US long-term economic interest lies in modern technologies

While pollsters and political scientists continue to debate the reasons for the unexpected outcome of the 2016 US presidential election, almost all of them seem to agree on one point: Donald Trump would not have made it to the White House if not for the electoral support he won among blue-collar workers in the de-industrialised areas in key Midwestern electoral states, such as in Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Candidate Trump succeeded in winning the hearts and minds of voters in the country's rust-belt areas, who in the past were part of the Democratic Party's electoral base, by pledging to restore America's manufacturing base and "bring back home" the jobs in steel and mining lost to China and other low-wage economies. In that context, the economic nationalist candidate envisioned that pursuing his mercantilist strategy, including an aggressive protectionist trade policy, would certainly help revive car manufacturing in Michigan and Ohio and other parts of the country.

So it was not surprising that last week's announcement by General Motors that it was closing some of its plants in Ohio, Michigan, and other parts of the country and eliminating more than 14,000 jobs in North America was seen a major blow to President Trump's economic and political agendas. During his 2020 presidential campaign, for instance, he would have to explain to unemployed GM workers in the rust-belt states why he failed to save their jobs. Which explains why an angry President Trump immediately attacked GM and its CEO Mary Barra after the plant-closures announcement, calling on the company to close its factories in China and threatening to end the government subsidies to GM.