With a tentative contract deal reached with East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers - though a key West Coast agreement remains unsettled - import cargo volume at the nation's major retail container ports is expected to increase 8.5 percent in February over the same month last year, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

International trade and cooperation has become a key driver of small business success, according to an in-depth and wide-ranging study by IHS and DHL Express.

Slowly and steadily, a handful of Indian aerospace companies are getting absorbed into the global supply chain of OEMs. For instance, in the opto-electronics segment, the new Samtel-Thales Avionics joint venture "plans to become the first electro-optic house in the country," said executive director Puneet Kaura. By 2015, the company intends to supply the infrared search and track system as standard equipment for the Dassault Rafale fighter for the Indian Air Force. Meanwhile, the Thales-Bharat Electronics surface radar joint venture is on track and will be fully operational by March, said Eric Lenseigne, Thales's country head for India. "Offsets at a later stage could be a possibility."

Not too long ago, the mere mention of the "China price" could send shivers down the spines of executives in developing countries trying to compete for outsourcing contracts. A pending labor shortage could make such pricing an historical relic.