[ChumpGPT]

Both Canada and Mexico are guilty of this. For years they would import products and do some light assembly and label it as Made in Canada or Mexico. Since Canada gives China Most Favored Nation status, importers can avoid duties and export into the USA since there is a Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA). It took a while for US Customs to crack down on this but it finally did and they now pay very close attention to where the origin of the item was. Unfortunately it went on long enough to destroy many American industries. Canada and Mexico made 100's of billions of these schemes at the USA's expense.

[cipher_accompt]

Is the problem Canada and Mexico, or is it corporations and business elites exploiting loopholes and abusing the system? Manufacturing in Canada was destroyed by competition in China.

The root issue is the unchecked market power of businesses and the complete lack of repercussions for corporations and business elites that destroy industries, social systems, and deplete natural resources—without accountability for long-term consequences.

[AnthonyMouse]

You could also make the opposite argument. If you want to manufacture things in the US, the real estate costs too much because of artificial housing scarcity, the tax system favors international supply chains over domestic ones, the regulatory environment favors large incumbents over small/new companies, etc. And if you make it disfavorable to manufacture things in the US, you create the incentive for corporations to do whatever they have to do to manufacture it somewhere else.

Don't think of corporations as having agency. Think of them like beasts that have to be herded into the field where you want them. If all your cows are in the neighbor's field, it's not the cows that you should blame and yelling at the cows is not going to help you.

[whimsicalism]

the real problem is this poorly planned effort to make the US a manufacturing nation via political fiat in the face of all reason rather than accepting economic realities about comparative advantage in manufacturing