02 October 2023

The St. Lawrence - Great Lakes corridor facing international trade disruptions

 

The St. Lawrence - Great Lakes region is the world's 3rd largest economy, and is of vital importance to North American trade. The polycrisis we have just been through (health, geopolitical and economic crises), coupled with the incidents that can occur on transport corridors, have highlighted the need to strengthen our global supply chains. Supply chain issues have also become an important component of the inflation rate.

The trade and freight transport sectors are already undergoing changes in logistics strategy (the "just in time" has given way to the "just in case"), workforce and digital transformation. 

Faced with all these challenges, several questions arise: 

  • Should we tighten our supply chains?
  • Should we modify our logistics strategies to be more resilient?
  • How can the sector adjust to meet these challenges?


Nathalie de Marcellis-Warin (Polytechnique Montréal, CIRANO), Lucian Cernat (European Commission, CIRANO), Thierry Warin (HEC Montréal, CIRANO), Véronique Proulx (Manufacturiers exportateurs du Québec), Mathieu St-Pierre (Société de développement économique sur Saint-Laurent) and Daniel Dagenais (Port of Montreal) provide us with their insights and some answers to these questions. 

Video produced by Sarah Elimam and Vincent Ouellette for CIRANO at the CIRANO Symposium, Tackling the Challenges of Supply Chains: What opportunities for the St. Lawrence - Great Lakes corridor?.