The Friday Report: October 12th, 2018

Supply Chain Cyber Attacks on the Rise

According to Accenture’s 2018 Cyber Threatscape Report, new cyber threats have emerged that can disrupt the supply chain industry.  Cyber criminals have altered their tactics. Accenture Security iDefense has been able to identify five new cyber threats

• Increasingly financially motivated advanced persistent threats
• Cryptocurrency surge caused by miner malware

As cybersecurity is ever changing, supply chain businesses need to keep apprised and get help to prevent cyber breaches.

To learn more about cybersecurity in 2018, click here.

Port of Rotterdam Preparing for Brexit

With Brexit approaching March 29, 2019, Europe’s largest port is getting prepared.  Because the U.K. will lose its EU status on that day, the Port of Rotterdam will be required to treat boats from the U.K. as “foreign” and run checks on the 10,500 or so that reach the port.  Rotterdam officials anticipate a 30 percent increase in the incidence of import inspections as well as a 100 percent increase in inspections of exports.

Being part of the European Union has made trading and travel much easier within the internal EU market.  Once Brexit occurs, companies operating from both sides will such documentation as production location registrations, export declarations, entry and exit declarations and other forms when dealing with food products alone.

The amount of documentation will be cumbersome, time consuming and reduce the ease and speed of shipments and transport.  It is anticipated that the Netherlands will be one of the countries most impacted by Brexit within the European Union.

For more information click here.

U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement Stalls Trudeau’s Outreach to China

Lost in all the recent discussions regarding the newly negotiated USMCA is one small but very important detail.  Touted as a replacement to the North American Free Trade Agreement, the USMCA includes a provision which requires notification three months in advance if a member of the three part treaty launches trade talks with a non-market economy.  If the member of the treaty chooses to sign a deal with a non-market economy, the country could be frozen out of the USMCA agreement, resulting in a bilateral agreement between the remaining two countries.

Designed by the American administration to forestall Canada’s interest in signing deals with China, the provision makes it more difficult to build stronger ties with China.  The move positions China with the United States against China, effectively tying its hands.

For more information on USMCA, click here.