Re: Every country cannot be self-sufficient in everything
This particular story began with a South Korean Court finding that some Japanese companies owe financial restitution to make up for Korean forced labor in the second world War. This led to a mighty political row, and eventually to a rather mysterious decision by Japan to end free trade on some strategic products. These included crucial supplies for Koreas electronic industry - a rather big party of Koreas export oriented industry. This led to a very predictable scramble to find alternate suppliers, ideally within Korea.
For decades, the world moved toward a highly integrated supply chain. Now, some politicians show that these supply chains can be rather fragile if you are have the wrong kind of nationalists in charge (putting your own country first, without any vare for the bigger picture). This will cost the world dearly, but maybe we'll have more robust supply chains as a result. Otoh, we may just end up with increasing nationalism, tit for tat politics, and all kinds of international conflictsnrhe we all but forgot about in the golden age of international cooperation.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
