Manufacturing

Letting Chinese EV and battery firms build in America wouldn’t revive manufacturing. It would reduce U.S. market share, hollow out domestic capabilities, and create new strategic dependencies.

Treating cars like canola is not strategy. Using industrial platforms as bargaining chips for commodity access risks locking Canada into a permanently resource-heavy economic structure, one in which manufacturing capacity cannot be easily rebuilt and its absence reshapes the economy for decades.

ITIF commends the Trump administration for working to develop an up-to-date, coherent National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing. The success of this effort will be vital to enhancing the global competitiveness of U.S. advanced manufacturing over the coming decade.

China has closely followed the proven economic model of the Asian Tigers, only this time with an order of magnitude increase in scale. Acknowledging and addressing this simple business model reality is the key to developing an effective American response.

Korea cannot match the United States on foundational model innovation or China on manufacturing scale. But it holds a unique combination of strengths that neither possesses together: semiconductor fabrication, precision manufacturing, and world-class industrial robotics deployment.

With capital-lite corporate strategies shaped by Wall Street’s demand for high returns on assets and invested capital, U.S. firms invest relatively little in robotics. Meanwhile, China’s capital-heavy model fuels rapid productivity gains.

ITIF’s fall seminar course will explore core emerging technologies that are reshaping our world and the public policy challenges and opportunities influencing their development and application. The course is open to congressional and federal staff only.

The European Commission’s 2025 Strategic Foresight Report misframes the U.S. as a rival on par with China, risking transatlantic unity and protectionist policies that weaken Europe while leaving China free to dominate critical technologies.

The mounting economic costs of burdensome regulations that exact far more costs than benefits on societies—and which in many countries have led to unchecked regulatory accumulation—and the adverse impact on innovation, productivity, and long-term growth they cause.

Chinese electric vehicle makers have benefited from aggressive state-sponsored mercantilist policies that have enabled them to produce lower-cost vehicles than foreign competitors can. They should not be allowed to manufacture their products in the United States.