I'm a manufacturer. (we manufacture parts in the US, but many of our components are made elsewhere)
This issue is very layered. And the issue is extremely different for every market, and often inside each market.
For example, take the aluminum fab/extrusion industry. Some of that has come back to the States already. But what has come back, are the parts where quality is paramount. Aircraft parts, medical applications, etc...but for basic everyday items, I still don't see a path for those. Typically, the higher the pricing of the part, the easier it is to compete...you have a little more margin to work with, and it's expected those are going to cost more. But for the parts where the nickels and dimes matter, I don't see how it's possible.
Ignoring tariffs, there is still so much imbalance that makes domestic manufacturing difficult. Government subsidies are a big one. Then you have labor cost differentials, regulation disparity, environmental disparity...and these are exponential, when you consider the entire supply chain.
I actually don't think labor costs are as big of an advantage for them as they used to be. But we have unions here. Those kill our ability to compete. If we had more right-to-work States and at-will employment, it would benefit us greatly. Labor costs will be quite a bit less in Rockdale, than Plano...we have markets that could be taken advantage of. But our government should stop subsidizing our communities with entitlements, and help out manufacturers who could provide them jobs.
I also think we could take advantage of our neighbors to the south in this regard. That's nothing new, but the informal system we used in the past is broken...that needs to be fixed. And heck, maybe we could have a few more things "hecho in mexico" like we all grew up seeing. I'd much rather that, than shipping from Asia. That benefits us both. A plant just across the border is much easier to manage than one halfway across the world.
There is also the issue of sunk costs. Many companies have set up manufacturing in foreign countries (mainly China). So how do you justify the cost of moving the plant back to the States, if it doesnt help you financially? Even if you wanted to...Can you?...given China's reluctance to let you take equipment, etc? That's a hard sell, asking companies to give up on very expensive properties, established processes and equipment, only to pay even more to set it up here.
That brings up another issue: Tooling. For many of the parts I use, which used to be made here, tooling doesn't exist any longer, outside of Asia/China. Building and Establishing the tooling would be a giant cost, and worse, requires TIME....time that companies don't have, if they want to remain in business.
During Trump's first term, we were approached with the idea of the U.S. issuing grants, to assist in bringing manufacturing back to the States. I was excited about the possibility. I was concerned with the long-term costs, but reducing my upfront costs, and sparing my capital certainly made it look promising. More efforts would have been needed (maybe tax incentive for buy-American products, etc)...but it didnt matter. Once his admin left, it went silent.
But no matter what you think about the situation, recognize that it's absolutely a National Security issue.
There are so many things we do not make here, that would affect our ability to operate as a nation, an economy and a military. Not specialized parts, but very very basic everyday components needed for our society/military to operate. If a conflict breaks out, we will certainly be behind the curve, and will need our manufacturing to catch up faster than is possible.
