By Christina Lavoie, Director of Policy, Health Industry Distributors Association
At HIDA’s MedSupplyChain Conference, healthcare distributors heard an update from Lars Jensen, global shipping subject matter expert and CEO of Vespucci Maritime. Jensen returned to the conference for the third year in a row with his insights on global shipping trends for the next 12 months.
Jensen described the state of global shipping as a case of “some certainty, overshadowed by even greater uncertainty.” For every problem that has been resolved, twice as many sources of uncertainty have appeared.
Resolution of East Coast port labor dispute
Despite a three-day strike in October 2024, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) reached a labor agreement in January 2025. The six-year agreement enhanced worker benefits and offered concessions to slow the pace of port automation. The resolution of the dispute was significant, as a prolonged strike could have severely disrupted supply chains.
Tariffs loom over freight market
Apart from the obvious impact on costs, the threat of tariffs has increased uncertainty on shipping schedules and volumes. In September 2024, President Biden imposed tariffs on Chinese masks, gloves, and syringes. In response, shippers front-loaded their cargo, pushing out larger volumes to arrive in the United States before the tariffs took effect. According to Jensen, increased tariffs may skew competition and change trade patterns, while retaliatory sanctions will make compliance more difficult.
Shipping lanes subject to geopolitical uncertainty
The Red Sea crisis caused ships to be re-routed around Africa and caused shipping delays as far away as Singapore. Although Houthi rebels in Yemen began to observe a ceasefire in January 2025, any further regional instability could reignite the crisis and shut down shipping lanes again. Meanwhile, President Trump has renewed his interest in the Panama Canal, especially the role of the Chinese logistics and port management companies in the region. This scrutiny is bound to affect the future of the Central American canal, which accounts for 40% of all U.S. container traffic.
Fast Pass? Passed
Fast Pass – the Facilitating Access to Swiftly Transport Goods during a Publicly Announced State of Emergency Situation Act – is now the law of the land. Just before the end of last year, Congress approved, and President Biden signed into law language to study the “Fast Pass” of medical cargo through U.S. ports. This is a bipartisan victory for the medical supply chain. Under the new law, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) will study the transportation of personal protective equipment (PPE) through vessels and ports onto trucks or rail, and the role played by the Department of Transportation and other relevant federal agencies to expedite the transportation of PPE. GAO will report back to Congress by the end of 2026.
HIDA Shipping Work Group running strong
HIDA members were our strongest and best advocates for Fast Pass. Members of our Shipping & Logistics Work Group provided persuasive evidence of cargo delays and the impact they had on patients and providers. They demonstrated that transportation is a healthcare issue. A Shipping Work Group analysis of the medical supply chain found that during the West Coast port backlog of 2021-22, approximately 31,000-46,000 containers of critical medical supplies were delayed an average of 29 days throughout the transportation system.