Made in X

President Trump's strategy of combatting a perceived economic takeover by China and even America's allies has been to effectively shut its doors or renegotiate deals. Some efforts to renegotiate trade pacts such as NAFTA have seemed successful. But some argue that the newly revised deal, named USMCA, will help benefit American workers but it also hurts the American companies and consumers. The U.S. and China trade war also had devastating results with the Shanghai Composite dropping nearly 25% since the start of this year and many companies in America have begun to feel the pain from rising costs, including 3M and automakers who now have to purchase more expensive steel from an industry now defunct in America.

China has also had a similar strategy to boost their economy, albeit with less confrontation. In 2015, the government proposed a radical plan to boost domestic production by 70% by 2025 and generate competitive high-end technologies to compete on the global scale. In doing so, many have argued this has either will push China to begin taking intellectual property from other countries or establish their own innovation economy.

Though not as isolationist as Trump's policies or as bold as China's plans, Japanese consumer companies see the recent rise of tourism to Japan as an opportunity to increase domestic exports. Shiseido and Kose, cosmetics makers, have seen 1/5th of their sales come from foreign tourists and therefore see their products as viable enough to export. By 2020, they plan to upgrade large plants in Tokyo and Osaka to increase production.

1. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trumps-rebrand-of-nafta
2. https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-09-06/trump-s-nafta-revisions-designed-help-us-auto-industry-could-have-opposite-impact
3. https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahsu/2017/03/10/foreign-firms-wary-of-made-in-china-2025-but-it-may-be-chinas-best-chance-at-innovation/#4c7e3bee24d2