Is manufacturing making a comeback in the US?

1. When Rosemary Coates, executive director of the nonprofit Reshoring Institute, worked as a supply chain consultant for large companies in the 1990s and early 2000s, the CEOs would invite her into their offices and say, “Just get me to China.”

2. “‘We know it’s cheaper. Our competitors are doing it. It’s what we should do. Let’s just go to China,’” Coates recounted at the Women in Manufacturing Summit in Chicago on Oct. 13. “There wasn’t a whole lot of thought to it. Some may be financial analysis, but by and large, it was simply the strategy to go forward.” 

3. Cut to the 2012 election, before which then-President Barack Obama and presidential candidate Mitt Romney debated over China’s trade practices and bringing jobs back to the United States, or “China bashing.”

4. “They were both saying, ‘It’s all China’s fault. The economy has all gone downhill because of China,’” Coates said. “This is what I was doing for a living, outsourcing, closing plants and factories in the U.S. and pushing all this manufacturing to China.”

5. The debate then had CEOs talking about the potential for reshoring, asking her, “Is it even possible to bring manufacturing back? Can we do it?”

6. Coates then decided to pivot and focus on helping rebuild, reevaluate and find ways to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. by establishing the Reshoring Institute in 2014.

7. So can manufacturing make a comeback? The answer is yes and no, Coates said.

8. “Brace yourself. [Change is] coming if it isn’t already here,” Coates said. “And you need to learn to be flexible and accept that and look to the future.” 

ASEAN+3 in a Fragmenting World

 1. The rules-based multilateral trading system—long the cornerstone of global economic integration and prosperity—is being challenged by the Trump Administration’s unilateral protectionist policy. Rising protectionism, selective trade measures, and weaponization of tariffs are eroding the foundations of the rules-based global trade order. These developments not only jeopardize the economic gains accumulated over decades of globalization but also threaten the stability and prosperity that open trade has long supported across regions.

2. The growing uncertainty has clouded business confidence and undermined investment decisions. Firms in both advanced and emerging economies are rethinking their long-term investment strategies, delaying or canceling plans and redirecting capital in response to fears of abrupt regulatory shifts or market disruptions. Global supply chains, once optimized for cross-border efficiency, are now being reshaped around redundancy, resilience, and protectionism.

3. Amid this flux, the need for a reliable anchor for global trade has rarely been more urgent.

China’s EVs dominate the world — why not in the US and Canada?

1. China makes more than 70 percent of the world’s electric cars. But it’s hard to find those vehicles in North America. One month before he opened this year’s United Nations climate summit, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva helped open a new mega-factory at the site of a former Ford car manufacturing plant.

2. The new plant, in Brazil’s Camacari, Bahia, is one of many being built around the world by China’s BYD, the world’s largest manufacturer of electric cars. BYD’s presence is also being felt at the ongoing COP30 climate summit in Brazil’s Belem, where it is a cosponsor alongside GWM, another Chinese electric carmaker.

3. The sponsorship is just one of many ways that China’s investments in green technology are being felt at the UN’s top climate meeting, where the Chinese official delegation of 789 people is second only to Brazil’s 3,805.

4. Back in the US, and in neighbouring Canada, trade barriers aimed at punishing Chinese electric vehicles have made them far costlier than what the manufacturers want to sell them for. These tariffs are a legacy of former US President Joe Biden’s administration, and place North America as an outlier at a time when Chinese EVs otherwise dominate the global market.

Tallinn, Estonia named world’s best city for start-ups

1. Tallinn has been named the world’s best city for start-ups in the prestigious Monocle magazine’s 2025 Quality of Life Survey. Making its debut in the rankings, Estonia’s capital received top marks for its advanced digital infrastructure, supportive start-up ecosystem, low cost of living, and inclusive international community, writes Startup Estonia.