Oni Oviri is a former Conservative parliamentary candidate for South Shields, Fellow of the Institute for Free Trade, and a Procurement and Supply chain specialist
He’s arrived. The Donald is back in the White House. All hail President Trump, the anointed protector of the working class, the defender of those who feel betrayed by the forces of globalisation.
Bearing gifts of protectionism is Trump’s offering, delivered under a celestial cloak of a ruthless America First doctrine. He is their beacon, transmitting nationalist sentiment in a cacophony of populist fervour. His voters and global supporters lap it up and they are right to do so.
“Tariff is the most beautiful word in the dictionary”, he proclaimed, throwing down his patriotic gauntlet during the election, to challenge the status quo. The establishment’s reaction was to recoil in horror. Hoping to deter voters, they declared him a threat to the economy. 77 million people happily disagreed.
Trump’s proposed trade wars and imposition of tariffs have already seen the light of day, a week into his new term. Columbia was threatened last weekend with 25 per cent tariffs, now, and a further 25 percent a week later if they don’t allow US flights returning Columbian immigrants to land. It’s literally trading blows in a fashion we have not seen since the Age of Imperialism.
The debate has already descended into hysterical overreaction, with few good tidings coming from governments and businesses in Europe and Asia. Instead they are battening down their supply-chain hatches, front-loading orders, and weighing up the possible price hikes.
A longstanding critic of outsourcing and offshoring, Trump has rightly spoken about a beleaguered American manufacturing industry and trade policy being the cause of blue-collar malaise. His focus is notably around the impact of “Clinton era” trade pacts such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which he called the “worst trade deal” in history, and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which he threatened to leave in his first Presidential term. “Our politicians have aggressively pursued a policy of globalisation”, he remarked in 2016, “moving our jobs, our wealth and our factories to overseas. Globalisation has made the financial elite, very, very wealthy. I used to be one of them.”
Trump understands the impact outsourcing has had on domestic affairs and is determined to reverse it. Boeing, the manufacturer, is the case he most likes to cite as an example of America selling out its major industries to enrich other nations, to the detriment of the US economy.
Founded in Seattle, Washington, in 1916, this American icon had long held the global top spot in aerospace development. A typical barometer of the industrial and innovative might of a country, Boeing’s ability to design and sell commercial airplanes, as well as fighter jets and rockets, cemented America’s post-war superpower status.
Their infamous “humpback” 747, built in the 1960s, remained one of their most successful aircraft for 55 years. But Boeing’s rivalry with the European manufacturer Airbus, helped set in motion a series of events that has led to today’s political angst.
In the early 1990s, Airbus, who had correctly anticipated that the bull run on the supersonic aircraft Concorde would soon come to an end, initiated an ambitious megaproject to build a new type of aircraft to position themselves as a dominant global aerospace player. The “double-decker” aircraft, named the Airbus A380, was to be built by each of their partners in France, Germany, and Spain, with the United Kingdom also playing a significant role.
Boeing launched their own offensive, a billion-dollar merger with rival McDonnell Douglas, the world’s then-third-largest civil aircraft company. The plan was to ramp up manufacturing capabilities, consolidate the aerospace industry and deliver breakthroughs in the design of fighter jets as well as revolutionising commercial jets.
They came up with the idea of the Boeing 737 Max and the 787 Dreamliner, so futuristic in design that they decided that they could not be built at their hangar in Seattle. They instead embraced the newly formed free market agenda of the 1995-founded WTO and outsourced over 70 percent of the entire aircraft to a global, ‘best of the best’ supply chain of companies, to lower costs, take advantage of new skill sets and accelerate development. It did not work.
Instead, this flawed experiment led to catastrophic quality outcomes, resulting in plane crashes, loss of domestic skills and competence in design and building of aircraft. The project remains billions of dollars over budget, several years behind schedule and as well as the overall economic loss for America, it has allowed countries like China to take advantage, rebuilding their nation by accelerating their aerospace manufacturing through allegedly “stealing trade secrets, aircraft blueprints and intellectual patents from companies like Boeing”. Worst of all, other American companies, like Apple, followed Boeing’s outsourcing example, resulting in their filing a series of failed legal challenges against China’s alleged breach of Intellectual property rights.
In an interview a decade ago about his possible run for Presidency, Trump firmed up his belief that countries like China are “Ripping off the United States”. In an interview two decades earlier, a younger Trump made the same remarks about Japan, another country Boeing allowed to play a significant role in the manufacture of the Dreamliner.
Today, proof of Trump’s premonitions has come to pass. Boeing remains in crisis as they fail to get a grip of decades of profligate outsourcing. Under Trump, voters hope for a recalibration of America’s manufacturing industry.
The global elite who deride Trump remains divided on tariffs. They’re either still prophesying his policy will fail, or arguably, the smarter ones, have humbled themselves ready to beg Trump’s forgiveness. In the latter case, giants of industry and political leaders steadily make the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the hand of the global Godfather.
In the UK, despite Labour’s own criticism of Trump, the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, has had his own epiphany. Trump has even paid him compliments and chose to speak to him by phone as one of the first European leaders he called, despite acknowledging their political and philosophical differences.
It remains to be seen whether voters will be vindicated in believing in Trump’s America First. The actor Sylvester Stallone is certainly confident. Introducing Trump at a post-election rally as the “second George Washington”, one cannot help but think this is an apt comparison to a man who, fresh from victory in leading the American Revolution against Britain, became the first President of America with two bold policies: draining the swamp and pioneering protectionist policies. He was successful.
No doubt he would be proud to see the spirit of the Revolution reborn today in a MAGA cap.
