AMAC Exclusive – By Andrew Abbott
![China](https://static-asset.amac.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/02115437/Apple-China-India.png)
Late last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple would move 25% of all iPhone production to India by 2025, joining a growing number of companies shifting away from China amid escalating geopolitical tensions. But as China sees its status as the world’s foremost manufacturer begin to slip, U.S. President Joe Biden’s regulatory assaults and onerous tax policies mean that many American businesses are relocating to countries besides the United States.
Apple’s announcement in April was just the latest relocation news from the world’s most valuable company. In February, Apple supplier Foxconn also released plans for a $300 million facility in Vietnam, citing supply chain issues, riots at the company’s Zhengzhou factory, and extreme COVID-19 restrictions in China.
Other companies have followed suit. Dell and HP quietly announced plans to shift 30% of their laptop manufacturing out of China in January. Nike has been moving production from China to elsewhere in Southeast Asia and Africa for years. Toy company Hasbro recently moved most of its production to Vietnam and India. Google plans to move production of its smartphone and various smart home products out of China in the near future.
All of this is part of a broader trend that has led to a downturn in the Chinese manufacturing sector – even before the pandemic. From 2016 to the present day, China’s consumer goods exports have dropped in almost every major category. Specifically, clothing and accessories, furniture, travel goods and handbags, as well as footwear have all fallen by more than 10%.
This should have been a golden opportunity for President Biden, who campaigned in 2020 on reviving the American manufacturing sector – clearly recognizing President Trump’s success on the issue. Biden has tried his best to mimic the pro-manufacturing talk of his predecessor, repeatedly touting his “made in America” agenda and alluding to the country’s hollowed-out manufacturing sector. One former government trade official aptly described Biden’s manufacturing talking points as “Trump wine but in a Biden bottle.”
But that rhetoric has run up against the inconvenient reality of a Democrat policy agenda that is virtually identical to the one that drove offshoring in the first place.
The most obvious example of this is Biden’s plan to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% – making it the highest in the developed world. The economy and the manufacturing sector in particular saw a boom after President Trump lowered the tax rate to 21% from 35% as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Now, Biden wants to raise it once again.
Biden has also re-imposed many of the suffocating regulations that drove American companies away from the United States. President Trump’s “two-for-one” policy – requiring the cutting of two old regulations for every one new regulation – helped dramatically lower energy costs and regulatory burdens in the United States and encouraged more American companies to return home.
Defenders of Biden have pointed to the Inflation Reduction Act, the American Rescue Plan, and the CHIPS Bill, together totaling more than $500 billion in supposed investments, as evidence of the president’s commitment to U.S. manufacturing. But while these bills contained some incentives for companies to re-shore, they were also chock-full of spending that had nothing to do with manufacturing, and were more than offset by Biden’s other anti-growth policies, especially his attacks on domestic energy production.
Furthermore, there is little evidence that Biden’s program of subsidies – as opposed to Trump’s general platform of tax cuts and tariffs – has any real effect on companies deciding to move production back to the United States. A 2018 economic white paper which analyzed dozens of studies on corporate subsidies and investments found that direct subsidies often have little to no effect on “decisions to locate, expand or remain in place for the vast majority of firms receiving subsidies.”
It’s worth noting that Biden does not have a particularly strong record when it comes to trade and manufacturing. The free trade policies of the late 90s and early 2000s, specifically admitting China into the World Trade Organization and the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, directly led to the collapse of American manufacturing. Joe Biden, who served as a senator then, supported both of these measures.
Now, Biden appears to be putting a different rhetorical spin on the same underlying policy approach. Unsurprisingly, the results are virtually identical – American companies are staying far away from America, and American workers are suffering.
Andrew Abbott is the pen name of a writer and public affairs consultant with over a decade of experience in DC at the intersection of politics and culture.
How about moving pharmaceuticals and all other medical needs back to America. Oh please, we need a president who will honor our country, not denigrate it.
I am stumped! Are the democrats and hoe biden destroying America on
Purpose or is he really this effing STUPID?. Even I with but 2 yrs college can see the major losses where it should be major gains. Hard to believe it.
Biden could screw up a rwo car funeral
Biden keeps on lying and lying, claiming he is a good supporter of American made products. However, his actual policies are making it harder and harder for American manufacturing to realize adequate profits to stay afloat. Even companies that want to start manufacturing more inside the US find the Biden policies so repressive that they just can’t afford to be part of a movement to manufacture more products made in the USA. As usual, Biden is doing the exact opposite of what he is claiming to be the actual, honest truth. Biden’s elevated rhetoric is nothing more than verbal fool’s gold. Americans can’t believe a word that comes from Biden’s treasonous mouth.
Dear All,
I live in California and the common refrain when Jerry Brown was the governor was, “No Welfare for the Rich”……since taking office, Gov. Gavin Newsom has doubled and tripled down on Brown’s stupidity and now California is quickly becoming a 3rd world nation, the likes of Venezuela with the aiding and abetting of F-Joe Biden.
Like Apple, companies are extremely reluctant to return to the United States until American’s smarten up and kick the Democrats out of office and replace them with Conservative Republicans who want to take the necessary measures to entice companies to return to our soil.
The only way to save our nation is to vote Republican.
B/r, Ronald L. Kirkish.
Africa India and whatever can’t ever become America but America is on the way to becoming third world Back to the cave
Jack*ss Joe Biden is just a puppet but he will go down in American history as the WORST PRESIDENT EVER and for some reason he just doesn’t seem to care! . . . Or wait, maybe he IS as stupid as he is acting.
But, Joe has been bragging about his policies bring companies back to the US; but that was just another lie that his sheeple will believe!! Are companies reluctant to return because they don’t trust that Joe and Democrats aren’t going to change the rules once they get back here??
It has nothing to do with the ‘Chinese’ Biden Regime or America’s bad policies. They don’t move back here because China is already here! It’s all about cheap slave labor. China is getting greedy and demanding a bigger payoff until they own it all. COVID is just another control method and no doubt very annoying. All of those countries, India, Vietnam, etc. provide cheap slave labor! Pure plain and simple. Shame on all the sheeple (corporate citizens) for being so spoiled by cheaply made goods. The people in those factories suffer for our benefit, we’re the ones responsible for this mess! America’s good caring people is what made America Great! We’ve been bought, sold and hoodwinked by the corporate mafias. Head in the sand anyone?
See Bidens in bed with China day 1
and this is exactly why trump changed the taxes on corporations and super rich people.
I wonder if any of the stupid leftists are catching on yet?
Biden land his puppeteers are truly rooted eggs. A big part of the deep state and the one world government.
Biden would not know how to pour water out of a boot with a handle on the sole and directions on the heel. He is for everybody except American citizens.
Brandon is in charge of destroying America. Why is it no one sees this???
Everything that is made ( manufactured ) starts with a thought, an idea, by someone. Looking on the positive side of this issue, being optimistic that there will be a genuine , strong, Made in the U.S.A. movement in the relatively near future, it could be said that everytime someone here in the United States of America has an idea about making something here — a tool, a vehicle, an airplane, a ship, clothing whatever — it is a possibility that could lead to the Made in the U.S.A. movement getting established . Those outfits that took their businesses to communist China , I would say that maybe they are not needed when it comes to getting manufacturing reestablished here again.
A strong, sincere Made in the U.S.A. movement could be better accomplished by small business people, making useful things, such as clothing, tools, toothbrushes , microscopes, various kinds of appliances, etcetera, and who have a spirit about what they are doing that involves love of Country , and that truly believe in Faith, Family and Freedom — doing something that will strengthen the economy and strengthen the Country, contributing to the defense of liberty , encouraging craftsmanship, and good citizenship , and having a sense of responsibility about how their business will help make life better for all who value
freedom. Made in the U.S.A.. should be synonymous with the spirit of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
So, these companies really don’t want to pay more taxes and cost to keep America strong. Hmmm, I’ll bet they contribute lots to the same dems who make the policies they don’t like or want to pay for. IMO
Excellent article.
Of course Beijing biden keeps companies out of the United States because he’s a Communist Agent for Communist China.
More acts of Espionage and High Treason against the United States and American workers.
Bidum is a bad joke just like everything he has done. His American Rescue Plan benefits China and Biden not America. His Inflation Reduction act is ludicrous as he created the inflation, cannot stop it and has no clue!
It is clear that biden’s mission is to destroy the US.
If you believe this B.S., I will sell you a Tesla for ten dollars, battery not included.
Wake up Apple. Move your operations to South America to help curb the invasion of our border.
The non-conservative segment of the population of USA must ultimately realize that the biden regime is systematically picking our country to pieces. The radical d’rats must be removed from our government.