President Trump has decided that the world the US has dominated for generations will not be dominated anymore. Ever since WW II, because the war did not affect the properties inside the US, the country has played the role of leadership. The Marshall Plan helped rebuild Europe, the outsourcing of jobs built up Southeast Asia and as China grew it drew raw materials from around the world. There was also relative peace in the globe as raw materials flowed from where they were found to countries that used them. In President Trump’s second term he decided that should change which is why he put a tariff on every country. Under Newton’s physics law of for every action there is an equal reaction. If a country pulls back, then another one steps in.

In an article by Somini Sengupta of the New York Times News Service, the auto companies have been global giants for years. There was truth in a statement made by a GM VP – what is good for GM is good for America. Part of the global dominance was auto companies had factories in many countries around the world, but times are changing.

In Brazil, home to 200 million people and the world’s 6th largest car market, the Chinese car companies are turning to Brazil to make cars. Chinese auto companies make and export more cars of all types than any other country in the world. Chinese companies dominate the global manufacture of battery-powered vehicles of the future. They also control the supply chain for virtually everything that goes into those cars.

In Sao Paulo, Great Wall Motors has moved into a factory that used to make Mercedes Benz vehicles. Great Wall specializes in affordable electric vehicles.

The Chinese has set up factories in Hungary, Indonesia, Russia, Thailand and Turkey.

In Brazil, BYD took over a factory that Ford used to manufacture vehicles for over 100 years. The street where the factory is in Camacari, is called Henry Ford Avenue.

Chery, has teamed up with a Brazilian company, Caoa, to produce cars in central Goias state.

Marcia Lima, head of the Brazil automaker association, noted so far, the new Chinese company are mainly assembling cars with components imported from China. That does not advance the Brazilian auto industry.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, President Trump can believe that tariffs are designed to open borders, but someone has to have the correct item at a point where sellers meet buyers. It might be wishful thinking because the competition has walked into an opportunity. If made in your home country is important to your domestic consumers, why does that change when you cross a border? Politics is about many interest groups; business is about the monetary transactions, when you are investing pay attention to the money, the politics sometimes will help, sometimes not so much.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.