As we head towards this year’s SCMAP Supply Chain Conference, I received more questions than usual about our selected theme. “What do you mean by ‘breaking barriers’?”
Honestly, I thought it would be more obvious, considering how, in the past year, the pronouncements of US president Donald Trump – particularly on global trade – resonated around the world, and brought markets new levels of anxiety. For years we’ve seen talk of how the globalization project – how removing all barriers to trade, tariff or non-tariff, would bring prosperity to all – has failed, but only now are we really starting to see this argument tested out in real life. Sure, we have our hunches, about how a blanket tariff on all imports would not solve most, if not all, of the problems Trump said he would solve, but at least on the supply chain front, we have not seen a catastrophic collapse like we did, say, during the very early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That said, the developments of the last few months – culminating, in our case, with the Philippines and United States finalizing a 19% tariff that, some argue, doesn’t really amount to that much and is, overall, a win for our country – has brought forward many questions for our own competitiveness and capabilities. We are lucky that while the United States is a major trading partner, with several industries heavily reliant on it, we do have access to other markets, particularly those within our region. We are also lucky that the successive governments have made it a priority to expand our access to other outside markets – although some may argue we should have done it sooner, as aggressively as trade hubs like Singapore and Hong Kong, for example, have.
Still, key questions remain. Whatever the final tariff rate may be, are we truly competitive against our neighbors? What can we offer that they cannot? Can we lower costs? Can we provide further value? Some have hoped that the recent shake-up of American trade can mean we may be preferred more than, say, Vietnam, but a more equal playing field tariffs-wise means things are still lopsided against us, because of their higher productivity, better capability, stronger connectivity, and lower logistics costs.
That brings us to the other barriers we may have forgotten amidst Trump’s tendency to take up all the oxygen in the room. Again, sure, the government has stepped up infrastructure spending – whether it is good, reliable infrastructure remains to be seen, as we are reminded by the current brouhaha over substandard flood control projects – and is recently boosting logistics support for businesses of all sizes, but one, these efforts take a while to truly take effect, and two, the challenge of a government who still acts in silos remain. While we still lack a truly unified, whole-of-government approach to supply chain, our best bet in the private sector is to ourselves collaborate further with our partners, and even with our competitors, acknowledging common goals of lowering costs and making our products widely available, while ensuring we compete on quality rather than just logistics.
Our goal for the 2025 SCMAP Supply Chain Conference is to go beyond the anxieties and uncover the opportunities, even those seemingly far away, that allow us to truly break the aforementioned barriers and provide more value for our customers, our shareholders, and our partners. Admittedly, it’s events like these that allow us in the supply chain sector to take a break from the day-to-day, month-to-month, or quarter-to-quarter grind and set our gazes a little further. Who knows what ideas you may pick up? Whether it be new ideas for stronger retail supply chain collaboration, or new frontiers in truly enabling sustainable supply chains, we hope that by attending SCC25 you are able to bring back the seed of what might be the next groundbreaking idea for your operations, your company – and for all of us in this economy.
We will be accompanied by a top-notch roster of speakers (as you’d expect from our events) as well as a collection of the biggest and most exciting names in supply chain across the region, in our exhibit. It may not amount to much, but we do hope that with this event, we can help move Philippine supply chain further, crack the walls a little more, and maybe break through. Amidst this uncertainty, we need to continue doing what we do, and then some.
You can still join us by registering at scmap.org/events/conference/register. I personally look forward to seeing you in two weeks’ time, provided I get some time away from the tech booth.
Henrik Batallones is the marketing and communications director of SCMAP, and editor-in-chief of its official publication, Supply Chain Philippines. More information about SCMAP is available at scmap.org.
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