Trade war with China didn’t boost U.S. manufacturing

[beijingwalker]

Trade war with China didn’t boost U.S. manufacturing
Last Updated: Oct. 25, 2020 at 5:12 p.m. ETFirst Published: Oct. 25, 2020 at 5:11 p.m. ET
By
By Josh Zumbrun and Bob Davis
Overall U.S. trade deficit at record high, jobs haven’t returned to U.S.

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump’s trade war against China didn’t achieve the central objective of reversing a U.S. decline in manufacturing, economic data show, despite tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods to discourage imports.

The tariffs did succeed in reducing the trade deficit with China in 2019, but the overall U.S. trade imbalance was bigger than ever that year and has continued climbing, soaring to a record $84 billion in August as U.S. importers shifted to cheaper sources of goods from Vietnam, Mexico and other countries. The trade deficit with China also has risen amid the pandemic, and is back to where it was at the start of the Trump administration.

Another goal—reshoring of U.S. factory production—hasn’t happened either. Job growth in manufacturing started to slow in July 2018, and manufacturing production peaked in December 2018.

Trump’s trade advisers nonetheless say the tariffs succeeded in forcing China to agree to a phase one trade deal in January, in which Beijing agreed to buy more U.S. goods, enforce intellectual property protections, remove regulatory barriers to agricultural trade and financial services and to not manipulate its currency.
They also say the tariffs—which remain on about $370 billion in Chinese goods annually—will over time force China to end unfair practices and help rebuild the U.S. manufacturing base.

An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.

Trade war with China didn't boost U.S. manufacturing

President Donald Trump’s trade war against China didn’t achieve the central objective of reversing a U.S. decline in manufacturing, economic data show,...

www.marketwatch.com

 

[samsara]

The main objective of the trade war is to weaken China; not to return the manufacturing to the CONUS. Whatever the Trump regime may have said, that's just false reason for political use.

How can the U.S. manufacture anything serious, except the MIC production with exorbitant margins, under its current minimum wage level, the labor productivity and many unionized conditions.

Just look at the Foxconn's investment in Wisconsin

The arrangement is as such that Washington will print the fiat money (WRC); the ROW and in particular China will do the production in exchange for the fiat; and this will work for some time, now it is almost 50 years if one counts it from the collapse of the Bretton Woods agreement, the total exit of the usd from any tie with gold -- no backup all -- all are free riding to heaven, just print at will, all goods and services will be coming to the Great America, queuing for the reserve currency, the prime fiat, usd! What's a great exchange for the Americans.