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AD Editorial Board

Aaron Ahlburn

Managing Director and Senior Director, Research, JLL
Amy Gerber

Executive Managing Director, Business Incentives Practice, Cushman & Wakefield
Bill Luttrell

Senior Locations Strategist, Werner Global Logistics, Werner Enterprises
Bradley Migdal

Senior Managing Director, Business Incentives Practice, Cushman & Wakefield, Inc.
Brian Corde

Managing Partner, Atlas Insight
Dan Levine

Practice Leader, Location Strategies and Economic Development, Oxford Economics, Inc.
Dan White

Senior Economist, Moody's Analytics
Dean J. Uminski, CEcD

Partner, Crowe Horwath
Dennis Cuneo

Partner , Fisher & Phillips
Eric Stavriotis

Senior Vice President, Advisory & Transaction Services, CBRE, Inc.
Gregory Burkart

Managing Director and City Leader, Site Selection & Incentives Advisory , Duff & Phelps, LLC
H. Robert Boehringer, III

Managing Director, Global Location & Expansion Services, KPMG
Josh Bays

Principal, Site Selection Group, LLC
Joshua Wright

VP, Economic and Workforce Development, Emsi
Kate Crowley

Principal & Negotiated incentives Practice Leader, Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP
Les Cranmer

Senior Managing Director, Savills Studley
Marc Beauchamp

President & CEO, The CAI Global Group
Margy Sweeney

Founder and CEO, Akrete, Inc.
Minah Hall

Managing Director, True Partners Consulting LLC
Paul Naumoff

Principal, National Director of Tax Credits & Incentives Advisory Services, EY Global/Americas
Scott Kupperman

Founder, Kupperman Location Solutions
Stephen Gray

CEO, Gray Construction

New Age of Trade

Cushman & Wakefield and NAIOP

1-16-2009

Cushman & Wakefield and NAIOP today released a joint research report on trade patterns in North and South America that suggests a growing trend toward "near sourcing" of U.S. manufacturing centers, which has the potential to dramatically alter trade routes throughout the region. The report, entitled "The New Age of Trade", also examines the effects of near sourcing on supply chain management and investment opportunities in Central America, the U.S, and Canada.

"Deteriorating global economies, erratic fuel costs, and regional free trade policies are prompting manufacturers and supply chain professionals to take a closer look at location advantages offered throughout the Americas," said Maria Sicola, executive managing director of research for Cushman & Wakefield, who is responsible for overseeing the study. "As a result, attractive manufacturing opportunities in Central and South America are emerging and this is having a major influence on distribution systems throughout the Caribbean, Mexico, U.S. and Canada."

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has significantly reduced restrictions on trade regionally in the Americas. This combined with unpredictable fuel costs; traffic congestion in major U.S. ports; the expansion of the Panama Canal and an integration of the economies in the Americas; is contributing to dramatic changes in global trading.

The economic climate is placing cost pressure on the manufacturing of goods in China for distribution in the U.S. This is lending support for the development of more manufacturing centers in Central and South America. In turn, these trends are affecting supply chain management strategies throughout the U.S and Canada which are now focusing on the Caribbean as a more strategic hub.

Mexico, Caribbean port countries, and secondary distribution hubs in Canada and the U.S., all stand to gain from a recent shift toward the near sourcing of goods along more cost effective trade routes.

Development opportunities for manufacturing centers in the Western Hemisphere and modifications to major trade routes are fueling the interests of international real estate investors hoping to tap new markets and utilize new cost saving best-practices in industrial park design and operations.