According to an SCM World survey, 55 percent of respondents had an increase in international sales and 54 percent an increase in imports over the past 10 years, with one third selling into or sourcing from more than 100 countries. Forty percent imported more than half of their products and materials.
Minimizing duties, taxes and tariffs is one of the fastest and easiest ways to squeeze significant financial returns out of a company’s global supply chain. Yet most companies interviewed by SCM World “only became aware of the opportunity as a result of problems that emerged as their companies increased international sales and found new sources of supply.” The result is few companies use these tactics in making supply chain design decisions.
This has been excerpted from the August 27 2015 edition of Supply Chain Digest and is available in its entirety at: http://www.scdigest.com/experts/Amberroad_15-08-27.php?cid=9671