Singapore Business Federation’s Future of Trade Forum

U.S. Customs and Border Protection blocked palm oil from two Indonesian plantations, citing debt bondage, withheld wages and retained identity documents.

It set the stage for our CEO Steven Okun to unpack emerging non-trade regulations at the Singapore Business Federation’s Future of Trade Forum, with Ernie Koh and Philipp Dupuis, moderated by Kala Anandarajah, BBM. 

None of this is new. CBP's mandate dates back to the Tariff Act of 1930, and it's based on International Labour Organization indicators. 

What has changed is the geopolitical temperature. 

The U.S. and EU are arriving at the same place from different directions. Washington is getting there through security and its posture on China. Brussels is getting there through climate commitments, the supply chain lessons of COVID and the energy shock that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

But for businesses, the geopolitics rarely shows up at that altitude. It shows up in the "tiny details": a certificate of origin that's suddenly harder to obtain, a valuation question, a container held up over paperwork.