It’s The New Year in the Gregorian Calendar (as opposed to the Julian Calendar or the Islamic Calendar), which means that it’s the new year in most English Speaking and/or countries where a branch of Christianity is the dominant religion, including the US and the UK. That means, for many of you, you have a whole new set of rules and regulations to deal with. Are you ready?
For example, the eight edition of the International Commerce Terms (Incoterms 2010) take effect today. For example, no longer can you use DAF, DES, DEQ, and DDU as they have been replaced with DAT and DAP. The Advance Cargo Declaration is now mandatory in the European Union, which now includes Estonia (not to be confused with Elbonia). Accounting reglations specified in the HITECH Act take effect today and affect suppliers in the US Health Services & Medical Devices supply chain. Minimum wage goes up in ten (10) different states today, and this will no doubt lead to increases in logistics costs for SMEs, who already have to contend with the increases in small package courier costs at FedEX and UPS coming into effect on Monday. And for those of you sourcing internationally to low-cost countries, let’s not forget that the GSP went away on January 1! (And now those low cost countries aren’t so low cost anymore!)
For those of you in the chemical industry, you have to deal with the new reporting and filing requirements for the classification, labelling, and packaging of chemicals in Europe, courtesy of the European Chemicals Agench. For those of you in the energy industry in India, you need to be cognizant of the new Renewable Energy Certificate Regulation, and be compliant if you want to take part in REC trading. And for those of you reading down under (or, from your perspective, up over) in the automotive industry, all new vehicles must be fitted with electronic stability control (ESC) systems. (Well, unless you’re in Victoria, then you have until November, but why be compliant in only one state when the other five will follow suit in 10 months?)
And I’ve only scratched the surface. It’s a new year, and it is bringing new challenges. Are you ready?