Site Selection

Facility Planning

Workforce Development

Business+Place

AD Editorial Board

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
Christine Bustamante

National Co-Leader, Global Location and Expansion Services, State and Local Tax, KPMG LLP
Dan Levine

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

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

Principal, Crowe Horwath
Dennis Cuneo

Managing Partner , Fisher & Phillips
Eric Stavriotis

Senior Vice President, CBRE, Inc.
Gregory Burkart

Managing Director and Practice Leader, Site Selection & Business Incentive Advisory Services, Duff & Phelps, LLC
Jamie Lominack

Corporate Real Estate Manager, Michelin North America
John Morris

SIOR, Industrial Services Lead for the Americas, Cushman & Wakefield, Inc.
Josh Bays

Principal, Site Selection Group, LLC
Les Cranmer

Senior Managing Director, Savills Studley
Marc Beauchamp

Vice President & Partner, The CAI Global Group
Michael McDermott

Consulting Manager, Global Business Consulting, Cushman & Wakefield
Minah Hall

Managing Director, True Partners Consulting LLC
Scott Kupperman

Founder, Kupperman Location Solutions
Scott Redabaugh

Managing Director, JLL
Stephen Gray

CEO, Gray Construction
Thomas J. Stringer, Esq.

Managing Director & Practice Leader, Site Selection and Business Incentives Group, BDO USA
Tim Feemster

Managing Principal, Foremost Quality Logistics

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.