Proudly made in the US of A? Not anymore

When I was a teenager and the family was on holiday in Cape Town, I would catch the train into the city and walk a few blocks down to the Foreshore, to a shop called Nordic Clothing, whose customers were mainly sailors off the ships in Table Bay harbour.

I went there for one thing: genuine Levi’s jeans. They were the ultimate fashion accessory – a notch above Wrangler and Lee. And they were – tough stitching, copper rivets and leather patch on the back waistband – proudly Made in the USA.

That was part of the attraction, I suppose – a link to the youth rebellion of the ’60s, although my mates and I were more born to be mild than wild.

Levi’s were the jeans to have, but when it came to denim jackets, Wrangler had the edge… and so I bought one. Only when I got home and went over it carefully did I see the “made in Malta” logo.

The American frontier was being farmed out in what was one the first steps towards the globalisation we live with now.

Yet, I have had little desire to own other American-origin products, other than a pair of Vortex binoculars, which are so well made the manufacturer offers a lifetime guarantee.

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US cars and trucks? Nope. Their cars were always more like trucks anyway: large, wallowy and with big, thirsty engines.

So, I was about to say Donald Trump’s tariff tango probably won’t affect me much… until I realised how much subtle influence US tech has in our lives.

We use phones powered by US software – Android or Apple’s iOS – our computer systems run on Microsoft and Apple software. We communicate on US-based internet platforms like Facebook, Google and Twitter.

More importantly, though, a huge chunk of what we consume in the way of entertainment comes from America… music, movies, computer games.

At times, it seems as though South Africa could almost be the 51st state of the US that Trump sees as Canada’s fate. We have freeways clogged with cars, we have vast, ugly shopping malls, we have urban decay.

The new tariffs are going to hurt us because they just effectively destroyed the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa)… meaning exporters like fruit farmers and Ford South Africa – a US-headquartered global company – will be affected.

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That will inevitably mean job losses in the farming sector, although Ford SA’s exports from its Pretoria factory mainly go elsewhere than the US. And therein lies a warning for Trump and the Maga loonies.

Ford is lessening ties with its parent country, closing a factory recently in Flint, Michigan, and it puts its eggs in multiple global baskets, like SA. That’s the opposite of what Trump intends with his 25% tariff on cars.

It will take an auto company a few billion dollars to build a new factory in the States – time and money they don’t have as they face an onslaught from Chinese brands.

The Chinese – whose government subsidises car makers openly and under the table, but whose new factories are world leaders in manufacturing efficiency – are like to the be only winners in Trump’s trade wars.

I have a feeling Trump’s vision of a “Golden Age” could well turn into the “Era of Unintended Consequences” and be the beginning of the end of America, rather than making it great again.

But I’ll still wear my Levi’s from that Proudly American location, Jakarta, Indonesia…

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