Pacificating the United States' largest trading partners – so far only allies – Donald Trump has broken South Korea among others.
Seoul, like the European Union dragged over the level in exchange for imposing only a 15% import tariff on its goods, undertook to invest $350 billion in the US (EU – as much as 650 billion). If we sum up the "investment commitments" Trump has forced on allies, namely the EU, the UK, Japan and South Korea, it turns out that abroad direct investment (FDI) worth over a trillion dollars should arrive in the US.
If specified an amount of investment were promised to Poland, Warsaw would stand on its ears to favour investors. Poland would build fresh roads, arm the area in the media, pull up fresh fibre optics, build tin barracks for immigrants from India and start training in all surrounding offices.
However, the United States is not Poland, on the contrary, it is inactive a global hegemon, even if it is weakening. Washington decided to fight allied FDI to make it a small harder for them. Let them toughen up, it'll do them good.
Chebol raid
He first decided to scrape off the skin of the Korean Chebols Hyundai and LG, who in 2023 founded a joint venture to build a battery cell mill for electrical vehicles in Ellabell, Georgia. The investment was expected to scope over US$4 billion and make 8,500 jobs. This fits perfectly in the "agreement" forced on South Korea, so it would seem that the completion of the plan of the 2 cores would be a formality. However, it turned out that the good intentions of the Koreans may not be adequate to fulfill their promises.
On September 4, respective 100 officers of a full scope of U.S. services entered the construction site, as if everyone wanted even a tiny share in this epic action. Who wasn't there? ICE immigration service (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), Department of Homeland Security, FBI, DEA, ATF alcohol-cigarette (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives), and even Georgia State Service. There was only the CIA and the landing of the marines, but even without them, the situation had to look like cinema.
By relationships CNN, half a 100 masked and armed officers hit a construction site, causing chaos and terror. People scattered all over the area, hiding from their attackers. any workers tried to hide in the close sewage pond, but the raiders besides had boats at their disposal, so they effectively fished out escapees. erstwhile there was no 1 in sight who looked Asian anymore, who had no cuffs on, respective 100 delicacies were ordered in a row against the wall. I remind you that we are talking about the Hyundai and LG investments in electrical cells, not the meth lab.
Each of them was then examined and analysed. Those who had something behind their ears were loaded into substituted coaches and transported just a 100 miles away, to a detention center in Folkstone, where they would politely wait for deportation.
The reality with which the U.S. fought during the Cold War, a fewer decades later, came to American soil. The full communicative is so filmy, I wouldn't be amazed if they did another part on it. Glass TrapIn which the successor of Bruce Willis plays the function of an illegal immigrant from Serbia and spends the night swamped with sand to avoid being taken out, as he is looking for a lost daughter somewhere on the roads of fresh Mexico.
The Koreans were not laughing. Among the 475 employees active in the construction of the Hyundai and LG factories were 3 100 South Korean citizens, so astounded by Seoul's situation, he opposed the violation of their rights. Hyundai was little assertive due to the fact that the company simply announced that it was definitely not her employees. Seoul will most likely send a plane for his citizens anyway. Donald Trump one more time showed that America First's slogan increasingly understood as Only America.
United States strong against allies
"In connection with the operation of immigration enforcement at the Hyundai battery mill in Georgia, I hereby call on all abroad companies investing in the United States to comply with the immigration regulations of our country. Your investments are welcome and we encourage you to LEGAL hiring very intelligent people with large method skills to produce world-class products, and we will rapidly and legally let you to do so. In return, we ask you to hire and train American workers. Together we will work hard to make our country not only productive but more united than always before" – wrote Donald Trump on fact Social, which in the second word of the leader of the MAGA has actually become a government site, like in Poland BIP. A wonderful declaration – come with money, dear Koreans, we will work together to make America the large Again.
Trump's economical nationalism may, however, deter investors. Hyundai from LG are not the only investors in Asia who gotta execution with the American administration so Washington can kindly enable them to find billions of dollars worth of investment over the Potomac and Mississippi.
In June, nipponese steel giant Nippon Steel added yet taking over the celebrated U.S. Steel. The another company's years are over. The nipponese not only gotta pay for the shares of the U.S. company ($55 per piece), but inactive pay her $15 billion in debt. In addition, Nippon Steel undertook to invest $11 billion in the US, including the construction of a brand-new plant. nipponese owner besides has a ban on moving the company's office beyond its historical location, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Washington administration has besides booked itself a alleged gold action that gives it the chance to block any decision taken by the company that would be incompatible with the strategical interests of the United States.
Then you'd like to ask, what else? Are we gonna kiss the ring? The current Washington government, on the 1 hand, demands allies to invest in factories in the United States, and on the other, treats allied investors as suspects in advance of petting machlojki. Why do they request this gold stock erstwhile Japan, disarmed after the war, is decently occupied by the United States to this day, and over the years this business has turned into a safety umbrella?
Tokyo has been doing what Washington says for decades. In 1985, the Plaza "voluntaryly" agreed to devaluation the dollar against the yen by half to reduce its own exports to the United States, flooded by Toyota cars and Sony TVs. Washington thus simply tightens up, forcing additional powers to show his strength. It's a pity he's designed his power for allies only.
Migration and reshoring
The past of the U.S. forces raiding the construction of the Hyundai mill besides shows that the anti-immigration policy of the U.S. government goes in the other direction than American efforts to reshoring (this is the inverse of offshoring, or relocation of parts of moved factories back to the company's home country). erstwhile Washington massively deports illegal immigrants, it hits its labour market, as migrants do many highly skilled jobs there. For example, on construction sites – factories should be built first, they are not imported in containers ready to be folded like Billy from Ikea.
In addition, even after the mill is started, there will inactive be quite a few jobs for workers who do not have much competence. Of course, it can be said that illegal workers have much worse working conditions, but in the US, employment regulations are so deregulated that legal workers are not in a much better position. The difference is mainly that illegals must hide, so they are besides little assertive to the employer. But wouldn't it be easier to do reshoring, legalising the stay of all working immigrants who don't have papers and exporting only bandits?
One might have noticed that if these immigrants were not present, investors would gotta hire locals for higher rates. However, it should not be forgotten that the US is 1 of the most costly countries in the world. For the accustomed to lower prices of investors from little prosperous countries than the US, even for large-scale or Taiwanese corporations, American prices and costs can be hard to bear. It is so no wonder that they are looking for savings where they can be saved, based on immigrants at least at the construction stage, which is what American companies are besides doing.
At the end of 2023 all Polish FDI located in the United States were worth little than PLN 3 billion (furniture, mining, IT, gaming). 1 Hyundai and LG bet costs respective times more. Meanwhile, Trump is forcing little wealthy allies to invest in the US, utilizing not only customs tariffs for this purpose, due to the fact that it would be half poor, but besides additional obligations written down in fine print in alleged trade agreements.
The second is, of course, a metaphor due to the fact that there are no contracts, there are only oral agreements with Trump, which he then implements by means of executive orders under extraordinary powers under the IEEP Act. erstwhile he is seen, there is no paper to show him, due to the fact that everything is based on his orders, so he can change them whenever he wants.
It is besides not certain that allied investors would find among Americans willing to work on construction or factory. And it's not just about salaries, it's just that they've been utilized for years to working in services or offices, and the Americans won't get active in working in a Korean or Taiwanese mill where there's a strict discipline, accounting for quality and quantity standards and high-speed work.
The question is besides whether these workers would physically suffice, as the legal labour marketplace in the US is rather saturated. While Trump's second word of office increased from 4% in January to 4.3% in August, it is inactive not much.
Meanwhile, restoring the number of jobs in manufacture to pre-offshoring levels, i.e. the end of the 1970s (19.5 million employees), would gotta mean moving little than 7 million workers into the industrial production sector – due to the fact that presently 12.7 million workers are working in industry. How can we find so many people willing to do physical work in the United States, erstwhile even a fewer 100 not rather legit Asians have stirred half the American service?
Reshoring has already been mentioned since the pandemic, erstwhile broken supply chains showed the shortsightedness of the spread model across the globe of production just-in-time (i.e. minimizing stocks). During Biden's era, which introduced a number of programs, including around $800 billion in grants from Inflation simplification Act, the US has rebuilt a tiny part of its production potential.
Number employed in manufacturing It increased from 12.1 in January 2021 to 12.9 million people in February 2022, i.e. by little than 800 1000 in over a year. erstwhile Biden gave up power, this number fell to 12.76 million in December 2024. It remained at this level until March 2025. However, in April Trump started his tariff offensive and since then, industrial employment has started to fall regularly all month. In August, it amounted to 12.72 million people, so 40 000 people lost production in just six months.
By the words of the Registrar The interior safety of Kristi Noem, the war of Washington with immigrants will not deter investors, “because specified determined action means that no 1 has doubts about Trump's administration policy”. Predictability, however, is the last thing to say about the activities of the current president of the United States.
This uncertainty is precisely the worst in commercial and political relations with the current administration in Washington. The queues to invest in the U.S. may not be there, and yet only the ones on which Trump will make a parole and simply coercion will be located there. but it won't be reshoring anymore., Just any reslaving.
