Christin Schack, VP & Managing Director Central Europe at 3M, and Anna Wilcke, Head of Marketing for Germany, Austria and Switzerland at UPS, shared insights from two leading U.S. corporations with international activities. 3M is a manufacturing company with many production facilities within and outside the US and sales organizations around the world. In contrast, UPS is a logistics service provider that offers customs brokerage services for its customers. Both Christin and Anna described how their businesses reacted quickly when the first announcements were made in early spring of this year. Measures used to mitigate the effects of the tariffs are a combination of increasing efficiency and digitalization. In the case of 3M, this also included revisiting prices and adjusting their supply chain where possible. UPS encourages customers to provide accurate and complete customs documentation and consider how various options for shipment consolidation or methods of handling duties and taxes, including a new option for guaranteed landed costs, can benefit them.
During the discussion we agreed that the biggest challenge is the insecurity brought on by changing circumstances, with insecurity being the New Normal.
We are very grateful to our host UPS; we held the event at their UPS Integrad driver training center, located near the Cologne/Bonn airport where UPS operates its largest Air Hub outside the U.S.
