Trump policies to bring jobs back to US raises questions

Global Business

One of Donald Trump’s big promises was to get American companies to bring their manufacturing jobs back from other countries. He said it’ll create more jobs, but others are skeptical.

CGTN’s Phil Lavelle reports.

It is Donald Trump’s American Dream to bring back jobs, especially in the manufacturing industry that has long been outsourced abroad .

He says he will “Make America Great Again!” But the big question is: how. How can jobs be brought back when it is cheaper to make things abroad?

“There is no magic answer. Protectionist policies, tariffs can bring back some jobs, a small number. But the problem is that most of those jobs were lost due to automation: robotics. Not due to lower wages in foreign countries,” Dr. Jesse David, an economist, said

“Steel is a great example. Most of the losses in employment there are not because we’re not making steel anymore. It’s because we’re making it more efficiently.”

The fact is, that since the ‘Great Recession’, the manufacturing industry’s actually been growing in the U.S.

Taken on its own, the U.S. manufacturing industry would be the 14th largest economy in the world, because, over the last 25 years, U.S.-manufactured goods exports have quadrupled.

Donald Trump’s manufacturing policy may get a lot of love among some here in the U.S. That’s what’s it’s designed to do. But there is another potential issue it raises: punishment.

“Sure, you can bring back a factory, two factories. But what happens when our competitors in other countries start retaliating against our export industry The whole thing blows up – and we’re right back where we started,” Dr. David added.

So retribution (possibly), robots and the Republican President. A complex policy, but one he says is the way forward.

That four year period in which he has to prove, it starts now.