Among the flurry of executive orders that President Donald Trump has signed since Jan. 20, one is titled “Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance,” which describes how the US lost its commercial shipbuilding industry to China. The executive order introduced a series of measures to bolster US shipbuilding, including the creation of a trust fund to provide financing to the industry and the establishment of a docking fee for Chinese-made ships to counter the country’s advantage. Unfortunately, the administration is aiming its efforts at the wrong industry. The US long ago lost its dominance in shipbuilding, first to Japan, then to South Korea and finally to China, which has now overtaken those two to become the world’s most prolific shipbuilder. The US contributes 0.1% to global shipbuilding, according to a report by the Center for Strategic Studies, trailing far behind Japan with 13%, South Korea’s 29% and China’s whopping 53%. The dearth of commercial shipbuilding is certainly an alarming national security issue, and a revival of a commercial maritime industry would bolster US manufacturing. But of all the battles to fight to create the conditions for a return of more manufacturing to America, shipbuilding is the steepest climb — not up a hill, but up Mount Everest.

Full commentary : The development of humanoid machines is an opportunity to chip away at foreign dominance and aid US manufacturing.

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