So how important is NAFTA to the small business manufacturer to be contracted by big business? Pretty damn important. – PB/TK
One Tiny Widget’s Dizzying Journey Shows Just How Critical Nafta Has Become – By Thomas Black, Jeremy Scott DiamondJeremy Scott Diamond and Dave Merrill
February 2, 2017
Global trade involves a complex web of cross-border journeys, seamless and often invisible to American consumers. As President Donald Trump seeks to rewrite Nafta and other trade accords in an effort to bring jobs back to America, he would do well to follow the meandering path of a single lowly capacitor, a pinkie tip-sized component that stores electrical energy.
Its journey illustrates how U.S. manufacturers rely on numerous border crossings and thousands of miles of travel to produce goods at the low cost and high quality that customers demand. Nafta, in particular, allows goods to travel back and forth to Mexico with minimal delay and at no cost.
In this case, we begin with a small Michigan company called Firstronic, which makes printed circuit boards for autoparts, such as automotive seat controls.
Firstronic, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, buys the capacitor itself from a Centennial, Colorado, supplier called Arrow Electronics Inc., which imports the components from multiple suppliers in Asia.
Continue to Bloomberg.com article: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-trump-protectionism-alters-supply-chain/
