After infrastructure for manufacturing, Vietnam invests in human infrastructure

One of the consequences of the Sino-American trade war is the accelerating realignment of the global supply chain on many tradable goods — ranging from low-tech, labor intensive garments to relatively high-tech electronic products.

The production shift away from China, the erstwhile “factory of the world,” to the nearby lower-cost countries outside the trade war zone is noticeable. In the first four months of 2019, Chinese exports to the United States dropped by almost 14 percent, compared with the same period of 2018, while the most notable increase in exports to the US was that of Vietnam's. The small Asian country’s exports to the US rose 40 percent in the four-month period this year.