Bruce Rodgers, Executive Director, Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association

https://www.ciffa.com
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Bruce Rodgers

This commentary appeared in the print edition of the Jan. 6, 2020, Journal of Commerce Annual Review and Outlook.

While a certain degree of political volatility and uncertainty is always a given, in recent years countries such as Canada find themselves caught up in trade wars whose effects are severely damaging to the economy and to consumer and business confidence overall. All of this plays into how well our sector, the logistics service providers, can deliver the goods while “managing expectations” of new consumption patterns that are driving new trading partners.

Along with this rapidly shifting trading environment, technology, such as the push towards digitization, moves forward at breakneck speed, but government policy and the often slow-moving, at times archaic customs processes struggle to keep up.

The explosive growth of e-commerce puts added pressure on the system. What will be the best balance between maintaining security and enabling better revenues? Our sector cries out for a change of mindset toward transparency, collaboration, and sharing around data, but cybersecurity looms as a significant threat to all.

We live in a challenging environment of rapidly changing economic conditions. A significant change is occurring, moving from public sector to private sector. The new economy is changing to increased globalization and elimination of borders, accompanied by advances in information technology and more open communication channels.