China says if Trump does not behave, we want our Pandas back

Sys,

It is indeed a serious matter. And I do not take it lightly.

But many people over you side of the pond appear to be missing a vital part of the story. It is the same part that has caused us over here so much trouble in the recent past.

Western industry simply cannot produce the millions of low cost items we are used to having as part of our everyday life. The cost of labour is simply too high. And from what I see, your companies are slowly increasing the hourly pay rate. Some states going for a $15 per hour rate, some companies even higher.
But this simply makes it more expensive to produce goods. particularly the mass consumption items.

You can't blame the Chinese or the Mexicans for this. It is your own company shareholders that hold the purse strings. They are only interested in where they can get the goods made for the least cost thereby increasing profit. Where that place is is really irrelevant. And if an item needs parts that are only made in China ?

China, as a country, is low paid, but it also is a low cost of living country. Thus they can pay their workers what are by our standards, very low wages. These wages are enough to get by over there. So there is no problem.

But in the USA and Europe, the cost of living is very high indeed. And one has to have a high level of pay to be able to get by at all.

Trump can't see (or can't admit that he sees) that if China simply stopped selling to America and said 'ok, Donald. Have you way. Now produce all the stuff you want at home. We ill no longer sell to you or buy from you' the American economy would collapse overnight.

An example may help.

When I was in my teens I wished to buy some power hand tools, and a couple of small machine tools. But the cost was too prohibitive. My pay at the time simply would not allow it. The better tools came from Germany or Switzerland, and they cost even more. All very good quality stuff.

Then we started getting cheap imported tools from India and Japan. Some of the Japanese tooling was excellent, and only half the price. What the Japanese car industry did to the British car industry is well documented.
So I could then buy tools and do what i wished to do.
The British toolmakers held on as niche markets. But many firms that had been around for years and were household names folded under the competition.

I hear that a major US steel company is losing 400 jobs. But Trump says the US steel industry is booming. So why is this company laying off workers ?
Virtually all British steel manufacturing is gone.

The world has to adapt.

Some major US manufacturing companies are pulling out of China, but not back to America. The are going to other low wage countries. The jobs that go back home will be high grade or highly mechanised.

An example of the interconnectedness of the world's industries that has effected me directly.
I have a Citroen car. And the electric power steering pump has failed. The motor brushes have worn out; old age.
So I set about getting some new ones. (it is, of course, a French car) I can get a brush carrier with brushes for about $40: from Lithuania. Will take a week. I can get (in fact have got) brushes made by a local manufacturer for $6.50 each, I need four. And I can get them assembled by a local electric motor re builder. Don't know the price yet, he is on holiday.

But I can't just buy the part from Citroen agents in the UK. It's not sold separately.

Something else to bear in mind.

The crash is coming. Are you ready for it ?

HAL