Trade group boasts ambitious retail-focused policy agenda for 2019
Privacy issues, trade concerns and infrastructure improvements top retail industry's policy to-do list in the new congressional session, trade association leaders say.
Victoria Kickham started her career as a newspaper reporter in the Boston area before moving into B2B journalism. She has covered manufacturing, distribution and supply chain issues for a variety of publications in the industrial and electronics sectors, and now writes about everything from forklift batteries to omnichannel business trends for DC Velocity.
Retail industry leaders will focus on competitive pressures, privacy concerns, trade and a host of other issues as the 116th Congress gets underway this month, according to an official public policy agenda from the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), released this week.
RILA said January 7 it has launched "an ambitious" retail-focused policy agenda for 2019, citing competition and innovation, growing the retail workforce, and securing efficient supply chains as some of its top priorities this year.
The group said it will continue to work with the Federal Reserve and Federal Trade Commission on reforming the payments ecosystem, for example, and will also stay engaged with Congress and the Trump Administration on the negative effects of tariffs and the China trade war on the retail economy. RILA is also focused on infrastructure issues and said it will continue efforts to increase awareness about port inefficiencies as well as related topics such as the trucking industry's driver shortage.
Austen Jensen, RILA's senior vice president of government affairs, said he expects privacy to be an issue "right out of the gate" in the new Congress, citing a shift in concern from data security to consumer privacy among government and industry leaders.
"I would say there's going to be a robust debate [about privacy] on Capitol Hill," Jensen said, noting that the House of Representatives is likely to take action on the issue sooner than the Senate in the new session. "But if you talk to both [sides], both are very much aligned on trying to do something on privacy."
RILA says it is focused on education and awareness about privacy laws, as well updating outdated laws to reflect issues and concerns in the digital economy.
Trade issues will also take center stage this year, especially in light of the uncertainty surrounding tariffs on Chinese imports and the pending approval of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on trade. Hun Quach, RILA's vice president of international trade, says the group supports the administration's efforts to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the form of the USMCA, pointing to new rules on ecommerce and the digital economy as an example—issues that were not addressed when NAFTA took effect more than 20 years ago. But she said RILA and others are still watching the USMCA carefully as it makes its way through the approval process; new rules of origin requirements may affect some retailers, for instance, and lawmakers may try and make changes as the proposal moves through Congress, she said.
"We're far away from a congressional vote on this," Quach said.
A report from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on changes to the U.S. law is expected later this month, but a vote on the USMCA is not expected for several months, Quach said.
The threat of tariffs remains a concern as well. The delayed implementation of new tariffs on Chinese goods set to take effect this month was good news to retailers, Quach said, but the looming March 2 deadline extension is still a concern. The Trump adminstration announced December 1 it would delay raising tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on certain Chinese imports for 90-days while it continues trade negotiations with China. Businesses and consumers could be hit hard if those talks are unsucessful, Quach said.
"The looming March 2 deadline is weighing on our sourcing and transportation executives, our financial planners," she said, referring to RILA member companies. "The potential for a fourth round of tariffs is concerning to a lot of our retailers that sell everything from clothing to toys to consumer electronics."
Adding to the level of uncertainty is the divided government and its ability to move anything along in the 116th Congress. Jensen and Quach say infrastructure is one area that usually bucks that trend and that may gain bipartisan support in the year ahead. Jensen says there are whispers about an infrastructure bill in the works, and that RILA will continue efforts to support infrastructure updates to the nation's ports, highways, railroads and bridges.
"Transportation has been very bipartisan, and we've been at the forefront advocating [for infrastructure improvements]," he said. "Unfortunately, the last Congress was not able to get anything off the ground. But this is one of the areas you may see the divided government come together [this year]."
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The U.S. manufacturing sector has become an engine of new job creation over the past four years, thanks to a combination of federal incentives and mega-trends like nearshoring and the clean energy boom, according to the industrial real estate firm Savills.
While those manufacturing announcements have softened slightly from their 2022 high point, they remain historically elevated. And the sector’s growth outlook remains strong, regardless of the results of the November U.S. presidential election, the company said in its September “Savills Manufacturing Report.”
From 2021 to 2024, over 995,000 new U.S. manufacturing jobs were announced, with two thirds in advanced sectors like electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries, semiconductors, clean energy, and biomanufacturing. After peaking at 350,000 news jobs in 2022, the growth pace has slowed, with 2024 expected to see just over half that number.
But the ingredients are in place to sustain the hot temperature of American manufacturing expansion in 2025 and beyond, the company said. According to Savills, that’s because the U.S. manufacturing revival is fueled by $910 billion in federal incentives—including the Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—much of which has not yet been spent. Domestic production is also expected to be boosted by new tariffs, including a planned rise in semiconductor tariffs to 50% in 2025 and an increase in tariffs on Chinese EVs from 25% to 100%.
Certain geographical regions will see greater manufacturing growth than others, since just eight states account for 47% of new manufacturing jobs and over 6.3 billion square feet of industrial space, with 197 million more square feet under development. They are: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Tennessee.
Across the border, Mexico’s manufacturing sector has also seen “revolutionary” growth driven by nearshoring strategies targeting U.S. markets and offering lower-cost labor, with a workforce that is now even cheaper than in China. Over the past four years, that country has launched 27 new plants, each creating over 500 jobs. Unlike the U.S. focus on tech manufacturing, Mexico focuses on traditional sectors such as automative parts, appliances, and consumer goods.
Looking at the future, the U.S. manufacturing sector’s growth outlook remains strong, regardless of the results of November’s presidential election, Savills said. That’s because both candidates favor protectionist trade policies, and since significant change to federal incentives would require a single party to control both the legislative and executive branches. Rather than relying on changes in political leadership, future growth of U.S. manufacturing now hinges on finding affordable, reliable power amid increasing competition between manufacturing sites and data centers, Savills said.
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.