Here in our town of Bristol,  the idea of restoring foreign manufacturing back to mainland USA is obviously delusional and not based on any current reality. In the past, our industrial base consisted of the Colt Rubber Company that now makes pizzas instead of rubber,  the Herreshoff Manufacturing Co. that built large wooden boats for wealthy New Yorkers and now is a museum,  the Goetz Composite Company that built large fiberglass racing boats now bankrupt, the Pearson manufacturing company that innovated in building production fiberglass sailing boats and ceased operations over 20 years ago, like all the Pawtucket manufacturing plants and woolen mills throughout New England. 

U.S. operated  “Schmattah business“ manufacturing companies who moved to China  in the 1970s to 1999 do not own any of the facilities or machinery, do not employ the labor and do not own the supply chain network for parts and materials. In fact, most of these U.S.-owned offshore corporations are simply paid on a management fee basis per unit sold, like Trump’s hotels, with responsibilities only for shipping, market penetration and sales into the USA. 

The offshore manufacturing assets that Trump wants to restore are almost all nonexistent or completely foreign owned, with minimal U.S. tangible assets involved. 

The current tariffs will negate these management-fee arrangements and in no way induce American citizens to invest in the huge expense of rebuilding and re-equipping these plants on costly Bristol property using much higher labor costs. Any Wharton business graduate worth a pinch of salt is supposed to know that is a big con-job. 

In spite of Trump’s claims to the contrary,  this whole Trade War has only one real cause, and that is to disrupt the finely tuned gears of the U.S. economy and create worldwide chaos. As this is currently happening we must ask, who stands to gain ? The answer is obvious from the huge smiles all around the Kremlin.

George Burman
Bristol