Commentary

If history is any indicator, one should not underestimate the potential of global trade and container shipping to change how we live and the world around us.

Voluntary export restraint agreements may seem like an amicable, cooperative solution to a trade problem, but in reality they are a dangerous relapse into trade quotas banned by the World Trade Organization — and they increase protectionist pressures globally.  

Change is unavoidable, but strategic points of inflection are not always obvious in real time. In the future, it’s likely that April 1, 2018 — the date electronic logging device enforcement “went live” — will be enshrined as a red-letter day for our industry.

There has been little momentum to address the menace of container ship fires. That is despite the fires killing crew members and causing tens of millions of dollars of cargo losses and supply chain disruption annually. Something needs to change.

Given the importance of NAFTA to the economies of all three countries and the sense of uncertainty the negotiations have been causing over the past eight months, one might conclude the urgency to wrap them up is rooted in creating greater economic stability and spurring investment. This is not so.

In exchange for dropping its proposal for 50 percent of content to come from the United States, US policy makers tabled a new suggestion that would require US automakers to have their auto content produced in jurisdictions with a set minimum wage in exchange for financial credits to help offset the additional labor costs. It is a proposal that is being given serious consideration by Canadian and Mexican policy makers, as well.