-
Political Realignment around support for free trade (or lack thereof)
-
On his Asia trip, Biden says he looking at ending the China trade tariffs.
-
eliminate the trade and start making stuff here. If covid has shown anything we’re too reliant on China. Medical supplies, computer chips etc..
-
-
[h1][b]U.S. Companies on Pace to Bring Home Record Number of Overseas Jobs[/b][/h1] [b]
[/b]
[h2][b]After Covid-19 pandemic upended supply chains, American companies are shifting jobs and processes to the U.S.[/b][/h2]
[link=https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-companies-on-pace-to-bring-home-record-number-of-overseas-jobs-11660968061?mod=djemalertNEWS]Wall Street Journal[/link]U.S. companies are bringing workforces and supply chains home at a historic pace.
American companies are on pace to reshore, or return to the U.S., nearly 350,000 jobs this year That would be the highest number on record since the group began tracking the data in 2010. The Reshoring Initiative lobbies for bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.
-
[link=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/12/opinion/america-trade-biden.html]Why America Is Getting Tough on Trade – [/link]
[link=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/12/opinion/america-trade-biden.html]([/link]tl;dr answer … it’s using trade policy to promote jobs in the US, support global democracy, and fight climate change)This is a very big deal, much bigger than Trumps tariff tantrums. The Biden administration has turned remarkably tough on trade, in ways that make sense given the state of the world but also make me very nervous. Trump may have huffed and puffed, but Biden is quietly shifting the basic foundations of the world economic order.
As it happens, the tariffs on Canadian metals are [link=https://www.international.gc.ca/trade-commerce/controls-controles/steel_alum-acier_alum.aspx?lang=eng]gone[/link], as are most of the similar tariffs on Europe (although the agreement there [link=https://www.piie.com/blogs/trade-and-investment-policy-watch/biden-and-europe-remove-trumps-steel-and-aluminum-tariffs]stops short[/link] of full free trade). But the tariffs on China are still in place. More important, the Biden administration has declared that the W.T.O. has no jurisdiction in the matter: Its up to America to determine whether its trade actions are necessary for national security, and an international organization has no right to second-guess that judgment.
Wait, what? According to the right, Biden and company are globalists, soft on China and unwilling to stand up for America. Why have they gotten so tough?
…
But wait, theres more. The Biden administrations biggest policy achievement so far is the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act, which despite its name is largely about fighting climate change. It does so mainly by subsidizing clean energy, which is fine. But the subsidies have a strong nationalistic aspect for example, tax credits for electric cars are restricted to vehicles [link=https://afdc.energy.gov/laws/electric-vehicles-for-tax-credit#:~:text=The%20Inflation%20Reduction%20Act%20of,effect%20on%20August%2017%2C%202022.]assembled in North America[/link].
Almost surely, this economic nationalism which allows climate activists to point to all the jobs created by green energy subsidies was essential to getting the bill passed. But does it violate trade rules? Im not sure how the Biden administration will defend the policy if challenged, but it might say that protecting the environment is a national security issue.
…
{T}he United States, which essentially created the postwar trading system, is willing to bend the rules to pursue its strategic goals, doesnt this run the risk of protectionism growing worldwide? Yes, it does.
Nonetheless, I think the Biden administration is doing the right thing.
The GATT is important, but not more important than protecting democracy and saving the planet.-
Roughly 1/2 of America will never know this since their trusted and [i]singular [/i]news source & sources are Fox & right-wing media in general. Its not in their information bubble.
-
Yes. We all love white lies.
-
BTW, I shared here before that Ive been told by past members of the Trump administration that they are happy with and supportive of Bidens China approach. Of course these are people that went toe to toe with Trump but I was pleased to hear it.
-
Dell looks to phase out China-made chips by 2024[/h1] [link=https://www.reuters.com/technology/dell-looks-phase-out-chinese-chips-by-2024-nikkei-2023-01-05/]https://www.reuters.com/t…024-nikkei-2023-01-05/[/link]
-
A couple interesting stories…. I’ll be interested to see if Apple decides to go with a “near-shoring” / “friend-shoring” approach and bring their new in-house design manufacturing to North America
[link=https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redirect-to/?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2F2023-01-09%2Fapple-plans-to-drop-broadcom-chip-by-2025-to-use-in-house-design]Apple Plans to Drop Key Broadcom Chip to Use In-House Design[/link]
[link=https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redirect-to/?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tipranks.com%2Fnews%2Faapl-to-begin-making-apple-watch-display-screens-in-house]AAPL to Begin Making Apple Watch Display Screens In-House[/link]
-
I really think that’s the way to go. I’m glad as we should make these things here. We’re learning a hard lesson about outsourcing everything, and doing real time ordering.
-
All it took was a pandemic.
Hard lesson.-
Quote from Frumious
[b]All it took was a pandemic.[/b]
Hard lesson.
Maybe for Apple. Keith Krach sounded the alarm well before that.-
Quote from Thread Killer
Quote from Frumious
[b]All it took was a pandemic.[/b]
Hard lesson.
Maybe for Apple. Keith Krach sounded the alarm well before that.
There have alway been miscellaneous people warning of job loss and financialization of corporations, exporting jobs for decades, at least since the 1980’s. Also recall Ross Perot & his “sucking sound” as jobs go to Mexico. He was wrong, thke jobs went to China. China had even lower labor costs than Mexico.
Outsourcing was the new American business solution to increased profits.
[link=https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2016/05/01/who-sent-american-jobs-away/]Who Sent American Jobs Away? – Forbes[/link]
[link=https://www.businessinsider.com/what-happened-to-american-jobs-in-the-80s-2017-7?op=1]https://www.businessinsider.com/what-happened-to-american-jobs-in-the-80s-2017-7[/link]The problem didn’t start in the 1990s, it started in the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan was president, and neoliberal economics were first making their mark on policy. Reagan distrusted government and believed that the private sector could make the best decisions when left on its own. You’ve heard about this it’s called laissez faire economics.
“From 1980 to 1985 employment in the US economy increased from 104.5 million to 107.2 million workers, or by 2.6 percent. But employment of operators, fabricators, and laborers fell from 20.0 million to 16.8 million, a decline of 15.9 percent (US Department of Commerce 1983, 416; and 1986, 386).”
Most never recovered. Some companies disappeared from the face of the earth, like consumer electronics maker RCA. In 1981 it was a global leader, by 1986 it was bought by GE and then chopped up and sold for parts.
All of this was happening amid a wave of deregulation in the US.
This was also the era of the corporate raider, pushing companies to become leaner and more profitable as quickly as possible.
The shareholder became the main thing for a company to worry about. Employees lost their status. Companies feared getting attacked, so they bent over backward to mollify the former at the expense of the latter. Those new stock repurchasing rules, for one thing, allowed them to shore up their defenses by buying back stock. But, of course, that meant spending money that could’ve gone to innovate, invest in new technology and equipment, or reward workers.
That’s when Lazonick says the financialization of the American corporation began in earnest, and blue-collar workers were left behind by corporate America and the government alike:
“As secure middle-class jobs for high-school-educated blue-collar workers permanently disappeared, there was no commitment on the part of those who managed US industrial corporations or the Republican administrations that ruled in the 1980s to invest in the new capabilities and opportunities required to upgrade the quality and expand the quantity of well-paid employment opportunities in the United States on a scale sufficient to re-establish conditions of prosperity for these displaced members of the US labor force.”
Meanwhile, the private sector has called on the government to invest in innovation. Back in 2010 the [link=http://americanenergyinnovation.org/who-we-are/]American Energy Innovation Council[/link] which includes executives from Microsoft, Bank of America, and other massive companies called on the government to increase its investment in alternative energy from $5 billion to $16 billion annually.
To put this another way: big business is asking the government to assume the risk involved in innovation, so they can take advantage of the benefits.
[b]The world didn’t take America’s jobs, America let the world have them without investing in a path to new ones because politicians were more interested in tax cuts, and corporate America was more interested in short term gains.[/b]
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
For sure. The corporations were to blame more than the policy makers.
My point was it wasnt the pandemic that triggered smarter people to look at the national security issues with being so aligned with China.
-
OK, agree.
-
We often do. I really will stick to arguing with you strictly on the policy measures we disagree. There aren’t many.
-
Not *in* the US .. but *outside* of China
[link=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-15/key-apple-partners-plan-expansion-in-southeast-asia-in-2023?srnd=premium]Key Apple Partners Plan Expansion in Southeast Asia in 2023[/link]
[link=https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/AAPL:US]Apple Inc.[/link] partners Foxconn Technology Group and [link=https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/4938:TT]Pegatron Corp.[/link] included Southeast Asia in their expansion plans for 2023, in a sign major global contract electronics manufacturers will continue to add production capacity outside China to mitigate geopolitical and economic risks.
We will continue to grow our scale in mainland China, the Americas and Southeast Asia, and these efforts will blossom in 2023, said Young Liu, chairman of Foxconns flagship unit [link=https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/2317:TT]Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.[/link], at a company event on Sunday.[/QUOTE]
-
-
-
-
[b]Republicans Go to War with Chamber of Commerce[/b][/h1]
The two highest-ranking Republican leaders in the U.S. House are going to war with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as the new Congress takes shape, [link=https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/06/kevin-mccarthy-steve-scalise-no-plans-to-meet-chamber-of-commerce.html]CNBC[/link] reports.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise both refuse to meet with the the Chamber after the lobbying group endorsed a handful of Democrats in the last two elections, clearly making an enemy of two of the most powerful leaders in Congress. -
[link=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-28/apple-suppliers-are-racing-to-exit-china-airpods-maker-says?srnd=premium]Apple Suppliers Are Racing to Exit China, AirPods Maker Says
[/link][link=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-19/apple-suppliers-accelerate-buildup-outside-china-counterpoint?srnd=premium]Apple Suppliers Accelerate Buildup Outside China, Analysts Say[/link][link=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-28/apple-suppliers-are-racing-to-exit-china-airpods-maker-says?srnd=premium][/link]Tech giants want suppliers to diversify amid US-China tensions
India, Vietnam emerge as alternative assembly hubs after China
[ul][*]AirPods maker [link=https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/002241:CH]GoerTek Inc.[/link] is one of the many manufacturers exploring locations beyond its native China, which today cranks out the bulk of the worlds gadgets from iPhones to PlayStations. Its investing an initial $280 million in a new Vietnam plant while considering an India expansion, Deputy Chairman [link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/kazuyoshi-yoshinaga-38165674/?originalSubdomain=cn]Kazuyoshi Yoshinaga[/link] said in an interview. US tech companies in particular have been pushing hard for manufacturers like GoerTek to explore alternative locations, said the executive, who oversees GoerTeks [/ul]
[link=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-30/apple-supplier-in-india-begins-making-airpods-parts-for-export?srnd=premium]Apple Supplier in India Begins Making Components for AirPods[/link]
I was kind of hoping some would return to the US … doesn’t look like that’s in the cards.
-
Quote from dergon
[link=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-28/apple-suppliers-are-racing-to-exit-china-airpods-maker-says?srnd=premium]Apple Suppliers Are Racing to Exit China, AirPods Maker Says
[/link][link=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-19/apple-suppliers-accelerate-buildup-outside-china-counterpoint?srnd=premium]Apple Suppliers Accelerate Buildup Outside China, Analysts Say[/link][link=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-28/apple-suppliers-are-racing-to-exit-china-airpods-maker-says?srnd=premium][/link]Tech giants want suppliers to diversify amid US-China tensions
India, Vietnam emerge as alternative assembly hubs after China
[ul][*]AirPods maker [link=https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/002241:CH]GoerTek Inc.[/link] is one of the many manufacturers exploring locations beyond its native China, which today cranks out the bulk of the worlds gadgets from iPhones to PlayStations. Its investing an initial $280 million in a new Vietnam plant while considering an India expansion, Deputy Chairman [link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/kazuyoshi-yoshinaga-38165674/?originalSubdomain=cn]Kazuyoshi Yoshinaga[/link] said in an interview. US tech companies in particular have been pushing hard for manufacturers like GoerTek to explore alternative locations, said the executive, who oversees GoerTeks [/ul]
[link=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-30/apple-supplier-in-india-begins-making-airpods-parts-for-export?srnd=premium]Apple Supplier in India Begins Making Components for AirPods[/link]
I was kind of hoping some would return to the US … doesn’t look like that’s in the cards.
I think an iPhone (or iWhatever) that is stamped designed in Cupertino with a made in the USA flag on it sells like hotcakes.
-
-
[h1][b]Trump Calls for Universal Tariffs[/b][/h1]
Donald Trump put forth a proposal for universal baseline tariffs on most foreign products while revoking Chinas most favored nation trade status.[link=https://twitter.com/aseitzwald/status/1630268751538008067]https://twitter.com/aseit…us/1630268751538008067[/link]
-
[h1][b]Farm State Republicans Raise Alarm Over Trump Trade Plan[/b][/h1]
Donald Trumps latest salvo in his trade war with China is raising hackles among fellow Republicans from farm states, a crucial voting bloc in the 2024 GOP primary, [link=https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/28/farm-state-republicans-trump-china-trade-00084862]Politico[/link] reports.
The former and would-be future president pitched a new proposal Monday to overhaul the U.S. trading relationship with Beijing, part of a wave of anti-China rhetoric surging through Washington in the wake of the Chinese spy balloon flap earlier this month. But while there is consensus within the GOP on taking a tough line, many rural Republicans were quick to reject Trumps calls to slap new tariffs on Chinese goods since Beijing targeted the U.S. farm economy during the former presidents last trade war with China. The rare pushback, in public and private, presents an early break with some representatives for one of his key constituencies: rural Americans.
-
[h1][b]U.S. Manufacturers Seek Alternatives to China[/b][/h1]
Fears of military conflict and increasing security worries have some U.S. manufacturers re-evaluating their reliance on China, the [link=https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-manufacturers-seek-china-alternatives-as-tensions-rise-3cf539fa?mod=hp_lead_pos7]Wall Street Journal[/link] reports.
Executives are plotting alternate supply chains or devising products that can be made elsewhere should Chinas hundreds of thousands of factories become inaccessible. That prospect became more conceivable, they said, after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine prompted companies to sever ties with Russia, sometimes taking huge write-downs.
-
[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/08/06/us-china-economy-trade-mexico/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNjkxMjk0NDAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNjkyNjc2Nzk5LCJpYXQiOjE2OTEyOTQ0MDAsImp0aSI6IjY0MWI3OGRiLTU3NTQtNDIzYi1hMzVjLTllNzA4MmJlNDA3OCIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9idXNpbmVzcy8yMDIzLzA4LzA2L3VzLWNoaW5hLWVjb25vbXktdHJhZGUtbWV4aWNvLyJ9._xETQVq9U7vVuB9viE-QO5Ro4iK9SdaqhGVOfX1TwwY]https://www.washingtonpos…5Ro4iK9SdaqhGVOfX1TwwY[/link]
[b]U.S. companies are buying less from China[/b]
A combination of political and economic forces is driving the supply chain makeover.
The behavior of the governments toward each other the more hostile, confrontational stance is starting to affect private-sector decision-making because it changes the risk profile, said Adam Slater, lead economist for Oxford Economics in London.
Chinese products account for roughly one out of every six dollars Americans spend on imports, down from nearly one in four before the pandemic, according to Oxford data. Japan also is buying less from China. But European countries such as Germany and France are largely standing pat.
Foreign investors, meanwhile, are building fewer new Chinese factories, suggesting that other Asian countries will keep increasing their share of U.S. imports at Chinas expense. Annual spending on new or greenfield sites in China fell from around $100 billion in 2010 to $50 billion in 2019 and hit just $18 billion last year, according to Oxford data.
What were seeing from the U.S. decoupling seems set to continue, Slater said. The only real question is how far it spreads.
-
[link=https://www.wsj.com/articles/sputtering-trade-fuels-fears-for-a-connected-world-81c99922]Wall Street Journal[/link]:
[h1]Sputtering Trade Fuels Fears of a Fractured Global Economy[/h1] [h2]Cyclical factors are weighing on commerce, but the specter of global economic divisions lurks in the background[/h2] [link=https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-and-china-poised-to-drift-further-apart-after-investment-ban-1e37427d?mod=hp_lead_pos1]
[/link]
The downturn in world trade, exemplified by [link=https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-exports-fall-at-steepest-pace-since-february-2020-e930246b?mod=article_inline]slumping Chinese exports[/link] and a decline in U.S. imports, mainly reflects a phase of weak global economic growth.
Geopolitical tensions, heightened by Russias invasion of Ukraine, are leading to more curbs in the U.S. and Europe on doing business with China.
The sheer scale and complexity of global trade and investment links, however, mean any process of disentangling the world economy into blocks of like-minded countries is likely to be gradual and incomplete.
[link=https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-and-china-poised-to-drift-further-apart-after-investment-ban-1e37427d?mod=hp_lead_pos1]Wall Street Journal
[/link]
[h1]U.S. and China Poised to Drift Further Apart After Investment Ban[/h1] [h2]President Bidens order comes on top of a slowing Chinese economy, Covid lockdowns and rising tensions between the two powers[/h2]
After years of blacklisting Chinese companies and scrutinizing their investments in the U.S., the Biden administration is sending an unmistakable signal to American business to steer investment away from China.
An executive order President Biden issued Wednesdaywhile narrowly targeted at critical leading-edge technologies with military, surveillance and cyber capabilitiesmore broadly aims to reorder the flow of American capital and expertise away from its biggest global rival.
-
-
-
“friend-shoring” continues
Imports from China continue to drop as a percentage with Mexico, Canada, the EU, and Asia ex-China picking up the slack
-
Supposedly China has big problems with youth unemployment. Lots of disgruntled youth probably not great for Xi. It’s great that we’re working away from them.
Next do foreign ownership of US farm land, and housing.
-
-
[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/08/22/trump-trade-tariffs/]https://www.washingtonpos…2/trump-trade-tariffs/[/link]
[b]Trump vows massive new tariffs if elected, risking global economic war[/b][/h1] [h2][/h2] [h2]Former president floats 10 percent tax on all foreign imports and calls for ring around the collar of U.S. economy[/h2]
Among the ideas they discussed was Trumps plan to enact a universal baseline tariff on virtually all imports to the United States, the people said. This idea, which Trump has taken to describing as the creation of a ring around the U.S. economy, could represent a massive escalation of global economic chaos, surpassing the international trade discord that marked much of his first administration. Trump advisers have for months discussed various potential levels to set the tariff rate, and they said the plan remains a work in progress with major questions left unresolved, the people said.
On Fox Business on Thursday, the former president called for setting this tariff at 10 percent automatically for all countries, a move that experts warn could lead to higher prices for consumers throughout the economy and could likely lead to a global trade war.
I think we should have a ring around the collar of the U.S. economy, Trump said in an interview with Kudlow on Fox Business on Thursday. When companies come in and they dump their products in the United States, they should pay, automatically, lets say a 10 percent tax I do like the 10 percent for everybody.
[/QUOTE]
-
Important things coming out of Gina Raimondo’s China approach. It’s reassuring to know that everyone I talk to, on both sides of the aisle, are supportive of this administration’s China policy.
-
