• About

RealityChek

~ So Much Nonsense Out There, So Little Time….

Tag Archives: Morris Chang

Im-Politic: Meet the Real Trade and Jobs Know-Nothings

06 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by Alan Tonelson in Im-Politic

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

2016 election, Bernie Sanders, Clyde V. Prestowitz, Donald Trump, Im-Politic, Jr., manufacturing, manufacturing jobs, Morris Chang, Ronald Reagan, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, The Race to the Bottom, Trade, transplants

Nothing during this wildly unconventional presidential campaign has anchored the economic conventional wisdom more strongly than the claim that only know-nothings like presidential candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders could possibly think that better U.S. trade policies can bring back lots of high-paying manufacturing jobs from countries like China to the United States. And nothing during this same campaign has revealed more Establishment ignorance than this attack on these White House hopefuls.

An excellent recent op-ed in USA Today by former U.S. trade negotiator Clyde V. Prestowitz, Jr. explains why. As Prestowitz (with whom I worked in the early 1990s at the Economic Strategy Institute think tank he founded) writes, anyone thinking that free market forces have turned China, for example, into a major producer of advanced manufactured goods needs to get a clue. China’s natural manufacturing advantage lies in labor-intensive products like apparel and toys, because its workforce is so gargantuan and its technological development still has a long way to go.

But Beijing wasn’t content to keep making such low-value products an instant longer than necessary. So it’s used a raft of active policy carrots and sticks to lure even information technology manufacturing to its shores. My book on globalization, The Race to the Bottom, has exhaustively documented how these policies have long been standard operating procedure for governments all over the world – except America’s. And the supposedly all-powerful multinational companies they’ve mainly targeted? Instead of standing on their high horses, and refusing to jump, they’ve simply asked “How high?”

If you still doubt any of this, forget about what Prestowitz and I have reported. Listen to Morris Chang. He started up and still chairs the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which is the world’s largest contract manufacturer of computer chips, and in fact, pioneered the “foundry” model for the industry.

Chang’s company just announced that it’s building a $3 billion semiconductor fab in China, where it will produce advanced (if not leading-edge) semiconductors. How come? There’s no question that part of the reason is that so many of TSMC’s customers – in the information technology products industry – now manufacture so many of their goods in China. But as Chang also admitted, “We say that with some degree of assurance from the authorities, some degree of assurance that building a plant there will indeed enhance our access to the Chinese market. And reversely, not building a plant there will not enhance.”

That is, China’s policy is “Pay to play” – because it wants to develop its own semiconductor sector, regardless of what economic theory says it should be doing. And Chang doesn’t think he can afford to Just Say No.

Revealingly, no one is more aware than the Chinese that the United States is capable of playing this game effectively, too. As a Chinese company told Bloomberg last year, it chose Alabama as the site of a new factory both “to bring it closer to clients in the South and avoid anti-dumping tariffs on copper products.”

Also revealingly, American leaders haven’t always been brain-dead on this score. In 1981, for example, President Ronald Reagan successfully pressed Japan’s auto makers to curb their exports to the United States “voluntarily.” The following year, Honda began assembling cars in Ohio. By 1990, all the major Japanese auto makers had gone the transplant route.

Can using America’s market power bring back all production and jobs lost to trade? Of course not. Can it bring back or create lots? Of course it can, especially in high-value sectors where a technologically advanced country with well developed capital markets like the United States should be fully competitive. The actual trade know-nothings are those unfamiliar with the historic record and current global realities. Assuming of course that any of them really want to know.

Blogs I Follow

  • Current Thoughts on Trade
  • Protecting U.S. Workers
  • Marc to Market
  • Alastair Winter
  • Smaulgld
  • Reclaim the American Dream
  • Mickey Kaus
  • David Stockman's Contra Corner
  • Washington Decoded
  • Upon Closer inspection
  • Keep America At Work
  • Sober Look
  • Credit Writedowns
  • GubbmintCheese
  • VoxEU.org: Recent Articles
  • Michael Pettis' CHINA FINANCIAL MARKETS
  • New Economic Populist
  • George Magnus

(What’s Left Of) Our Economy

  • (What's Left of) Our Economy
  • Following Up
  • Glad I Didn't Say That!
  • Golden Oldies
  • Guest Posts
  • Housekeeping
  • Housekeeping
  • Im-Politic
  • In the News
  • Making News
  • Our So-Called Foreign Policy
  • The Snide World of Sports
  • Those Stubborn Facts
  • Uncategorized

Our So-Called Foreign Policy

  • (What's Left of) Our Economy
  • Following Up
  • Glad I Didn't Say That!
  • Golden Oldies
  • Guest Posts
  • Housekeeping
  • Housekeeping
  • Im-Politic
  • In the News
  • Making News
  • Our So-Called Foreign Policy
  • The Snide World of Sports
  • Those Stubborn Facts
  • Uncategorized

Im-Politic

  • (What's Left of) Our Economy
  • Following Up
  • Glad I Didn't Say That!
  • Golden Oldies
  • Guest Posts
  • Housekeeping
  • Housekeeping
  • Im-Politic
  • In the News
  • Making News
  • Our So-Called Foreign Policy
  • The Snide World of Sports
  • Those Stubborn Facts
  • Uncategorized

Signs of the Apocalypse

  • (What's Left of) Our Economy
  • Following Up
  • Glad I Didn't Say That!
  • Golden Oldies
  • Guest Posts
  • Housekeeping
  • Housekeeping
  • Im-Politic
  • In the News
  • Making News
  • Our So-Called Foreign Policy
  • The Snide World of Sports
  • Those Stubborn Facts
  • Uncategorized

The Brighter Side

  • (What's Left of) Our Economy
  • Following Up
  • Glad I Didn't Say That!
  • Golden Oldies
  • Guest Posts
  • Housekeeping
  • Housekeeping
  • Im-Politic
  • In the News
  • Making News
  • Our So-Called Foreign Policy
  • The Snide World of Sports
  • Those Stubborn Facts
  • Uncategorized

Those Stubborn Facts

  • (What's Left of) Our Economy
  • Following Up
  • Glad I Didn't Say That!
  • Golden Oldies
  • Guest Posts
  • Housekeeping
  • Housekeeping
  • Im-Politic
  • In the News
  • Making News
  • Our So-Called Foreign Policy
  • The Snide World of Sports
  • Those Stubborn Facts
  • Uncategorized

The Snide World of Sports

  • (What's Left of) Our Economy
  • Following Up
  • Glad I Didn't Say That!
  • Golden Oldies
  • Guest Posts
  • Housekeeping
  • Housekeeping
  • Im-Politic
  • In the News
  • Making News
  • Our So-Called Foreign Policy
  • The Snide World of Sports
  • Those Stubborn Facts
  • Uncategorized

Guest Posts

  • (What's Left of) Our Economy
  • Following Up
  • Glad I Didn't Say That!
  • Golden Oldies
  • Guest Posts
  • Housekeeping
  • Housekeeping
  • Im-Politic
  • In the News
  • Making News
  • Our So-Called Foreign Policy
  • The Snide World of Sports
  • Those Stubborn Facts
  • Uncategorized

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Current Thoughts on Trade

Terence P. Stewart

Protecting U.S. Workers

Marc to Market

So Much Nonsense Out There, So Little Time....

Alastair Winter

Chief Economist at Daniel Stewart & Co - Trying to make sense of Global Markets, Macroeconomics & Politics

Smaulgld

Real Estate + Economics + Gold + Silver

Reclaim the American Dream

So Much Nonsense Out There, So Little Time....

Mickey Kaus

Kausfiles

David Stockman's Contra Corner

Washington Decoded

So Much Nonsense Out There, So Little Time....

Upon Closer inspection

Keep America At Work

Sober Look

So Much Nonsense Out There, So Little Time....

Credit Writedowns

Finance, Economics and Markets

GubbmintCheese

So Much Nonsense Out There, So Little Time....

VoxEU.org: Recent Articles

So Much Nonsense Out There, So Little Time....

Michael Pettis' CHINA FINANCIAL MARKETS

New Economic Populist

So Much Nonsense Out There, So Little Time....

George Magnus

So Much Nonsense Out There, So Little Time....

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy