Analyst Insight: An enterprise-wide global trade strategy increases supply chain cost and service performance for all trading partners and enables importers and exporters to comply with mandatory trade and security regulations. Companies that prioritize best-in-class global supply chain trade practices, maintain effective global transport / trade organizations and employ enabling technologies are the best positioned to capture the economic and brand benefits available in growing and changing global markets. - Don Anderson, Principal, Tompkins International

Whether it's a toy, automobile, medical device or food item, not a day goes by without news of another product recall. Unfortunately, recalls are a reality of the global economy and it truly is a matter of when, not if, a company will be impacted by one. Navigating a product recall tests customer relationships, puts pressure on the supply chain, affects sales and can paint brands in an unfavorable light. Given the serious nature of these and other recall execution challenges, it's critical that organizations have a recall plan in place long before an event occurs.

With the Jan. 1 U.S. Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) lot-level traceability deadline now behind us, many pharmaceutical companies are turning their attention to full drug serialization. DSCSA requires that manufacturers mark packages with a product identifier, serial number, lot number, and expiration date by 2017. In that period, highly regulated packaging and distribution processes must be changed; physical equipment must be procured and operationalized; enterprise-wide IT must be implemented; and end-to-end serialization testing with supply chain partners must take place well in advance of the deadline to allow time for any necessary adjustments. Given these multi-faceted complexities, three years is an aggressive implementation time frame.

China's mostly state-owned automakers want to persuade the country's Commerce Ministry to retain a requirement seldom found in other top manufacturing nations: Foreign automakers may assemble cars in China only through 50-50 joint ventures with domestic partners.

Analyst Insight: Getting a grip on global trade management means mastering the three T's: taxes, tariffs and terms. These elements, which can easily amount to 20 percent of the final product cost in extreme cases, are more than capable of swamping everything we do with leaner inventories, optimised transportation and lower component costs. Despite this fact, many companies still approach this problem as a bit of an afterthought. - Kevin O'Marah, Chief Content Officer and Head of Research, SCM World

Analyst Insight: Food and beverage companies lag consumer packaged goods companies in corporate performance. With rising raw materials costs and volatility, coupled with increased compliance for food safety, they are facing greater change and increased risk. As they move into 2014, their supply chains are not as mature and their challenges are greater. - Lora Cecere, CEO and Founder, Supply Chain Insights