This week the Trump administration highlights U.S. manufacturing, the latest of its theme weeks orchestrated by aides while Trump sits on the couch and tweets nonsense. On Monday, the White House held a craft show, featuring products from all 50 states. Wednesday, the President himself is scheduled to make a statement related to the theme.
Meanwhile, the Trump Organization outsources its manufacturing to other countries, including Mexico, China, Bangladesh, Germany, Honduras, India, Indonesia, The Netherlands, Slovenia, South Korea, Turkey, and Vietnam. Similarly, the clothing line of Ivanka Trump, the President’s older daughter and a senior White House adviser, relies exclusively on foreign factories employing low-wage workers in countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia and China,
Trump campaigned on the promise of a revitalized manufacturing industry and claims this resurgence is already happening. The facts do not back him up. Manufacturing has continued a steady decline in employment, with employment in that sector hitting a record low at just under 8.47 percent this June. Fundamentally, Trump misrepresents the reasons for this decline and, therefore, comes up with the wrong prescription for improving American employment. It’s not so much that low wage jobs have been “shipped over seas” due to “unfair” trade practices as that American ingenuity has created robotics to replace the old line manufacturing jobs. Trump can place heavy tariffs on incoming foreign goods (thus, raising prices for American consumers) and those jobs are still not coming back.
Fundamentally, Trump misrepresents the reasons for this decline and, therefore, comes up with the wrong prescription for improving American employment. It’s not so much that low wage jobs have been “shipped over seas” due to “unfair” trade practices as that American ingenuity has created robotics to replace the old line manufacturing jobs. Trump can place heavy tariffs on incoming foreign goods (thus, raising prices for American consumers) and those jobs are still not coming back. The correct prescription is not punitive trade policies but investment in American infrastructure and education to create new types of jobs for American workers.
Asked at Sunday’s kick-off briefing whether “Made in America” week would include a commitment from the Trump Organization or Ivanka Trump’s company to make more of their products in the United States, the White House spokesman told reporters, “We’ll get back to you on that.” Let’s see what the President has to say, or tweet, about it on Wednesday.
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