US Administration Meets With Global Business Leaders to Discuss Solutions to Supply Chain Crisis

By Logan Wamsley

Recently, the current U.S. administration called a meeting with business, shipping, and union leaders from across the world to discuss the growing supply chain crisis seen at union ports. According to The Wall Street Journal, ach leader was prompted to offer suggestions for how the business community can work together and reveal more information about their supply chains mitigate the congestion that is leading to both delays and severe goods shortages across several major industries.

Some of the new measures announced include keeping the two largest ports in the U.S. in operation for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Additionally, Walmart, FedEx, UPS, Samsung, Target, and The Home Depot have all pledged to increase their hours of operation and make more use of ports and transport networks during off-peak hours. According to the White House, these measures will result in over 3,500 additional containers filled with products such as toys, furniture, bicycles and appliances to be added to the U.S. supply chain by the end of 2021. The exact details of these pledges, however, have not been officially released.

Additionally, the White House placed special emphasis on the long-term goal of restructuring the global supply chain to mitigate any potential shortages of raw materials and electronic inventory critical to manufacturing.

“Never again should our country and our economy be unable to make critical products we need because we don’t have access to materials to make that product,” said President Joe Biden. “I’ve said before, in the competition for the 21st century, we are America. We still have the most productive workforce and the most innovative minds in the world. But the rest of the world is closing in, and we risk losing our edge if we don’t step up.”

Talks have also begun to potentially take more extreme measures, such as deploying the National Guard. When asked about this possibility, President Biden said, “I’m not here to take options off the table.” Although no official announcements have been made, the fact this options is being explored at all underscores the severity of the supply chain crisis and hints at concerns such as continuing inflation issues, writes CNN Business.