NAFTA supply chain poised for growth

Near-sourcing and the North American Free Trade Agreement represent a perfect supply chain match, industry analysts contend.

“Thanks to NAFTA and the lowering of taxes and duties on many commodities, trade has dramatically increased between the United States and Canada with billions of dollars in goods and services crossing the border on a daily basis,” said John Costanzo, president, Purolator International.

He noted that the company is currently in an “aggressive” 2011 expansion, has 10 new U.S. branch locations planned before the end of the year, giving it a presence in 18 of the top 20 U.S. markets for trade with Canada.

“Its customers in aviation, technology, energy, and consumer goods work closely with Purolator for its expertise in cross border trade, extensive Canadian distribution network and ability to handle complexities in a global market,” he said in recent address.

Speaking at last month’s Supply Chain Council’s Executive Summit, Costanzo shared his perspectives on sustaining a competitive edge in a global market environment, including the trends in global trade and logistics services from a Canada / North America and world perspective. He also addressed the opportunities NAFTA has created for Canada, the US’s largest trading partner and top trading partner for many global economies.

Costanzo’s speech, “Insights in Leveraging NAFTA for Greater Global Supply Chain Capability,” reinforced many of the observations made in a recent study.

After surveying import and export compliance managers from 200 firms, Customs & Trade Solutions Inc and Management Dynamics have compiled key statistics into our latest benchmark study, “Best Practices for Managing NAFTA and Free Trade Agreement Programs.

The benchmark study suggested best practices for implementing and optimizing NAFTA while divulging key statistics, such as:

• 86 percent of all firms used a manual process to manage their NAFTA data
• Only 34.3 percent of all companies were confident of the information they shared with Customs and their Customers through the NAFTA certificate
• 32 percent of respondents have had their customs group audited in the last 3 years

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