DECOUPLING: Kodak a first step: Trump White House plans new ways to break Chinese supply chain dominance.

via justthenews:

‘It doesn’t mean we can’t buy from certain sources. But you’ve got to think about it like a backup generator. You’ve got to have those sources in the United States, too.’ – White House officia

As the Trump White House this week announced a major deal to pivot photo giant Kodak toward pharmaceutical manufacturing, it made clear this was just the first step in a broader plan to break Chinese dominance of supply chain in manufacturing.

With a focus first on healthcare manufacturing, the White House brokered a $765 million loan to Kodak after noticing 90% of the main ingredients of the most common pharmaceuticals taken each day in the United States are manufactured abroad.

Adam Boehler, CEO of U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, is a lead administration official on the Kodak deal, and said the White House plans to move beyond drugs toward other medical supply areas vulnerably exposed during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re going down the list,” Boehler said in an interview with Just the News. “Look at masks, gloves. Right now, rubber gloves, they’re 80%, 90% made outside of the country, we can’t have that risk. It doesn’t mean we can’t buy from certain sources. But you’ve got to think about it like a backup generator. You’ve got to have those sources in the United States, too. So we’re going through list of items of PPE. We’re looking at generic pharmaceuticals, a number of other areas as well.”

How to Stop China From Imposing Its Values. “America’s alliances were built to address a Soviet military threat. The economic bullying that Beijing uses requires a different kind of collective self-defense.”

New threats demand new responses. During the Cold War, the U.S. created not just NATO but also the CIA and the Air Force to respond to Soviet threats. The period brought about a wholly new form of intelligence competition between the West and the Soviet Union. This led the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to enter into the alliance commonly known as Five Eyes, which allowed unprecedented intelligence sharing among nations in peacetime. This approach would have been unimaginable before the Soviet geopolitical threat.

Similarly, a new kind of alliance—like NATO, but for economic rather than military threats—is needed to respond to the kind of statecraft that China is practicing. Under such a system, participating nations would provide mutual support when China threatens one or more members with economic repercussions for political actions. That assistance could involve the imposition of tariffs on Chinese goods by all member nations; the creation of a pool of capital to help a targeted nation withstand Beijing’s pressure; the release of strategic reserves of essential materials, such as rare-earth metals, that China produces and could withhold; and other forms of collective economic defense.

Read the whole thing.

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Six Apple production lines capable of $5 billion in exports allegedly moving to India from China.

An inconsistent report claims that unnamed Apple manufacturing partners are moving six iPhone production lines to India, as part of an increasing trend to relocate from China.

Following reports that Apple has pressed Foxconn to invest $1 billion in developing iPhone production in India, local sources claim that an unnamed iPhone manufacturer is establishing a new facility in the country. The claim also follows separate reports that Foxconn is now manufacturing the iPhone 11 Pro in the country.

 

h/t GR

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