[worrycue]

> This is already happening with more than ~80% of products that are "Made in Vietnam" and at least ~40% of products that are "Made in Korea."

I wonder how long they are willing to do that. Those countries aren’t on the best terms with China either. Doubt they want a dependency on China if they can help it.

Wouldn’t they want to take over the manufacturing (along with it the profit) too instead of just re-exporting for a profit? They are in prime position to do so given they are the gateway for China’s goods - and can cut China’s goods out and substitute their own.

[fasthands9]

If they were able to build a toaster (or whatever) profitably than they would have already done it. Doing last stage assembly most likely requires very little capital investment and much less labor.

I feel like that position is similar to being a middleman - in which case its clear the skillset to be the producer is not the same.

[worrycue]

> If they were able to build a toaster (or whatever) profitably than they would have already done it.

For countries like Vietnam, that might be due to lack of investment.

For the last few decades, everyone was concentrating on China. This I believe has began to change - foreign investment in China is down if Im right.

On the other hand relationships between Vietnam and the West has been thawing the last decade or so - especially with the US.

Countries like Mexico are also looking to take on some of China’s manufacturing load - their proximity to the US is an advantage.

Tariffs on China effectively gives all their competitors a competitive advantage which will only help develop said competitors.