The U.S. Supreme Court last month drove two more nails into the coffin of port efforts to impose local rules on drayage operators, in violation of interstate commerce law. The court ruled unanimously that the Port of Los Angeles could not require drayage companies to display placards on their trucks that included a phone number for reporting concerns about their operations. It also could not mandate the development of off-street parking plans for harbor vehicles.

A group of 17 American retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Macy's Inc., have signed on to a five-year agreement to help improve safety at garment factories in Bangladesh.

Ensuring product quality is of utmost importance to the pharmaceutical industry, and appropriate controls and oversight are required for both the drug-manufacturing process and the supply chain for pharmaceutical ingredients.

Across industries, manufacturers pride themselves on quality but put top emphasis on reducing overall costs. And while these may seem like conflicting priorities, they can be explained by the concurrent demands of the internal economic drivers of an organization and the external customer requirements for quality and efficiency. As such, these priorities are here to stay, especially as the consumer becomes increasingly empowered and publicly vocal. In recent years, product quality and safety have become tightly integrated with traceability and supplier scorecards. But for manufacturers with foresight to proactively implement a comprehensive traceability system before a contamination problem occurs, there is an opportunity to provide their organizations with the ability to dramatically improve response time, implement corrective measures, and minimize repercussions to the bottom line and the brand, should a problem arise.

It's been more than three years since the Obama Administration launched its National Export Initiative (NEI), with much ballyhoo. The stated goal of the massive effort was to double U.S. exports within five years - from $1.57tr in 2009 to a projected $3.14tn in 2015.