To be fair, POTUS may believe China is paying, not US residents who buy Chinese made imported goods. Error rather than untruth? Then I guess you decide which of lie or inability to understand the obvious is more acceptable.
China has become the major manufacturer of finished goods at a low price. That has taken out many manufacturers here, and it seems in USA. Bar tooling up to recommence manufacture, China remains THE supplier. Here at least, our labour cost militates against local production, we just cannot compete.
Less manufacture > lower employment > economic and social trouble.
I once made a business trip to Sydney and evaluated a manufacturing facility. Conclusion was that it was not efficient, partly due to 9 different unions. However, even if made efficient, costs would still be above US costs.
US plants can be made profitable but it's a lot of work and requires a unique product. Higher costs versus longer lead times. Many trade-offs. However, costs of importing would have to change far more for companies to rebuild. We're now to a new generation to and different skills and persons trained in some jobs are long gone.
Gradually, in anticipation of the trade war worsening, more production has been moved to other Asian countries. Years ago the trend was to move some to Central and South America. However, political situations in those areas has greatly reduced that. Still there is production in Honduras and El Salvador.
We're retailers and so importers and are impacted by this war. On the other hand, we're also manufacturers who produce only in the US and the rises in apparel costs actually are to our benefit. However, we are still concerned about the rising prices and consumer response. Take a customer like Macy's. While we may have 400 sq ft of floor space, the other thousands of square feet are filled with imported goods. If the store suffers, then ultimately we do as well. We need our customers to continue to be successful.
We do have US manufacturing facilities. However, all of those are facilities we acquired except one we started where another had recently closed. I swore I'd never be in manufacturing again. I was wrong. Our line was new so we didn't convert any foreign manufacturing to US. There are still many facilities likely to close as they move production off shore. Several I know that have moved much of their production to Central America. One example is a NC manufacturer that had moved about 50% to El Salvador. They were acquired and the new owners want 100% moved. All about labor costs.
US manufacturing does work when the freight costs exceed the extra labor costs. That's why the auto industry still is here. Plus, although it employees a lot of people, it's still more a capital intensive and highly engineered business.
