Despite Donald Trump's best efforts American factories won't leave Asia

A survey released in May found that fewer than 6 per cent of the companies that were shifting or considering moving production out of China were choosing the US as a new destination

President Donald Trump likes to brag that he’s bringing manufacturing back to the US And indeed, with global trade slowing, the planet-spanning supply chains that have symbolized modern economic globalization do appear to be contracting.

But don’t be too quick to dismiss the idea of “borderless” production as a 1990s fluke. Even if their reach is more limited than before, far-flung supply chains are almost certain to remain a fact of global manufacturing. There are simply too many incentives for companies to continue to produce and source in every corner of the globe -- from the abundance of cheaper workers to