De-Globalisation and Decoupling: Post-COVID-19 Myths versus Realities

According to a recent Korean study of re-shoring, just 68 companies have returned their production back to Korea since 2014. A supply chain relying solely on limited local capacity hampered by a local lockdown, by contrast, would be unable to rapidly increase production to meet demand that might rise by ten or even one hundred times almost overnight. [...]a GVC will be able to identify and access countries where local institutions and infrastructure enable production to be expanded more flexibly and rapidly. [...]it already had relevant international networks, skilled supply chain managers, and experience that could be redeployed at short notice to produce COVID-19 test kits. A report on the negative effects of de-globalising the semiconductor industry by The Boston Consulting Group in March 2020, commissioned by the US Semiconductor Industry Association, concluded that these rules would also result in severe cuts in R&D and capital expenditures by multinationals, and the loss of 15,000 to 40,000 highly skilled direct jobs in the US semiconductor