduce demurrage and detention fees. Recently, a coalition of shippers, freight forwarders, and intermediaries urged US maritime regulators to make it easier to challenge congestion-related fees that container lines and marine terminals impose for delays that were out of their control. Terminals responded that it would cause chaos at the ports. Just this past Monday, the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) voted unanimously to investigate further the concern of the coaltion, a welcome validation for shippers in the wake of ever-increasing volume, labor disputes and port congestion.

The FMC will discuss whether policy is needed to prevent what the coalition of shippers deemed “unfair” assessment of free time-related fees. While detention and demurrage fees have rarely been light for importers, recent instances of extreme port congestion – such as the aftermath of liner carrier Hanjin Shipping’s sudden bankruptcy, or the West Coast longshoreman’s strike in 2014 and 2015 – have exacerbated the issue. And container volume continues to rise faster than port terminals can expand.

Of course, importers and exporters will continue to rack-up large fees while the FMC slowly deliberates. But demurrage and detention fees are more than just a “cost of doing business”; they often trigger a ripple effect that throws exception into the planned supply chain flow. These exceptions lead to additional costs that add up. While many freight managers accept them as a line item, they have a detrimental impact of the bottom line.

source https://blog.amberroad.com/blog/stop-throwing-cash-overboard-how-to-avoid-demurrage-and-detention-fees

What's Your Reality of a Digital Supply Chain?

You may think your supply chain is digital, thanks to all those nifty tech tools you conduct business with like barcode scanners, robotics, and transportation management systems (TMS) - but is it really? These days, most supply chains use some sort of digital technology, and many best-in-class organizations are looking ahead to more advanced technologies. Their intention is to transform their supply chains to make them faster, smarter, more efficient, integrated, and agile.

source https://blog.amberroad.com/blog/whats-your-reality-of-a-digital-supply-chain

Supply Chain Visibility...and Influenza Vaccines?

It’s been a long flu season all over the world, and store stock of the “sneezing-sniffling-so-you-can-rest-medicine” are flying off local pharmacies shelves. Their real-time inventory system shows several stores running low on over-the-counter cold and flu medicines, which sets off an internal alert. This triggers the logistics teams to ship more from distribution centers set-up as hubs for re-supply. The major pharma manufacturers are keyed into WHO data and have already anticipated the need to produce more at their factories. So the goods will keep flowing.

This scenario isn’t farfetched in today’s fast-paced supply chain management. Shippers and their supply chain partners are gaining granular insight into the supply-and-demand sides of the supply chain, and responding faster than ever to the needs of their customers at every step of the process.

Amber Road’s Stephanie Miles was recently interviewed in Inbound Logistics about the evolution in supply chain visibility. “Years ago, the baseline for visibility was simple track and trace—where’s my stuff? Today, companies have advances far beyond that,” Miles explains. Miles goes on here to highlight what companies should consider to improve supply chain visibility, and what expectations to set when it comes to their partners’ capabilities.

source https://blog.amberroad.com/blog/supply-chain-visibility...and-influenza-vaccines

Are You Ready for Export & Import Compliance Ch-ch-changes?

As the late great David Bowie said in his 1971 hit song Changes, "time may change supply chains, but supply chains can't change time." Well... maybe not exactly that. Nonetheless, last year brought about many changes in the global trade industry. We saw a rise in protectionist measures worldwide, new import regulations, and free trade agreement negotiations that could greatly impact leading economies. All of these new developments can be quite concerning for importers and exporters, but which should be top of mind and how can you be prepared?

American Shipper’s Import/Export Compliance Benchmark Study: Turn and Face the Change explores the concerns of today’s shippers and provides insight into how other importers, exporters, retailers, and manufacturers handle cross-border trade. In fact, did you know that 40% of exporters want better market access in China for their products?

source https://blog.amberroad.com/blog/are-you-ready-for-export-import-compliance-ch-ch-changes-

Digitization: Delivering Seamless Experiences and More Value

Trade is more globalized than ever as organizations adopt more global sourcing strategies with suppliers in every corner of the world. As more countries participate in global trade, management of the supply chain grows more complex. Now add the multitude of customers armed with technology and putting on more pressure to deliver on cost, quality and timeliness.

The great confluence has forced leaders in this space to automate, optimize and analyze their internal processes to stay ahead of the competition. Those that chose to transform, have an opportunity to take advantage of supply chain digitization tools that will create greater value and deliver seamless experiences.

source https://blog.amberroad.com/blog/digitization-delivering-seamless-experiences-and-more-value