Why is everything now made in China?

Question

Whats happened to our manufacturing industry?

Answer 1

The EU & World Trade Org are to blame.

In freeing up world trade the WTO made it so that anything will find its cheapest location to be manufactured & the EU were allowed to set up tax barriers to protect companies who made the same articles. Over time the EU producers of goods (esp UK) had state subsidies removed & so the only thing stopping goods flooding in from China was customs tax .

EU manufacturers then started setting up joint companies with the Chinese having EU names made in China.
The Chinese then just set up 100% Chinese companies & copied the joint co.s., but cutting out the EU people.

So once technology & know - how was transfered the only limiting factor was cost of production. The main cost in the EU is labour & none of us will volunteer for a wage cut. In China the main cost is raw materials. These are roughly the same the world over.

Consequently it is impossible to manufacture anything in China which is more expensive than here in the EU.

This is particularly the case in items where the raw materials are cheap (such as plastic toys) &/or the labour element is high (such as electronics)...

Your industries have been destroyed by your Tory govt selling off state assets & removing any help to industry. This wouldnt have been a problem but you okes were the ONLY country to do this! The rest of the world just pretended.

The biggest state supporter of industry is the USA, that is why goods (esp foodstuffs) are so cheap there. For every ton of maize grown in the USA the Commerce & Agriculture Depts pay the farmer 50% of the final price he receives, thus he is subsidised to the extent of 50%.

In South Africa we have the same problem. Our wages are 1/4 of yours & we have millions of day workers queuing up for a days work for roughly the price of 2 tins of beer, a loaf of bread & some old pork leg. Even so we are suffering in a similar manner with most of the stuff you pick up in Edgars (equiv to debenhams) having 'Made in China' on it. if WE cant compete you okes have no chance!

Answer 2

Isn't it terrible? My kids were asking me where some of their toys were made so they could see the country on the map. Every toy I picked up was made in China! I presume the reason is that they have a large, extremely cheap labor market that does good work. Even if our labor market was equally qualified, no one here will work for $3 a day.

I think manufacturing is pretty much lost in this country, unless it's highly technical and specialized. That's progress, I guess.

Answer 3

i personally never had a manufacturing industry and am grateful that some skilled entrepreneurs in china were able to supply me with the range of affordable goods that i could not make for myself

Answer 4

because, chinese are prepared to paintings like an assembly line. workers who're making waiting the products at the prompt are not conscious of what they're generating and the position it is going to be offered. And yet another ingredient is piracy. they're greatest in volume at piracy marketplace. by using that they don't opt to make investments money or R&D for that product. for this reason very last value of manufacturing the product will change into so more cost-effective that what ever you desire you'll get more beneficial more cost-effective even if it really is haiving tag of "Made In China". yet in incorrect way, they're loosing the trust also. no plausible take the assure of the chinese product's life.

Answer 5

You would never know it was manufactured by cheap labor by looking at the price..and if you notice the quality isn't there...but if china stops shipping to the USA WalMart will have to shut its doors..

Answer 6

Our manufacturing industry shipped itself to China so it could ship its goods back in return for cheaper and to turn a bigger profit.

Answer 7

Labour is extremely cheap in China + there are various govt subsidies by the Chinese govt to encourage their manufacturers to export or rather flood the world market.

Answer 8

A lot of the European traditional jobs are going to all parts of Asia including India. North America has this problem too and you can add in Mexico and Puerto Rico. All for the almighty dollar or Euro

Answer 9

It is far cheaper to make things in china. We cannot compete with it in this country, because of the wages difference. If we could make it cheaper our manufacturing would not be in such a decline.

Answer 10

cheap labour,that is why we have no manufacturing base in the UK any more..example..i purchased a pr of Reebok trainers for £20..(originally £65)...if they pay the man in china £2 a pr..x100000 Pr's +transportation costs of say..£1000(be generous but you will get the idea)cost to Reebok £201,000..they now sell them at £20 a pr(x100000) =£2000000 minus the original..£201000 =£1799000..yeah ok you have wages and other overheads..but this is just on ONE TYPE OF TRAINERS..but £1799000 isn't a bad profit before overheads on one type or design of trainer is it?? the figures are hypothetical..but you get the drift...