WASHINGTON — The U.S. needs to triple the number of freight market participants sharing data with the U.S. Department of Transportation during the Trump administration to help ward off the next supply chain disruption, according to the White House.
“We are likely to encounter additional supply shocks in the years ahead – just last year we saw 28 climate disasters that each cost at least a billion dollars, that’s a record,” said Lael Brainard, National Economic Advisor to President Joe Biden, speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.
Brainard was at the left-leaning think tank to unveil the Biden administration’s 2021-2024 Quadrennial Supply Chain Review, a 383-page report documenting progress made over the last four years in addressing supply chain disruptions, along with next steps needed to build on that progress.
“Russia’s war in Ukraine, and conflict in the Middle East continue to disrupt the flow of energy commodities. Cyber actors are regularly targeting supply chain actors as a way to take down major companies including hospitals. And we’ve seen a variety of disruptions to our shipping lanes including the Houthi attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea and reduced water levels in the Panama Canal.
“We need to work in partnership with the private sector when they identify critical bottlenecks.”
DOT’s Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW) program, the public-private partnership created in 2022 to improve cargo flow in U.S. supply chain networks and avoid bottlenecks, now has 85 voluntary industry participants sharing data in the system. According to the review, that number should triple over the next four years.
The review suggested five action items to help meet that goal and to improve data collection transparency:
- Employ supply chain visibility platforms to provide a comprehensive view of the entire supply chain, from raw materials to finished products.
- Utilize predictive analytics to forecast potential disruptions or failures in the supply chain, allowing for proactive measures to mitigate risks.
- Develop and promote industry standards through participation in industry consortia to improve data interoperability, ensuring that best practices are followed across the digital infrastructure supply chain.
- Alert stakeholders through early warning systems to potential risks and disruptions, such as component shortages or logistical delays.
- Provide stakeholder engagement fora to provide a platform for ongoing dialogue and collaboration.
The review also noted that expanding the FLOW initiative to build real-time data sharing across transportation networks may require support from lawmakers to create incentives for more private companies to participate.
“Congress may need to introduce legislation that encourages data collection practices across sectors, ensuring interoperability between systems while addressing cybersecurity risks,” it states. “Furthermore, new data privacy frameworks will be essential to balance transparency with the protection of proprietary information.”
Over the next four years, the next administration should also plan on “seizing opportunities through reshoring, nearshoring, infrastructure investment, and digital transformation” to help build more resilient supply chains, according to the review, particularly with regard to managing geopolitical tensions with China.
“As China continues to deploy non-market policies and practices that prompt responses from the United States and like-minded trading partners, companies will need to increase resiliency in their sourcing strategies to reduce their exposure to those policies and practices,” the review emphasizes.
One of the ways to do that is to incentivize U.S.-made ship-to-shore (STS) container gantry cranes for use at U.S. ports to counterbalance Chinese-made cranes, which currently dominate the market. The White House announced earlier this year plans for a 25% tariff on STS cranes – the Trump administration is planning to increase that to 60% for cranes and all other Chinese imports.