Something to think about
Much of the trade deficit is caused by americian Co's who set up shop in china and then exported their own made in china goods back to the USA
We all remember people losing jobs to off shore labour and training people to do their job and then losing their job in America
All those americian Co's that produce goods, in china, for sale in America are considered in the trade deficit totals
I am not defending china but should we not ask why so many went to china and helped cause this trade mess
Of course it was the money, higher profits and higher CEO bonuses etc.
Would it be a thought if americian Co's that produce goods in china for sale in the USA have penalties attached to discourage made in china and encourage these Co's to bring production back to the USA
I don't know what the actual dollar value might be but I would hazard a guess it is a substantial amount
Much more than most people would think
Once we get our americian Co's producing goods in America then we really hit china for their unfair trade policies
"Of course it was the money, higher profits and higher CEO bonuses etc."
We may be treading in NTR waters here, but the above misconception is oft repeated.
It's not a matter of higher profits and higher CEO bonuses. It's a matter of survival.
The end result of business is delivering the best product to your customer for the best price. Your customer is the final judge of what that means.
If your competition figures out a way to deliver a comparable product to the customer for a better price, your company will lose money and eventually go out of business.
That means that if he moves some, or all of his production to China, and cuts the cost of his deliverable, your customers will start buying from him. You figure out a way to cut costs, or lose customers. And you may have to move production just to stay in business.
I have argued that the tax and regulation cuts we've been seeing since Trump took over the helm offset this cost in many areas. When the cost of doing business here drops enough to undercut the cost of transporting goods from China (half way around the world), more companies will have to move back to remain competitive. The higher the transport cost per unit, the higher the incentive. This is why we see so many countries setting up shop here to build cars. In spite of the cost of doing business, the cost of transport is high.
This is likely a contributing factor in why we are adding 20k+ jobs per month in manufacturing.