FACTORY RESET

DONALD TRUMP HAS VOWED TO REVIVE U.S. MANUFACTURING, INTRODUCING TARIFFS TO MEET THAT GOAL. NEWSWEEK SPEAKS TO EXPERTS ABOUT THE LIKELIHOOD OF THE SECTOR RETURNING TO A GOLDEN AGE

- NICK MORDOWANEC, MANDY TAHERI and JOHN FENG

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP HAS SAID HE WANTS TO return the United States to a "golden age" of manufacturing and is trying to force the issue for many industries by slapping high tariffs on foreign products.

However, their implementation, marked by abrupt shifts, pauses and fluctuations in levies, has sparked instability across the U.S. economy, as well as rattled global markets and longstanding partnerships.

To some, like former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon, the initial disruption is the path to a "robust," "hegemon-like," "reindustrialised" America- one that promises to put tens of thousands back to work in well-paying manufacturing jobs.

Others, like Colin Grabow, associate director at the Cato Institute's Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies, argue the entire premise of reshoring and reindustrialization is flawed, as American manufacturing isn't on the decline, just manufacturing employment.

Total industrial production in the U.S. is on the rise, rebounding from a sharp dip in April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and returning to around 2018 levels, according to Federal Reserve Economic Data, or FRED. Industrial output now surpasses the heyday of American factoriesthanks largely to efficiency gains and technological innovation.

In the 1950s, manufacturing made up almost 30 percent of America's GDP, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, although that has since dropped to about 10 percent. Yet the U.S. remains the world's second-largest manufacturer, behind only China and well ahead of the third- and fourthplace contenders, Japan and Germany.