Packard, however, argued that growing U.S.-China tensions and increasing uncertainty is spurring Western companies to reorient supply chains out of China. This was echoed by Robert Kossick, an international trade lawyer at Harris Bricken, a law firm that assists companies relocating outside China.
“We are where we are today in part because of the initiatives and the legislative initiatives and the policy initiatives that are coming out of Washington, DC,” Kossick argued.
The flow of European, U.S., and Canadian businesses outsourcing contract manufacturing to China is drying up for a number of reasons, he told Inside U.S. Trade, citing “tariff reasons, policy reasons, [and] forced labor concerns.”
According to Kossick, the latest U.S.-China trade figures are a “harbinger” of further declines in the two countries’ trade.
“We realized how dependent and exposed we were to the goodwill of trading partners,” Kossick said, adding that it prompted companies to pursue improved supply chain security and sustainability even at the expense of cost and efficiency gains. “At a macro level, that is the ethos of our time.”