Supply Chain Research

The USTR has launched an inquiry of the Trump administration’s section 201 duties on washing machines, as required by WTO consultations with South Korea. It seems unlikely that the administration will back down on the case. The state of the washing machine sector’s supply chains has changed already. While imports in the three months to May 31 were down 28% on the three months before duties were applied they are up 10% on a year earlier. That’s been the result of a surge in shipments from China which represented 76% of shipments in the four months to April 30. Additionally the average imp...