U.S. trade policy is "definitely not very productive" and has failed to yield any results, but has instead created uncertainty and alienated not only allies but also important trading partners, comments Robert Wiest, president of the Swiss-Chinese Chamber of Commerce.

by Zhang Juan

NEW YORK, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Trump administration's attempt to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States through aggressive tariffs is unreachable, according to economic experts.

"For the most part, Americans were not lining up for factory jobs," Nancy Qian, an economics professor at Northwestern University, told Xinhua, recalling that even during the pandemic, manufacturers struggled to retain workers.

Echoing concerns about the strategy's effectiveness, Robert Wiest, president of the Swiss-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, called the use of tariffs "a very crude tool."

He told Xinhua that U.S. trade policy is "definitely not very productive" and has failed to yield any results. Instead, it has created uncertainty and alienated not only allies but also important trading partners, he said.

Tariffs have also backfired for U.S. manufacturers, especially those who rely on imported components. "For a pair of Nike shoes that had the final value of 40 U.S. dollars when it crossed the border, around 40 percent of that value was actually design and material innovation done in the United States. So the 16 dollars of value produced in America was also taxed," Qian said.

Beyond the impact of tariffs, experts also highlighted internal contradictions in the country's broader industrial policy.

Victor Shih, a political economy professor at University of California San Diego, pointed out that if there was "a substantial amount of federal subsidies, industries like semiconductors and green energy could come back to the United States to some extent," but the Trump administration was currently reversing such subsidies, adding to policy contradictions.

"U.S. companies were better served by having the flexibility to produce and source parts globally to stay competitive," he said.

For U.S. companies operating abroad, the pressure to reshore manufacturing has intensified. Among the overseas locations, China, boasting advanced infrastructure and supply chains, has been a critical production base for American goods.

Sean Stein, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, observed that for many firms, leaving China was not a viable option due to the size and importance of the Chinese market. Instead, companies adopted a dual strategy: diversifying some supply chains while deepening their local presence in China.

"It may sound counterintuitive, but they were both diversifying away from and doubling down or localizing in China at the same time. The extent to which a company was pursuing either option depended on the sector and the company," Stein said.

However, the greatest challenge for American businesses is unreliable policy. "The uncertainty of constantly changing tariff rates was the most damaging (to the businesses)," said Shih.