VITA presents Cyber Vigilance and Business! 

Learn how to protect your business against cyber attacks, ransomware and wire transfer fraud at our next  Global Networking Breakfast   on N ovember 30th from 8am-10am in Sherman Oaks with special guests speakers. 

Register at www.thevalley.net/VITANovember

Nancy Hiromoto presented "Duty Drawback" at VITA's Global Networking Breakfast on Septemb er 28th.  Presentation included boosting export profits and changes to drawback law. 

Nancy explained types of drawback such as unused merchandise drawback, manufacturing drawback and rejected merchandise drawback. 

Government offers a  refund of 99% of  duties, taxes and fees paid  for goods imported and then subsequently exported .  First time claimants may be entitled to retroactive refund claims for up to three years prior.  Refunds are contingent upon required supporting documents. Special care must be taken to ensure a successful program and to avoid government rejection of a claim.

Presentation can be viewed at  www.thevalley.net/global/dutydrawback

In February 2014, Russia invaded the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, and the following month, it announced Crimea's annexation. This sudden act marked the beginning of the first major strategic crisis in Europe in a generation and served as a wake-up call to business leaders. As the crisis was unfolding, the Bank of England surveyed business executives on their views of systemic risk and in June published the striking results: 57% cited geopolitical risk as the greatest challenge facing their business, up from 13% the previous year. Subsequent Bank of England surveys have all ranked geopolitical risk as the most challenging risk to manage above cyberattacks, financial disruption, and even an economic downturn.

Geopolitics is back just witness the recent Brexit decision, which will dramatically change the future shape of the EU as much as the UK's relationship to it-and not just in Europe. A more confident China has taken measures to assert its territorial claims in the East and South China Seas. In the Middle East, advances by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and its declaration of a caliphate have threatened the territorial integrity of several states. ISIL's advances in Libya and the activities of other terrorist groups in West Africa have further destabilized governance across large territories there. The internal politics of Africa and Latin America, too, are often mercurial.

Adding to the climate of destabilization, the United States is no longer certain to intervene if the status quo in some region or other is challenged. With no clear "world policeman," few effective "neighborhood watch" schemes, and a growing number of vigilante groups eager to challenge the rules of the game, many parts of the world look and feel unstable. Companies cannot assume, in any region of the world, that the strategic status quo will be sustained by neat balances of power or unbreakable promises of foreign policy assistance from superpower states.

In this new reality, the most successful multinational companies will be those that make expertise in international affairs central to their operations, adopting what can best be described as a corporate foreign policy. Such a policy will have two goals: to improve a company's ability to operate in foreign environments through effective corporate diplomacy, and to ensure its success wherever it is engaged through careful geopolitical due diligence.

Multinationals operate in many different environments and in many industries; however, several principles underlie successful corporate foreign policy wherever it is practiced. Adhering to them can provide a new source of competitive advantage.

Geopolitical Risk Today