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Recently, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) raided a car battery factory in Georgia, jointly built by South Korean Automobile Group and LG New Energy, and arrested more than 300 South Korean citizens.The U.S. move has sparked strong dissatisfaction in South Korean society and will undermine the confidence of South Korean and other country companies in U.S. investments, aggravate U.S. distrust with its allies, and further aggravate the implementation of U.S. manufacturing regression plans.

The overall process of this event is:The U.S. welcomes South Korea¡¯s investment in building factories to boost the flow of manufacturing ¨C building factories requires guidance from South Korean technicians ¨C Trump¡¯s strict immigration policy prevents South Korean employees from obtaining work visas ¨C South Korean employees use travel visas to stay in the U.S. to work ¨C this act violates U.S. immigration regulations ¨C South Korean factories are forced to suspend.

The main contradiction of this incident is:¡°Combating illegal immigration¡± and ¡°manufacturing re-flow¡± are important initiatives by the Trump administration to increase U.S. workers¡¯ jobs, but the fight against illegal immigration has somewhat hindered manufacturing re-flow. Go deeper and find out that Trump is not satisfied with South Korea¡¯s current investment model. The U.S. needs both South Korean investment and South Korean technology; both South Korea to provide direct jobs to U.S. workers quickly and not allow South Korea to get more profits. Compared to the increase in jobs that can only be created in a few years, Trump needs to now have American workers access to technology and jobs.

South Korea to build a factory in the United States, the two countries are mindful

In analyzing this incident, we can draw from the different motives of the two countries.¡£

In South Korea,Investment in the U.S. facilities helps to maintain and expand the share of the U.S. market, the U.S. labor price is high and there is a large number of skilled technicians in the battery manufacturing industry, the cost of time and money for Americans to conduct technical training is high, and some core technology Korea does not want to spread, so choosing to call skilled engineers from South Korea to build the factory.

In the United States,Welcome to South Korea to build factories in the United States is to create more jobs and promote the return of U.S. manufacturing.In the process, South Korea will not only invest in U.S. factories, but also recruit Americans for practical work, provide relevant technical training for Americans, and the majority of the profit obtained by the factory will remain in the United States.

In the long run, if the Korean car battery factory is successfully built, it will help provide more jobs in the United States. But if the factory is successfully established and American workers are well trained, both results may take 3-5 years to be achieved. For Trump, the performance seen during the term is especially important, one is to hit the behavior of South Korea to build factories in the United States without recruiting American workers, compulsory requiring foreign investment firms to provide jobs for Americans; and the second is to show the results of capturing illegal immigrants in actual numbers.

Does Trump¡¯s fight against illegal immigration really help the U.S. increase jobs?

Trump¡¯s economic consideration of fighting illegal immigration is that illegal immigrants robbed the jobs of indigenous American workers, and fighting illegal immigration helps create more jobs for American citizens.This logic seems to be true, but when combined with the realities of the U.S. labor market, it¡¯s not that simple.

After the Second World War, the U.S. economic structure was gradually transformed from the real economy of industrial manufacture to the virtual economy such as finance and information technology, traditional manufacturing industry was transferred abroad, illegal immigrants struggle is the U.S. can not outsource, long-term labor shortage of low-end work. They constitute the pillar of agriculture, construction, mining, catering, household and other labor-intensive industries. Illegal immigration has been the main force of seasonal work in the U.S. farms, these heavy physical labor under severe conditions will not be favored by Americans.

Therefore, the consequences of combating this type of illegal immigration are that illegal immigrants lose their livelihoods ¡ª farm labor losses ¡ª labour costs rise ¡ª commodity prices rise ¡ª Americans are not satisfied with jobs.

In addition to fighting illegal immigration, the Trump administration has also taken a series of restrictions on legal immigration.The U.S. immigration flow has slowed, while the U.S. economy has a structural dependence on immigrant labor force, and has not effectively increased American employment in the short term, but has led to labor shortages in several industries, decreased enterprise investment confidence, increased economic uncertainty and increased costs in some industries, and enterprises are more pursuing automation / capital-intensive manufacturing, thereby further reducing employment opportunities.

In the long run, strict restrictions on immigration will also impact the number and structure of the United States.Relying solely on fighting immigration to provide jobs for American workers is obviously not a long-term, and the manufacturing regression is the core strategy of the Trump administration to increase jobs.

When will America's goals and actions be the same, and when will it revitalize manufacturing?

Trump wants the manufacturing industry back to the U.S. and can provide more jobs, but we need to recognize one problem. The outflow of manufacturing in the United States is the result of long-term development.The U.S. virtual economy (such as finance, IT) has a high return rate, but the manufacturing industry will consume human resources and material costs and the return rate is relatively low, so entrepreneurs will move the production link to areas with low labor costs, so the manufacturing industry is the choice of the U.S. market. To bring manufacturing back to the U.S., it is crucial not only to build factories from scratch, but also to re-train tech workers, and how the U.S. government organizes this process.

The Trump administration¡¯s series of policies ¨C ¡°strengthening immigration,¡± ¡°big and U.S. bills¡± and ¡°reciprocal tariffs¡± ¨C are all aimed at boosting the re-flow of manufacturing and increasing employment, but the actual results are not ideal.1) The core objective of the immigration tightening policy is to protect the employment of indigenous workers in the United States, but the industries that depend on immigration are employed; (2) the core objective of the "Big and U.S. Act" is to stimulate the return of enterprises in the form of tax cuts, but the tax cuts are mostly used for stock repurchase rather than real-life investment, the return of the number of jobs is limited and highly automated, and the effect on ordinary employment is insufficient; (3) the goal of the reciprocal tariff policy is to protect the U.S. industry, forcing enterprises to localize production, but pushing up the production costs of indigenous enterprises, and manufacturing jobs continue to decrease.

South Korean investment in the United States suffered frustration, who dares to invest in the United States in the future?

The U.S. arrest of a large number of South Korean employees undermined the confidence of foreign companies, including Korean companies, in U.S. investments.South Korean President Li in Ming openly said that this incident will cause Korean companies to be very hesitant when investing in the United States.LG New Energy Company announced yesterday that it has suspended the construction of the factory and suspended the sending of employees to the United States, Modern Automobile Group suggested that the original planned employee to the United States to postpone the travel, and other Korean companies in the United States have to re-examine the investment in the United States.

The relationship between the United States and its allies is an asymmetric power structure whose inequality has been further strengthened during the Trump administration.Not only have the allies repeatedly demanded that they bear the cost of stationing, but the tariffs also targeted the allies precisely, forcing allies to commit to investment in the United States, including $55 billion in Japan, $35 billion in South Korea and $600 billion in the European Union.The Trump administration has demanded that allies invest in tariffs as a code, requiring investment to focus on key industries that the United States hopes to revive, and the profit distribution is also inclined toward the United States.

Many of the South Korean citizens arrested were engineers and equipment installers, and their absence led directly to delays in battery plant production time, thereby affecting South Korean companies¡¯ production plans in the United States, with project delays meant increased costs and loss of market opportunities.This incident is not only targeted by South Korea, but is also seen as a warning to other trading partners that other U.S. allies will be more cautious when implementing their investment commitments to the United States. The stability of the U.S. as an investment destination has been questioned, and manufacturing retreat plans have become more difficult to implement.

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