Issue Restructuring of the international division of labour

Summary

After the Second World War, the expansion of core and advanced-industry supply chains on cost and efficiency grounds culminated in China becoming the de facto manufacturing hegemon after joining the WTO in 2001. Since Donald Trump's election in 2016 on a platform of containing China and reviving domestic manufacturing, the United States has mobilised trade, finance, tax, diplomatic and defence tools to regain industrial leadership and influence over the global order. The survey treats the early twenty-first century as a turning point that will decide the medium- to long-term rise or decline of major economies, including Korea. It judges that the postwar globalisation of manufacturing supply chains that began with the GATT and Bretton Woods has ended with a new US trade framework announced by the US trade representative. Core and advanced industries and materials, parts and equipment are expected to relocate geographically according to security and sovereignty logic, significantly changing major countries' growth and political influence relative to the status quo.