With the presidential election behind us and a Republican administration set to take over the reins of power, 2017 will be a time of change. Campaign promises spoke of making America great again by lowering taxes, strengthening the manufacturing base, creating jobs, and more. Renegotiating new and existing trade agreements, changing the tariff and duty structure, and lessening the regulatory requirements on business were central tenets of Trump’s vision, as he saw these actions as instrumental to balancing trade and growing the US economy.
US companies engaging in importing and exporting will face the challenge of keeping abreast of the sheer number of regulatory changes envisioned under the new administration. So, too, will the brokers and freight forwarders that assist their trade activities. Being compliant will exceed the capacity of spreadsheets and simple computer programs. Technology, particularly global trade management software, will be a prerequisite to business success in 2017 and beyond. So, for companies such as QuestaWeb and its competitors, the business outlook is good for our industry.
Global trade management solutions will be “king” in this new age, and the content powering them will assume a “princely” level of importance. The combination of technology and content will comprise the “secret sauce” for business success, giving importers, exporters, brokers and forwarders the tools underlying competitive edge. They will easily navigate the complexities of global trade, maximize the benefits of trade agreements, leverage the cost-saving features of foreign trade zones, avoid delays precipitated by miscalculations or improper documentation, easily perform denied party screening, and properly classify their products, no matter how much or how often change occurs. And they will save time and money in the process. This is the value technology adds to business processes.