Policy moves including the US de minimis suspension and weaker global growth are squeezing transpacific e‑commerce volumes, prompting GLSHK and other logistics players to diversify into Asia‑Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East while ramping up PLACI compliance, digitalisation and performance benchmarking.
The long-running trade dispute between the United States and China is reshaping the geography of air cargo, with logistics firms and airports responding to a mix of policy shocks, regulatory tightening and new commercial opportunities. Speaking to Air Cargo Week, executives at GLSHK described how transpacific e‑commerce volumes — long a backbone of Hong Kong’s cargo traffic — are being squeezed, even as Asia‑Europe flows and intra‑Asia corridors grow in importance.
Policy headwinds and the near‑term economic backdrop
According to the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook (April 2025), escalating trade tensions and tariff actions have knocked down global growth projections and raised the odds of a near‑term slowdown, with estimated downgrades in the order of roughly 0.5 to 1.0 percentage point for 2025 in some scenarios. GLSHK’s Business Development Manager Ellis Chan told Air Cargo Week that the IMF projection “of a 0.5 percent to 1.0 percent slowdown in global GDP growth in 2025 further underscores the potential medium‑term risks to demand,” and that additional tariffs on China and Hong Kong are likely to weigh on US‑bound e‑commerce shipments.
Those macro risks have been compounded by concrete policy moves. An executive order from the White House, issued on 30 July 2025, suspended duty‑free de minimis treatment for imports and set new per‑package charges tied to tariff bands; the order names China and Hong Kong among affected origins and instructs federal agencies to adjust enforcement through the Automated Commercial Environment. The change removes a longstanding exemption for low‑value parcels and is expected to increase landed costs and administrative burdens for carriers and postal operators moving small parcels into the United States.
Taken together, the IMF assessment and the White House action signal both demand‑side and regulatory shocks. Logistics providers say those shocks are accelerating re‑routing decisions by shippers and are forcing a rethink of route economics for high‑velocity e‑commerce flows.
A dual‑track commercial response
GLSHK has described its own “dual‑track” response: protect existing revenue streams by deepening collaboration with freight forwarders and airlines, while expanding into markets that are less exposed to transpacific tariff risk. “GLSHK anticipates that the additional tariffs imposed on China and Hong Kong will affect air cargo volumes, especially for e‑commerce shipments on established US‑bound routes,” Ellis Chan said to Air Cargo Week. At the same time the company is targeting growth in the Middle East, South Asia and expanded Asia‑Europe services.
Keith Lam, GLSHK’s Business Solution and Infrastructure Manager, told the publication the firm is “closely monitoring the development of new flight routes connecting Asia, Europe, and Southeast Asia, and strategically positioning our product development roadmap to support this growth.” That pivot reflects an observable market dynamic: Hong Kong remains a major transshipment nexus even as origin‑destination balances shift. Hong Kong International Airport reported on 14 April 2025 that it handled roughly 4.9 million tonnes of cargo in 2024 and was the world’s busiest cargo airport for the year — underlining the territory’s continuing strategic role even in a period of flux.
Digital platforms, compliance and interoperability
The industry’s commercial response is being matched by an acceleration in digitalisation and compliance automation. GLSHK’s flagship platform, EzySuite, has been advanced, the company says, to handle scale, automation and the growing pre‑loading compliance needs of airlines and forwarders. “As more countries implement Pre‑Loading Advance Cargo Information (PLACI) requirements, the need for accurate and timely data submission — prior to flight loading — has become increasingly critical,” Lam told Air Cargo Week.
IATA’s guidance on PLACI and its broader push for interoperable data models under ONE Record are central to that transition. IATA’s PLACI manual sets out harmonised submission procedures and recommended validation rules for jurisdictions that have introduced pre‑loading checks, while the ONE Record programme promotes a single, decentralised digital record and an API standard intended to improve visibility, event sharing and plug‑and‑play connectivity across stakeholders. GLSHK says it has adopted IATA’s ONE Record API and embedded dynamic validation rules and intelligent automation into EzySuite to meet jurisdictional differences and to accelerate customs clearance cycles.
Operational transparency and performance measurement
Standardised milestone tracking and performance benchmarking are also being emphasised. Cargo iQ’s Master Operating Plan and milestone framework — and the associated Air Cargo Intelligence Hub — provide the kind of comparable metrics logistics chains are increasingly demanding. GLSHK points to its EDMP platform, certified to Cargo iQ standards, as a tool for milestone‑based oversight and service‑level benchmarking; the company says insights from EDMP help partners address deviations and improve reliability.
Security and governance
Data security and regulatory compliance remain priorities as providers stitch together more data flows. GLSHK told Air Cargo Week it adopted the NIST Cybersecurity Framework five years ago and conducts annual cybersecurity assessments; the company says this underpins its digital offerings and supports secure integrations with carriers, terminals and customs authorities. That claim of adherence to established cybersecurity practice is notable in an environment where cross‑border data exchange is expanding rapidly.
Technology on the front line — and limits to the tech answer
GLSHK is among firms emphasising advanced technologies — IoT for real‑time events, machine learning for cargo movement prediction, and planned AI assistance for data preparation and validation. Such tools can improve planning accuracy and reduce manual errors, executives say. But technology alone will not neutralise the policy and economic drivers reshaping trade lanes: regulatory changes such as the US de minimis suspension can alter parcel economics overnight, and harmonisation gaps between jurisdictions can still cause delays.
Outlook: opportunity through diversification — with risk
The combination of tariff pressure, new customs requirements and a dimmer growth outlook creates clear downside risks for transpacific e‑commerce volumes. Yet the same forces are accelerating structural adjustments that open opportunities elsewhere. Asia‑Europe trade lanes are expanding, Southeast Asia is consolidating as a logistics and production hub, and new routings to the Middle East and South Asia are being developed. Industry standards bodies and airport growth — exemplified by Hong Kong’s continued throughput strength and runway capacity gains — provide the connective tissue for that shift.
GLSHK’s public positioning, as presented to Air Cargo Week, is that a mix of route diversification, tighter forwarder and airline partnerships, and investment in compliant, interoperable digital platforms will help mitigate disruption. Whether those measures fully offset demand declines on traditional transpacific corridors will depend on the depth and duration of trade restrictions, the effectiveness of PLACI and other customs regimes in different jurisdictions, and how quickly shippers reconfigure supply chains.
For now, the sector faces a two‑track reality: policy and macro forces are imposing near‑term constraints, but the same pressures are accelerating a longer‑term rebalancing of global air cargo networks — and forcing logistics providers to marry commercial agility with stronger digital and compliance infrastructure if they are to capture the next wave of growth.
Source: Noah Wire Services
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