31st Annual Survey of Corporate Executives Commentary: Political Risk Comes to the United States
International site selection is already changing in response to our new era of presidential tweeting. To last year’s rankings must now be added the challenges presented by major shifts in federal policies and tactics.
Q1 2017
Large technology and manufacturing companies often rely upon internationally integrated supply chains to compete in global markets. Federal policies now under consideration have the potential to create new and contradictory risks that will make managing these supply chains and producing U.S. products in foreign markets more complicated. Being discussed, for example, are expansionary fiscal policies that would strengthen the dollar (and consequently harm exports) while other proposals would increase tariffs, tax imports, and exempt export revenue from federal taxation.
Competing domestic policy will affect different companies differently, and adding to that uncertainty is risk regarding how trading partners will respond to protectionist U.S. trade policies.
Managing these new political risks is now part of the site selection process. The 2016 rankings (particularly on labor quality and cost) still remain highly relevant. But now careful consideration must also be given to changing tax and tariff policy and the risk that new foreign investments might jeopardize future opportunities to do business with the U.S. government. International site selection in 2017 will be unlike any investment environment that we have worked in before.
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Dan Levine, Practice Leader, Location Strategies and Economic Development, Oxford Economics, Inc.
Dan Levine previously led the Location and Incentives Consulting Practice at ADP, Inc. and also owned and operated a boutique corporate relocation consulting company, MetroCompare LLC. In these capacities he advised companies on where to locate new facilities (e.g., call centers, industrial plants, and shared-service centers) and negotiated incentive packages on behalf of these companies in excess of $100 million. Clients included Citigroup, Novartis, Burlington Coat Factory, Dyson, and the Biotechnology Council of New Jersey. Levine previously served as Assistant State Treasurer of New Jersey where he led many of that state’s economic development efforts including the creation of a first in the nation incentive program targeting retention, privatization of the state aquarium, and a waterfront master development agreement in Camden, NJ. Earlier in his career, Levine was director of Incentive Services at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He is a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government (Master's) and earned his BA in Economics from the University of Chicago.
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