President Biden convened a summit on Sunday during the annual meeting of G-20 leaders for addressing supply-chain issues and other disruptions affecting global commerce.
“Supply chains are something that most of our citizens never think twice about until something goes wrong. And during this pandemic, we’ve seen delays and backlogs of goods from automobiles to electronics, from shoes to furniture,” Biden said in his debut at the G-20 since becoming president.
He said, “Ending the pandemic is the ultimate key to unlocking the disruptions we’re all contending with. But, we have to take action now, together with our partners in the private sector, to reduce the backlogs that we’re facing. Now that we have seen how vulnerable these lines of global commerce can be, we cannot go back to business as usual.”
Biden, with leaders from European Union and 14 other countries, agreed for fostering more international cooperation related to near-term supply-chain disruptions as per the White House readout. The leaders are also keen to strengthen and diversify the complete supply-chain ecosystem right from dependence on certain raw materials to manufacturing to shipping and distribution.
The world’s supply chain is bearing the impact of a relentless pandemic, surging customer demand, shortages of labor and delays in overseas manufacturing, all these leading to higher transportation costs and inflation.