MAPI — Manufacturers Alliance News and Reports — Loss of Economic Freedom, Trade Deficit, and More

Issues in the Brief

BEPS CbC: Getting Ready for the New SOX?
A few years ago, the OECD embarked on a multiyear effort to create an international tax framework that closes perceived gaps in international tax rules. This includes combating base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) to ensure companies pay their “fair share” of taxes. Many of the BEPS Project’s action items are expected to be finalized later this year.

America’s Disturbing Loss of Economic Freedom
As measured by the Heritage Foundation and Fraser Institute, the U.S. experienced a noticeable loss of economic freedom over the past decade. As the U.S. added regulations constraining the private sector, other countries made transformative institutional changes to free up their own economic systems. Onerous regulations negatively affect the dynamism that comes from creative destruction and contribute to sluggish growth.

Current State of Corporate Tax Departments
It’s hard to find many other business units as deeply immersed with numbers and statistics and data as a company’s tax department. That’s why, since 1986, MAPI has conducted a series of surveys to profile the current state of the tax department to include comparative data. Companies have found this type of benchmarking invaluable to their operations.

U.S. Trade Deficit, August 2015
The U.S. trade deficit in manufactures soared by 30% in the first quarter, inflated by weather and a West Coast dock strike, and then adjusted to a lower 15% increase in the second quarter. For a more balanced first half of the year, U.S. manufactured exports declined by 1% from 2014, imports were up by 5%, and the deficit surged by 19%, or by $48 billion, which equates to a trade-related loss of 300,000 American manufacturing jobs. In the other direction, the Chinese trade surplus in manufactures surged by 14%, or by $59 billion, during the first half of the year.

The U.S. Economy Is Poised to Accelerate
In my presentation this month at the National Fluid Power Association’s Industry and Economic Outlook Conference, I provided an overview of industrial markets, the dollar, energy, and key indicators for manufacturing and the economy.

Economic Update

Latin America Manufacturing Outlook July 2015
This biannual report examines the latest trends in selected manufacturing industries in Latin America and provides related forecasts. The focus is on Latin America’s three largest economies—Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina—as these countries account for more than 80% of the region’s manufacturing output.

Global Outlook: The Elusive Search for Equilibrium
Six years past the bottom of the Great Recession, it feels to many as if the aura of crisis still haunts the global economic landscape.

July Manufacturing Update
Manufacturing output was flat in June, as it was throughout most of the first half of 2015. Given challenges arising from the strong dollar, a severe winter, the dockworkers’ slowdown and global economic uncertainty, it is surprising that performance has not been worse.