Sneakers show limits of trade policy in reviving jobs for Trump

Washington

AMERICAN companies from appliance makers to car parts suppliers have queued up to offer a quiet caution to President-elect Donald Trump as he considers pulling the US from trade deals: most lost manufacturing jobs aren't coming back, but higher costs for consumers could.

Consider the sneaker industry, one of the first to move to Asia because of the sharply lower cost of production in China and Vietnam. Nike Inc and its smaller, privately held rival New Balance Shoes Inc are split over the question of whether the US should back the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. But if Mr Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress nix that trade deal as expected, both companies and the analysts who track them agree Asia is poised to keep its dominance as the industry's manufacturing hub.