More Resilience. Less Pollution : Territory-Driven Decision-Making In The New Global Supply Chains' Order

The recent rise of "Regionalization" or "Nearshoring" showcases the concrete and incremental influence of territory-driven decision-making in industrial supply chains. A new global supply chain order is currently being engineered. A scheme where “the clusters of local producers will be the piles hammered into the soil to hold up the bridge between the markets that the supply chains represent for the global trade”. Thus, the regionalization of production based on a network of clusters will act as a “sluice-gate system,” maintaining regional freight fluidity and reducing the risk of supply chain disruptions propagation across continents. Global-ization, as we know it, is declining, but Local-ization, as we do not know it, is growing. Surely, the absence of the current preparation for comprehensive cross-border supply chain visibility will increase distrust, and discoordination, coupled with environmental and logistics costs. A “Cross-Border Supply Chains Community System,” based on standardized processes and cyber-secure digital technologies, could change the current trajectory of the Pan-American Land Ports of Entry. Especially those in the North American region, and be a game changer. Digital interoperability concerning data and information exchange is already a key enabler for the next evolutions in artificial intelligence, blockchain, and autonomous systems. Since Land Ports of Entry are the hubs where many private-public binational actors converge, they are the better location to place these digital “Binational Control Towers” to improve binational logistics interoperability. Thus, the “Cross-Border Community System” becomes a concrete solution for increasing resilience (as well as reducing inflation and pollution). The new rule of the international trade game is to become more resilient and sustainable along the journey