23 Nov Sneakers Show Limits of Trade Policy in Reviving Jobs for Trump
American companies from appliance makers to auto parts suppliers have lined up to offer a quiet caution to President-elect Donald Trump as he considers pulling the United States from trade deals: most lost manufacturing jobs aren’t coming back, but higher costs for consumers could.
Consider the sneaker industry, one of the first to move to Asia because of the sharply lower cost of production in China and Vietnam.
Nike Inc (NKE.N) and its smaller, privately held rival New Balance Shoes Inc split over the question of whether the United States should back the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. But if Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress nix that trade deal as expected, both companies and the analysts who track them agree Asia is poised to keep its dominance as the industry’s manufacturing hub.