You May Be Alarmed By How Much…
Beginning in the early 1980’s, American corporations’ began to increasingly out-source production of products with a high labor content to non-union domestic companies or foreign makers. The early 1990’s saw the strategic adoption of a more systemic global industrial manufacturing model which shifted the production of many important product sectors outside of the U.S. at an alarming rate. And, it may not be reversible.
Maybe you regard my use of the word alarming as hyperbole, but here are a few examples to affirm my description. The following info is lifted verbatim from the U.S. government’s official trade website, Office of the United States Trade Representative.
- China was the United States’ largest supplier of goods imports in 2018.
- U.S. goods imports from China totaled $539.5 billion in 2018, up 6.7% ($34.0 billion) from 2017, and up 59.7% from 2008. U.S. imports from are up 427% from 2001 (pre-World Trade Organization accession). U.S. imports from China account for 21.2% of overall U.S. imports in 2018.
- The top import categories (2-digit HS) in 2018 were: electrical machinery ($152 billion), machinery ($117 billion), furniture and bedding ($35 billion), toys and sports equipment ($27 billion), and plastics ($19 billion).
