Janet Napolitano, Us secretary of homeland security, whilst attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, unveiled the “National Strategy for Global Supply Chain Security”. The objective of this global strategy is to prevent terrorists from exploiting global supply chains. Napolitano said that “We must continue to strengthen global supply chains to ensure that they operate effectively in time of crisis, recover quickly from disruptions and facilitate international trade,” and that ““We look forward to working closely with our international partners…

The March tsunami and subsequent earthquake, which wreaked havoc in Japan last year has resulted the in the Japanese Department of Finance to post a trade deficit for the first time since 1980. The tsunami and subsequent earthquake causes significant supply chain distributions, which translated into a deficit of $32 billion for 2011.

In 2011, exports fell by 2.7% whereas imports soared by a massive 12% to $872.4 billion. Japanese auto-manufacturers suffered the brunt of the after effects of the twin disaster with huge disruptions to its supply chain, which had an adverse effect on Japanese automobile exports. This bad situation was exacerbated…

US Homeland Security have reported that the US is in the process of developing a global supply chain security strategy. This follows on from the National Strategy of Supply Chain Security which was released by the White House on January 25^th, 2012.

It is assumed that the motivation and objective of the global strategy will be similar to that of the National strategy which is to “protect the welfare and interests of the American people and secure our Nations economic prosperity”

Janet Napolitano, speaking from the World Economic Forum in Davos said “We must continue to strengthen global…

The EU has joined forces with the US in banning imports of Iranian oil in response to Iran’s continuing nuclear development programme. In December, the United States imposed huge financial sanctions on Iran, with huge entities being imposed on any US entity that has dealings with the Iranian central bank.

The EU embargo on new contracts for crude oil and petroleum products will commence immediately. In response politicians in Iran have threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off a gateway for the Arab states crude oil exports, causing chaos in supply chains globally.

After China the EU is Iran’s largest importer…