Opening Remarks
Andrew Wilson – Executive Director, Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE)
José Raúl Perales – Deputy Director, Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation (GATF) at CIPE
Speakers
Maria Camila Moreno – Executive Director, Free Trade Zone Association of the Americas
Marianne Rowden – CEO, American Association of Exporters and Importers
Nicole Lamb-Hale – Managing Director, Kroll
Speaker Bios
Maria Camila Moreno has been serving as Executive Director of the Free Trade Zones Association of the Americas since 2014 where she plays a key role in developing policy recommendations to strengthen the role of free trade zones and attract foreign direct investment. She has authored multiple research and policy papers focused on trade and supply chains and is the co-author of the book “The transformation of China and its impact for Colombia”, 2013. Based in Colombia, she holds a Masters Degree in International Law and Economics by the University of Bern (Switzerland), and a Bachelors Degree in International Business Management by the University of Sabana (Colombia). The Free Trade Zones Association of the Americas (AZFA) is a non-profit organization that promotes and defends the Free Trade Zones regime through integrations, research and cooperations with the public and private sectors of all the Latin American countries. Currently, it is the most important regional Free Trade Zone Association and represents its members in 23 countries on 2 continents bringing together more than 600 Free Trade Zones with more than 10,000 companies.
Marianne Rowden is President and CEO of AAEI following years of service as the Association’s General Counsel. Ms. Rowden has testified before Congress on trade legislation because of her extensive background from practicing law over 20 years concentrating in international trade and transportation regulatory compliance. She has also made Stakeholder Presentations to the negotiators for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP), and represents AAEI as a member of the World Customs Organization’s Private Sector Consultative Group (PSCG) and the Global Shippers Alliance. Ms. Rowden serves as an Adjunct Professor at The John Marshall School of Law and speaks widely to U.S. and international audiences on trade issues, including the World Customs Organization, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Japan Machinery Center for Trade and Investment, ieCanada, EFA European Forum for External Trade, Excise and Customs, the Council of Supply Chain Management, the Transportation Law Association, and the Transportation Law Institute.
Nicole Y. Lamb-Hale is a Managing Director at Kroll, a division of Duff & Phelps, a global leader in risk mitigation, compliance, security, and incident response solutions. Based in Washington, DC, Lamb-Hale has more than 25 years of executive level experience and a unique viewpoint on global commercial and compliance matters from her extensive service in both the public and private sectors. Her areas of focus at Kroll include investigative due diligence in M&A transactions, regulatory compliance matters, market entry support, and sexual misconduct investigations. She joined Kroll from Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy consultancy, where she was Senior Vice President. A passionate advocate for business, Lamb-Hale was nominated by the President and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing and Services in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA). In this role, she was the Chief Executive Officer of the industry-facing unit of ITA, serving as the liaison between U.S. industry and the federal government with respect to access to international markets and U.S. policies impacting the competitiveness of U.S. exports. In this role, she also served as the Department’s lead on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) where she represented the interests of business in some of the most significant cases before CFIUS in recent history.
Event Description
COVID-19 appears to have accelerated a realignment of global supply chains that had been taking place amid the U.S.- China trade dispute, Brexit, CPTPP, and other changes in the global commercial landscape. The pandemic has altered the way businesses conduct their global operations, not just in terms of new trade restrictions but also rapid changes in the digital environment regulating the flow of goods across borders.
These shocks have raised questions about key practices in global supply chain management like just-in-time inventories and lean supply chains. The balance between resilience and efficiency, a growing concern for supply chain managers, has now become a more salient concern for companies, with important consequences for authorities, consumers, and SMEs that depend on supply chain linkages.
How have supply chains adapted – or not – to some of the shocks produced by the pandemic? Are companies finding a balance between resilience and efficiency? Are they seeing more urgency in striking such a balance? How has the pandemic affected re-shoring, near shoring, and other supply chain realignments? What appears to be the short-to-medium term policy responses from developed and developing countries?