COVID-19 has accelerated deglobalization in manufacturing, but that shift was already underway before the pandemic. Between 1990 and 2016, global trade had been growing at average annual rate of 4.9 percent, according to the World Trade Organization.
Growing sustainability and resilience concerns brought about by trade war uncertainty and the COVID-19 pandemic have companies looking for ways to mitigate risk and increase agility.
Deglobalization was already happening before the coronavirus brought the world to a grinding halt. Global supply chains that were once so appealing were becoming less attractive due to geopolitical turmoil, shifting priorities, rising costs, trade wars and environmental concerns.
All things being equal, most U.S. consumers would prefer to buy products that are made in the USA. So when a company claims a product is made in this country when it's not, it can get burned.
The impact of COVID-19 on this country didn’t need to be this bad. It shouldn’t have been this bad. But this is what happens when a country turns its back on manufacturing. America traded its independence for short-term corporate profits, and recovery is going to take much more than a few trillion dollars in federal emergency loans. A euthanized industrial base can’t magically be brought back to life.