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US Should Help Its Manufacturing Firms Move out of China, Kudlow Says

Australian Police Seize Black Box From Cruise Ship Amid COVID-19 Homicide Probe

Police officers in Australia wearing hazmat suits boarded the Ruby Princess cruise ship late Wednesday to seize a black box and other information as part of a homicide probe linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ship is accused of bringing聽the聽CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, to Australia, which has seen 51 deaths from COVID-19, the disease the virus causes. Fifteen people who were on board the Carnival-owned ship and disembarked in Australia have since died and hundreds of others have tested positive for the illness, which displays symptoms similar to the flu. Last month, authorities granted the Ruby Princess permission for 2,700 passengers to disembark without any health checks, provoking public anger. New South Wales (NSW) police officials opened the probe to see if Carnival and…

US Should Help Its Manufacturing Firms Move out of China, Kudlow Says

White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow suggested that the administration could lure U.S. companies to move back to the United States from China by paying for the entire cost of capital spending associated with relocation.

“Plant, equipment, intellectual property structures, renovations—in other words, if we had 100 percent immediate expensing, we would literary pay the moving costs of American companies from China back to the U.S.,” Kudlow told Fox Business on April 9.

His proposal was in response to a question about how the United States could reduce its reliance on manufacturing in China.

“I think 100 percent expensing would be a very good thing, and by the way, it would be a very good thing for American companies here at home,” Kudlow said.

The pandemic has disrupted global supply chains and raised questions about countries’ dependence on China as a manufacturing base. Japan on April 9 earmarked $2.2 billion of its economic stimulus package to help its manufacturers shift their production out of China.

Meanwhile, a new report has found that the pandemic is likely to accelerate the process of companies moving out of China, a trend that began during the U.S.-China trade war.

Global manufacturing consulting firm Kearney in its annual Reshoring Index released on Tuesday found that the United States imported less from Asian low-cost countries in 2019—a “dramatic reversal” of a five-year trend. This drop came almost exclusively from a collapse in imports from China, likely a direct result of U.S. tariffs on billions of Chinese goods amid the trade war, the report noted.

U.S. imports shifted away from China to other low-cost Asian countries led by Vietnam, it added.

While supply chain developments in 2019 were influenced by the trade war, the pandemic in 2020 is forecasted to be an even greater disruption, one that would lead to companies going “much further in rethinking their sourcing strategies—indeed, their entire supply chains,” the firm predicted.

“Specifically, we expect companies will be increas­ingly inclined to spread their risks, as opposed to putting all their eggs in the lowest cost basket,” the report said, which has long been in China.

“More fundamentally, we anticipate that the threat of future crises will compel companies to restructure their global supply chains with an eye toward increased resilience, as well as lower risks and costs, as resil­ience is the key to operating profitably in the face of ongoing disruptions,” the report said.

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EU Members Support Each Other During COVID-19 Crisis, Extending Help to Their Neighbors

The European Union has also taken some unprecedented measures to relax its state aid rules to support all European businesses whether big or small during the time of crisis, von der Leyen said in an op-ed published by European media. Relaxing budgetary rules helped those in need to obtain assistance quicker. The EU and its member states allocated a total of 2.8 trillion euros ($3 billion) to fight the pandemic, she said. People with balloons wait for the arrival of relatives at the airport in Frankfurt, as the spread of the CCP virus continues. Germany, on April 2, 2020. (Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters/File Photo)The EU also assists its members in the repatriation of their citizens stuck in foreign countries after many countries closed their borders due to the CCP virus outbreak. Repatriation…