Author: Vincent Po

Procurement and Supply Chain Highlights from the Recent Week You Should Know About:

Consumer Test: “Made in America” vs “Made in China”, who won? All the talk about tariffs lately has probably got you feeling a little annoyed (understatement?). This business decided to put the argument to the test: Would consumers buy more expensive “Made in America” items versus cheaper Made in China versions. A filtered shower head…

Apple is Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place While Apple designs its products in the U.S., most of their products—such as iPhones—are mostly made in China, where Apple has built a huge supply chain over the past few decades. As the current US administration threatens to impose high tariffs on many Chinese goods,…

Losing Tax Incentives Could Decimate EV & Battery Manufacturing in the US As the current US Administration leaves the world in chaos with tariff threats in the hopes of bringing manufacturing back to the US, the plan to repeal current tax incentives/credits for the EV industry could end up decimating the domestic EV and battery…

Demand for Commodities Could See a Huge Drop You’d have to be living under a rock or an obscure island with penguins to not hear about tariffs being slapped on a multitude of products by the US. All of this leading most business executives to expect a global recession. We’re already seeing falling demand for…

Why Are Coffee Futures Surging? As coffee bean prices have surged over the last couple of years, mainly due to climate and weather events, ​here’s a deeper dive​ into what’s driving coffee bean prices (a must read if your business buys coffee beans).

Tariffs Are Starting to Hit Consumer Confidence The threat of a trade war through tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China and now the EU is coming to a head. Tariffs on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese imports are set to go into effect March 4th with an additional 10% on Chinese imports. All this tariff talk has…

How e-Commerce Supply Chains are Preparing for Potential Loss of De Minimis As the potential threat of losing the “de minimis” exception and potential tariffs on all sorts of imported goods into the US, ​here’s how​ some e-Commerce supply chains are dealing with these uncertainties. A Deep Dive into Humanoid Robots Your next warehouse co-worker…

Canadian Tire Reviews Sourcing Amidst Tariff Threats Canadian retailer, Canadian Tire, is ​re-assessing their product offerings​ and where they source products amidst the continued threat of trade tariffs from the US. 15% of their products are sourced directly from the US. Autonomous Trucks On the Job Autonomous vehicle (AV) startup, Kodiak Robotics, ​have their AV’s…

De minimis no more New tariffs ended a loophole​ that let Chinese companies like Temu and Shein ship small packages to the US duty-free. This loophole, called the de minimis exemption, saw a huge increase in these shipments with the rise of low-cost shopping apps like Temu and Shein. The change could cost US consumers…