E2open finalized its acquisition of Amber Road, the company said in a July 2 news release. The companies announced the deal in May (see 1905130057). "The combination of E2open and Amber Road brings together two complementary platforms to create a premier global trade management network solution, enhancing customers’ ability to operate their entire end-to-end supply chains from one place in the cloud," E2open said.

The U.S.-China trade war “is taking its toll, especially on China,” eMarketer reported June 25, cutting its 2019 outlook for China and the U.S. As a result, China won't surpass the U.S. in total retail sales this year, as expected, and won't, based on current conditions, until 2021, when it's forecast to pass the U.S. by $93 billion. EMarketer forecasts China retail sales will hit $5.3 trillion this year, up from $5.1 trillion in 2018 vs. U.S. retail sales of $5.5 trillion this year, up from $5.3 trillion. Slowing auto sales are the main drag on the Chinese economy, it said. The U.S. “is not immune to the effects of retaliatory Chinese tariffs,” the research firm said, cutting its previous outlook for U.S. retail sales growth from 3.2 percent to 3 percent, amounting to $5.47 trillion. By share, the U.S. has 21.9 percent of the global retail market vs. China at 21.1 percent, but China’s e-commerce market -- “by far the largest” globally at $1.93 trillion -- is three times that of the U.S.; that forecast is “largely unchanged.” Despite the slight slowdown this year, it said, U.S. e-commerce sales are expected to exceed 10 percent of total retail sales for the first time, with e-commerce growing 14 percent to $586.9 billion.

J.P. Morgan now offers an E-Customs Payment Solution meant to make it easier to make cross-border payments, the company said in an emailed June 20 news release. "Importers in China are required to provide supporting documents to their banks prior to making payments to overseas suppliers, a process that is often labor-intensive and time-consuming," the company said. "With the E-Customs Payment Solution, J.P. Morgan’s clients in China will only be required to send the payment instructions with linked customs declaration number. Using Application Programming Interface (API) technology, J.P. Morgan’s E-Customs Payment Solution will then retrieve the relevant customs declaration status in detail from the local authorities via the Shanghai International Trade Single Window in real time and process the payments automatically."

The title of the panel discussion was "21st Century Management at our Ports of Entry," but panelists acknowledged that there are many ways the border operates that aren't modern at all.

Broadcom expects its semiconductor business to take a $2 billion revenue hit from the U.S.-China trade war, including the Trump administration's "Huawei export ban,” CEO Hock Tan said on a fiscal Q2 call June 13. The trade frictions are “creating economic and political uncertainty and reducing visibility for our global OEM customers,” he said. “Demand volatility has increased and our customers are actively reducing inventory levels to manage risks.” The $17.5 billion in semiconductor revenue Broadcom now expects in the fiscal year ending in February will translate into a year-over-year decline in the high single-digits, Tan said. Huawei generated about $900 million of revenue for Broadcom last year, but the market softness that prompted the company to shave $2 billion off its semiconductor revenue forecast “obviously extends beyond just one particular customer,” Tan said. “We're talking about uncertainty in our marketplace,” and that’s causing “compression” in the supply chain that’s reducing orders, he said. “It's broad-based.” With the revised forecast, “we tried to capture everything” in the business “environment,” including the impact of the proposed List 4 tariffs on Chinese goods, Tan said. The environment “is very, very nervous, and that's why we see a very, very sharp and rapid contraction of the supply chain and orders out there from our customers,” he said.

Tariffs Hurt the Heartland sent a letter to President Donald Trump June 13 saying that he should push China to change its trade practices, but said, "broadly applied tariffs are not an effective tool to change China’s unfair trade practices." The letter, signed by 520 companies and 141 associations, said, "We remain concerned about the escalation of tit-for-tat tariffs. We know firsthand that the additional tariffs will have a significant, negative and long-term impact on American businesses, farmers, families and the U.S. economy."

The International Chamber of Commerce World Chambers Federation updated its certificate of origin guidelines, the ICC WCF said in a May 27 news release. "The latest edition of the CO Guidelines elaborates on the differences between both preferential and non-preferential certificates of origin," it said. "It focus on non-preferential rules of origin which are required for payment mechanisms, such as letters of credit for traded goods, and measures related to trade policies, like applications for Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) status. Meanwhile, preferential rules of origin determine whether goods or services are eligible for preferential treatment under Free Trade Agreements (FTA)." The group also encouraged the use of electronic certificates.

Descartes bought CORE Transport Technologies of New Zealand for about $21 million, with a future performance-based earn-out of as much as $9 million, the companies said in a news release. CORE is "an electronic transportation network that provides global air carriers and ground handlers with shipment scanning and tracking solutions."

E2open will buy Amber Road for about $425 million, the companies said in a news release. The all-cash deal was approved by the Amber Road board of directors and remains subject to "customary closing conditions," the companies said.

Private equity investor Platinum Equity completed its previously announced purchase of Livingston International (see 1902210017), Platinum said in a May 2 news release. Livingston "is the largest pure-play customs brokerage in North America and boasts the widest presence along America's northern border," Platinum said. "It is also the third-largest customs entry filer in the United States. The company serves as a trusted adviser to more than 30,000 businesses globally, facilitating the completion and transmission of customs documentation and ensuring goods are cleared through international borders seamlessly and expediently." Terms of the deal weren't released.