TORONTO: October 18, 2018. Messe Munchen, organiser of the biennial ‘transport logistic’ exhibition in Munich, has signed an MoU with The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) to manage its future Air Cargo Forum events that will be held in Miami from 2020.

TIACA will be a strategic partner at Messe events in Munich, Shanghai and the ‘logitrans’ event in Istanbul (right) that runs from November 14-16 this year.

A survey of 550 logistics experts by transport logistic and German supply chain association BVL says protectionism and “punitive tariffs” are now a clear threat to international trade and particularly the logistics industry.

"The responses confirm the public perception that protectionism and general punitive tariffs pose a threat to international trade and that sanctions must be carefully decided on a case-by-case basis," said Christian Grotemeier, managing director of BVL.digital, a subsidiary of BVL. "It is also surprising that of the respondents from [the] trade [sector] only 21 percent believe that they are strongly or very severely affected by the hurdles in foreign trade, whereas it is 31 percent in [the logistics] industry."

Some 58 percent of German respondents and 60 percent of respondents from outside the country said the quality of trade relations between the US and EU was very important or important for their business. No other trade partnership was attributed such value said DVL.

"National protectionism was already a key topic at transport logistic 2017 and it will be one again in 2019," explained Messe managing director Stefan Rummel. “The topic is also extremely relevant for us as a trade fair. After all, we are in the midst of global trade flows with our transport logistic network with eight international spin-offs, among others in China."