Stress tests are designed to replicate periods of extreme difficulty, mimicking real-life situations and complex problems to determine how well a person, place, or thing copes with a traumatic situation in a safe, controlled environment. The pandemic was the crisis that stress tests are designed to prepare for. It exposed the myriad weaknesses supply chains...Read More
Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, is a major holiday in Asia and known to be the largest human migration period on the planet as families come together, exchange gifts, and celebrate the start of the new year according to the lunar calendar. Typically falling between January 21 and February 20, the exact date varies...Read More
A sharp reduction in demand has caused some Chinese factories to slow down production as the world rights itself from the breakneck pandemic shopping pace. A deep slump in China’s trade statistics comes as a warning to the world already trying to cope with plummeting rates and an about-face of record-breaking exports to the US....Read More
The United States Trade Representative has extended the Section 301 exclusions on eighty-one “COVID-related” items for another ninety days. After considering the public comments on how critical these products are in the fight against pandemic-related outbreaks, an extension was necessary. News of the Section 301 tariffs has quieted to a dull hum in the...Read More
Under China’s zero-Covid policy, strict lockdowns are being blamed for an apartment fire that killed ten people when emergency services were delayed due to restrictions. The pushback has led to civil unrest in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuhan, and Chengdu, further complicating the cargo situation that’s facing delays from Covid outbreaks impacting labor and transportation. ...Read More
The Section 301 tariff exclusions on Chinese manufactured goods have been updated to allow exemptions on 352 of the original 549 exemptions that were initially provided. The reinstated exclusions will be retroactive back to October 12, 2021, and valid through December 31, 2022. The validation comes after a public comment period that looks into whether...Read More
Tariffs are back in the news, arriving in a Delorean from 2018. In the sort of news we haven’t seen recently, United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced a public comment period to help determine whether to reinstate exclusions on 549 import categories from China. The comment period starts today and runs until December 1,...Read More