china accounted for nearly 11 of the global imports and 13 of global exports in 2018the trade war amplified calls in the us and elsewhere for reducing dependence on china for strategic goods now the pandemic has politicians vowing to take actionthe trump administration has talked about bringing supply chains home from china and even publicly floated the need for a group of friendly nations in asia that could help produce essential goods president donald trump last month even said the us would save 500 billion if it cut off ties with chinabut interviews with nearly a dozen government officials and analysts in the asiapacific region show that any broader effort to restructure supply chains is little more than wishful thinking so far while governments are pushing to win investments such as taiwan semiconductor manufacturing cos planned stateoftheart semiconductor factory in the us it wont be simple to dismantle an entrenched system when many companies are struggling to survive advt more likely is that the virus will accelerate a change that was already driven by market forces as rising wages and costs in china over the past decade caused an exodus of lowervalue manufacturing much of it to southeast asia thats despite the desire from some in the trump administration to start decoupling the worlds biggest economies as the us and china spar over everything from the virus to 5g networks to hong kongnot decoupling yetthe rhetoric meets the reality which is that many firms have supply chains set up the way they do for very sensible reasons said deborah elms of the asian trade centre which has seen an increase of companies looking for advice on reorganizing to increase competitiveness coming out of covid its going to be even harder to move supply chains because your cash flow is low your staff are working from home or coming slowly back into the office and the business climate has shifted while the world trade network mostly held up well amid rolling lockdowns as covid19 spread the economic cost fueled calls among politicians for greater selfsufficiency and alternatives to china us secretary of state mike pompeo whose department announced an economic security strategy last year in april named australia new zealand japan india and south korea as countries that the us has been talking to on supply chainsa key plank of the state departments new economic security strategy is expanding and diversifying supply chains that protect people in the free world according to keith krach a state department official who leads efforts to develop international policies related to economic growth advt krach said in april a socalled economic prosperity network of likeminded allies would be built for critical productschina plus oneindustries would include pharmaceuticals medical devices semiconductors automotive aerospace textiles and chemicals among othersbut the idea right now appears to lack any firm foundation the state department doesnt have jurisdiction over trade and officials in other asian countries said no formal talks were taking place a person close to the administration