JumpStart

The possibility of the economy entering a recession, at this point, appears to not be a matter of if it occurs, but when will it occur. That was a key theme in a session this week at the SMC3 JumpStart 2023 conference held in Atlanta.

The session, entitled “Understanding America’s Supply Chain Woes,” featured supply chain stakeholders from three different perspectives: a port operator, Barbara Melvin, COO, South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA); a shipper, Linda Fonkoue, Global Supply Base Manager, Logistics, Deere and Company; and a motor carrier, Charlie Prickett, President & COO, AAA Cooper Transportation. The session was moderated by Logistics Management.

A trio of freight transportation experts expressed optimism over the possibility of Congress being able to lay down the groundwork to sign a needed long-term federal surface transportation authorization at the recently-concluded SMC3 JumpStart 2021 conference.

While momentum on a new long-term federal surface transportation authorization has been largely slow, especially during a Presidential election year that has not stopped Democrat members on the House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure whom this week issued a “list of infrastructure principles.”

While it was not a huge surprise that 2019 was unable to maintain the economic and freight volume momentum seen in 2018, the outlook for 2020 is shaping up to be closer to the former. That was the word from speakers at this week’s SMC3 JumpStart 2020 conference in Atlanta.

As was expected following both the United States House of Representatives and Senate each voting to move forward with the United States Mexico Canada (USMCA) agreement, as a replacement for its predecessor the North American Free Trade Agreement, USMCA was formally signed into law by President Trump yesterday.