hokiewolf said:
caryking said:
Werewolf said:
Vietnam and Cambodia are essentially China. They have allowed, which I'm ok with, Chinese owned companies to build manufacturing facilities in their country's. The raw materials are still coming out of China; however, the final assembly is being done in these countries to avoid the previous high tariffs in China.
In fact, this week, the owner (Chinese) of a company we do business with will be in town to discuss these ever changing political decisions. He knows he we are counter-sourcing our products in lower tariff countries and he wants to keep the business. We will see what he has to offer…
As I have said numerous times, the raw materials, for our products are not, and can not, be manufactured in the States.
Now, Hokie, I will say the following: I believe this administration needs to lay out what an end-game will look like. What industries do they think are best manufactured in the States and which industries are ok, in other countries. Basically, which industries have a vital national interest by being manufactured here…
if this is all about China why are we tariffing the entire world at extreme levels?
I didn't say that it was all about China. What I said was that Countries we buy from, we are dealing with the same factories that we used to buy from when they were in China. Those companies have diversified into other countries, including Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia, Viestnam, and other Countries, running from the China tariffs.
These companies set up shop, in these other countries fairly quick. They don't want to lose the business. Trump has stated this many times. He knows what's going on and he wants to fix this for the trade imbalance and the American workers.
Now, as I said above, I don't know whether certain categories of products Stitch sells is of vital national interest. We gave golf bags, currently in Indonesia, Travel bags, currently in multiple countries, not China (China companies operating in adjacent countries), and apparel, currently in Peru and adjacent China companies.
Personally, I think apparel is going to be one of those sectors that will be deemed vital. The biggest problem in the US, with apparel is the performance materials (non cotton) has no manufacturing in the US. Regulation prohibit this as they are petroleum based. Cotton, well we have a massive manufacturing facility, right here in NC; however, when it comes to Polos, people want the performance materials, not cotton.
So, the end in mind will be very important for companies to start their planning, long term. Don't get hung up on the short term, as it will be dicey for most people. That said, the stock market is going to fluctuate when massive change is happening.
One final note… Trade with other countries represent what… roughly 15% of our GDP? Help me here as i may be missing this one…
