Coronavirus May Lead To Manufacturing Jobs Returning
WASHINGTON (SBG) – With more than 16 million Americans filing for unemployment over the last three weeks, staggering numbers exceed even what we saw during the great recession of a decade ago.
Manufacturing Jobs are Needed
The Trump administration now recognizes the need — more urgently than ever for a resurgence in manufacturing jobs once the virus recedes.
With China’s own economy the first to sustain deep damage from the coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan, business leaders and top U.S. officials from the president on down have speculated that American businesses, from Apple and Google might re-evaluate their reliance on Chinese supply chains and start to return manufacturing jobs to domestic shores.
“This crisis has underscored just how critical it is to have strong borders and a robust manufacturing sector,” President Trump said. “Our goal for the future must be to have American medicine for American patients, American supplies for American hospitals, and American equipment for our great American heroes.”
But the reliance of U.S. firms on workers and markets in China, the world’s second-largest economy, is heavy with American business pumping an estimated 7-billion a year into the Chinese economy.
Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers told Sinclair he believes the coronavirus should speed up the process of U.S. firms relocating overseas production plants on American soil.
“The fact that China has not exactly been the easiest government to deal with hasn’t been the most forthright and honest — not only in this situation but many others — I think that our — I think that the business community here in the United States understands that, and this crisis should really inform us about how much teeth phase two needs to have in it.”
“Phase two” refers to a second interim trade agreement presently being negotiated by the U.S. and China in a bid to put an end to the tariff war that has enveloped the two economic giants during the Trump era.
But with distrust between Washington and Beijing running feverishly high in the pandemic the prospects for a swift resolution to the U.S.-China trade dispute appear more remote than in the months that immediately preceded the outbreak.
Source: KTVO