We’ve outlined the Trump Doctrine when it comes to Trade with China. He’s playing a short game and a long game because he knows something lefties don’t. First, target tariffs so they hurt companies in China more than the American consumer. Second, Global high-tech needs the US Market.
If the cost advantage of building in China goes away (thanks to tariffs), everything else about China becomes a liability. Spying, intellectual property theft, and oh, by the way, it’s a communist country.
The Trump administration is leveraging tariffs to drive tech-companies out of China by making those negatives too big to ignore when it is no longer cost effective to stay there.
China is hoping to wait out Trump. Maybe he loses in 2020. Big industry demands stability. They can’t take the chance that China’s gambit will pay off and a Democrat president will return us to the unfair trade deals Trump has tired unwind.
Buh-Bye?
HP, Dell, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Google, Sony, Nintendo, Lenovo, Acer, Quanta, Foxconn, and Inventec are all considering moves out of China or are already moving production. And while some of that will find a home in the US, most will go elsewhere, and that’s fine. It doesn’t matter where it goes as long as it is no longer in China.
Global consumer electronics makers HP, Dell, Microsoft and Amazon are all looking to shift substantial production capacity out of China, joining a growing exodus that threatens to undermine the country’s position as the world’s powerhouse for tech gadgets. …
Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Sony and Nintendo are also looking at moving some of their game console and smart speaker manufacturing out of the country, multiple sources told the Nikkei Asian Review. Other leading PC makers such as Lenovo Group, Acer and Asustek Computer are also evaluating plans to shift, according to people familiar with the matter.
Tens of thousands of jobs leaving China. Empty factories. Lost tax revenue. Intellectual property theft opportunities out of reach. That’s a huge gut punch to the ChiComs if they let it happen. Because that industry, once gone, is not coming back anytime soon.
China has much to lose; the US almost nothing while standing to gain much by handicapping a political enemy for decades and addressing national security issues concerning technology.
I’ve never been a fan of Tariffs, but two things are clear. We’ve been getting screwed by a world community that wants to have our cake and eat it too. Trump knows what he is doing, and Democrats do not, nor, does it appear, do far too many Republicans.
Trump is winning just like he said he would.
