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US To Create High-Tech Manufacturing Zone In Philippines (wsj.com) 116

Posted by BeauHD from the China-proof-supply-chains dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: An agreement with the Philippines to establish a high-tech industrial hub is the Trump administration's latest effort to lessen China's dominance over global supply chains. The deal to build up American manufacturing across a stretch of the island of Luzon, signed Thursday, will offer U.S. companies access to essential inputs such as critical minerals that bypass Beijing's control. The artificial-intelligence-powered manufacturing hub is planned for a 4,000-acre site given to the U.S. by Manila, said undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg. The U.S. will occupy the site rent-free and administer it as a special economic zone.

The hub will have diplomatic immunity, such as the protections afforded to an American embassy, and operate under U.S. common law -- the first arrangement of its kind anywhere in the world. The two-year lease is renewable for 99 years. [...] "You can't build anything in Ohio if the minerals and the process materials are controlled by an adversary who can cut you off tomorrow," Helberg said in an interview. [...] The planned manufacturing hub is largely conceptual at this stage, and details, including which American companies will participate and just what they will build in the Philippines, are yet to be determined.

[...] The administration will ask companies to put forward proposals to compete for a spot in building out the hub, giving priority to bids that will help move critical minerals processing and manufacturing off Chinese suppliers. Investment will have to come from private-sector companies -- not the U.S. government. Factories approved for operation in the hub will be highly automated, Helberg said, using autonomous systems to operate around the clock. The Philippines has a history of robust manufacturing, particularly in semiconductors, but that has stagnated in recent decades because of high energy and logistics costs. Companies will have to address in their proposals how they will contend with energy costs and workforce needs; they can send American workers overseas or hire locally, Helberg said.

US To Create High-Tech Manufacturing Zone In Philippines More | Reply

US To Create High-Tech Manufacturing Zone In Philippines

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  • Well (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    it is one way to boost "domestic industry". the MAGAts will love it, after all their old idol Limbaugh was a fan of Filipino boys.

    • Said no-one ever.

  • Good for many reasons (Score:2, Interesting)

    by CEC-P ( 10248912 )
    Their accent just happens to be really close to English. Their culture of mostly moral and against greed. They hate China. They're tough on crime. The only problem is culturally, they are incredibly laid back and think hard work is a waste of time. But hey, pick a better location. I'd say inside the US itself but labor is so insane, that's an automatic no, despite Trump thinking it's still 1950.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by r1348 ( 2567295 )

      I thought greed was good?

      • Why, because you saw a Martin Sheen movie?

      • I thought greed was good?

        Greed is amazing, when you're the business owner... those greedy serfs generating the owner's wealth demanding higher wages and benefits, not so much.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by SirSlud ( 67381 )

      "but labor is so insane"

      I gather this is your fault

    • Re:Good for many reasons (Score:4, Funny)

      by Sloppy ( 14984 ) on Friday April 17, 2026 @12:52PM (#66098782) Homepage Journal

      culturally, they are incredibly laid back and think hard work is a waste of time.

      Nice. Speaking as a New Mexican, these sound like my kind of people.

      I hereby challenge any Filipino to a laziness contest, where loser buys us both margaritas. You have no chance. When I get around to it, I will eventually crush you with my inactivity.

      • Nice. Speaking as a New Mexican, these sound like my kind of people.

        Do they also know how to put 20,000 miles on the emergency spare?

    • culturally, they are incredibly laid back and think hard work is a waste of time.

      When the temperature and the relative humidity both are always somewhere around 99, even a brisk walk will have your clothes soaked through with sweat in a minute. You don't do anything quickly in that climate - something people from cultures that can afford to air condition every second of their lives may mistake for being "laid back"

      • You know, there are stories about some countries being "laid back", in Europe.

        Occupied during WWII by Germans was for example Greece.

        In Germany Greeks had a bad reputation for being lazy.

        That was basically anecdotical spread of word of mouth by returning soldiers and officers.

        The occupied areas had a curfew till roughly 7:00 in the morning. Around 9:00 the officers visited the coffee shops for breakfast around the central plaza, called Plakka, in Greek.

        All the farmers and fishermen were sitting there and pl

    • My experience with Philippino work ethic is in direct opposition with your comment.

      I have worked for the same Canadian IT management firm for 26 years. My team has always been 5-10 Canadian residents, doing operational support for storage and data management.

      Sometime around 2010, the company began hiring internationally to perform "mid-tier" work. More involved than an IT helpdesk, less involved in one-off and "shiny" or "sexy" project work. Now my team is more like 4-7 Canadians plus 10-15 Philippinos.

      O

      • There's some sample bias there, friend. You're interacting with the 1% of them that got it together enough to move to Canada (and in so doing drained the local pool of the hardest workers).

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by arcade ( 16638 )

      > they are incredibly laid back and think hard work is a waste of time.

      Having worked with quite a few Filipinos, I think you're full of of it with that statement. Typically crazy hard working folks. They're everywhere, but you don't notice them. In office jobs, I've seen Filipinos reduce a 5 person team to a 2 person team just by their presence, as they churn through the task faster and more correctly than natives in whatever country they are present.

    • You're missing the main draw which is mineral wealth. If I'm being cynical this is about stripping a poor country of it's greatest asset.

    • Most Asians are hard workers.

      Do you think they food grows alone and all the businesses are run by robots?

      And most certainly they do not China.

      Only Americans and Tibetians hate Chine.

      Stupid idiot.

  • Magas (Score:5, Insightful)

    by lucifuge31337 ( 529072 ) <daryl@introspec t . n et> on Friday April 17, 2026 @11:10AM (#66098558) Homepage
    Magas hold no positions, values, or morals. They believe what they are told to believe, even if that contradicts what they were told to believe weeks, days, or even minutes ago. They will parrot whatever fox news talking points that somehow attempt to square this circle with bring back US domestic industry and american first. Just like they think "paying a fundir religious zealot run nation twenty billion dollars" a "win."

    • The orange turd is telling people gas prices are not high. https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/... [cnbc.com]

      I mean holy shit we’re literally in a children’s fairytale. The emperor has no clothes.

      Can any MAGA comment on what it feels like to fill your 30 gallon truck tank with $6 a gallon diesel?

      • Can any MAGA comment on what it feels like to fill your 30 gallon truck tank with $6 a gallon diesel?

        Actually I can do better... I can describe how it feels to fill a 24-gallon SUV at $9/gallon in 2022. I'll also be able to describe that feeling once again when we're done with Iran and it drops down to below $3.

        • Now think real hard what happened in 2022 that caused prices to spike.

          • You lose magas a "think". They have been taught to follow and repeat only. They want an authoritarian so they don't have to think for themselves ever again. The anti-intellictualism runs very deep.
          • We had a president that wanted to shut down the oil industry, and worked to do it? You can try and blame it all on Russia, like Biden did, but in the end his policies had already been driving prices up pretty consistently.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tragedy ( 27079 )

          Actually I can do better... I can describe how it feels to fill a 24-gallon SUV at $9/gallon in 2022

          Except of course that the parent poster was actually talking about national average gas prices (though they were rounding up to $6 from around $5.50). I am guessing you are talking about gasoline, not diesel but, either way, the national average for those was never as high as $9 or even $8+ in 2022.

          • national average for those was never as high as $9 or even $8+ in 2022

            I wasn't talking about national average because that number doesn't mean anything when you always fill your tank at the local price. In CA where I live, it was indeed $9

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by tragedy ( 27079 )

              OK. As I suspected. Extremely anecdotal example and not reflective of actual typical pricing at the time. Don't get me wrong, it's a data point, but it's clearly an aberration. Basically, while regional prices vary, they can't typically vary by that much in an open market. The opportunities for some form of arbitrage are too high. So that means some sort of special factor you're not mentioning about where you were buying the gas: extreme geographical isolation (island, mountain community), crisis event (loc

    • People like you will bitch about everything Trump does, even if he sends a doctor to rescue your loved ones from certain demise. This topic is about something entirely different, but as long as it is something his administration is involved with, you'll find a way to attack him. Do you know what attack without being provoked is? Terrorism!

      • This deal will in no way benefit you or me or anyone who is not a member of tres comas

      • I see we've got ourselves a "temporarily embarassed billionaire" here, who things they will benefit from these policies. It's incredible how gullable one must be to not only contionually vote against your own self interests but to also spend you time online trying to justify it and convince others to do so.

      • History shows anything Trumpists are for is probably a bad thing or not based upon intelligent thought. Even a broken clock is correct a few times but that doesn't make it irrational to assume it is wrong ALL the time because your error rate is only going to be 2 instants per day and correct 99.77% of the day.

        Terrorism is the primary tactic trump uses to make "deals" or have you not noticed?

      • Because Trump would never send anyone to do anything to save you because it's a good thing to do. He would do it only if you compensate him well for it. So yeah, while at least I have my family, with people like Trump you are living out on the street anyway.

      • Re:Magas (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Pascoea ( 968200 ) on Friday April 17, 2026 @04:16PM (#66099116)

        People like you will bitch about everything Trump does

        Not everything. Just the things that are contrary to common decency. And the things that are beneath the office of the president. And the things that are illegal. And the things that embarrass us on the world stage. And the things that are self-serving. And the things that are not helping our citizens. So no, not necessarily everything, just most of it.

        • Not everything. Just the things that are contrary to common decency. And the things that are beneath the office of the president. And the things that are illegal. And the things that embarrass us on the world stage. And the things that are self-serving. And the things that are not helping our citizens. So no, not necessarily everything, just most of it.

          Let me give you examples of each off those things:

          Beneath the office of the president: Biden and WH was directly involved in the Mar-a-Lago raid
          Illegal: Obama ordered the CIA to discard their report on the Russian hoax and rewrite a new assessment that makes it true
          Embarrassment: US media make up stories and hide behind "anonymous source", Biden shakes hand with his own shadow, falls down while walking up AF1 3 times in a row, vast majority of his executive orders were signed by an autopen, of which h

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Pascoea ( 968200 )

            Let me give you examples of each off those things:

            But but but but what about BIIIIIIIIIDENNNNN!!!?!?!?!?!

            You just repeat what your TV told you to

            I don't watch TV. It's pretty obvious you do. I bet I can guess what networks.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by argStyopa ( 232550 )

      I think you have your administrations confused.

      Sept 2023: Biden administration hands $6bn to Iran. And authorized them to access up to another $10bn frozen assets.

      Oct 7 2023, in what was a coincidence(?) Hamas - a directly-funded and -trained proxy for Iran, launches an unprovoked murderous attack on Israel.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kellin ( 28417 )

        70 years of being told you're an animal and treated as such under an apartheid state isn't unprovoked.

        I'm also not condoning it, I'm just stating some facts.

        Also, the reaction is far worse than the "unprovoked attack," but its not genocide.

        • The "animals" as you describe them, had the chance in 1948 to accept the two-state solution offered by the British Mandate.

          They refused it, quite explicitly because their leadership believed they (with the assistance of adjacent Arab states) had the ability genocide the Jewish populations of the region. Subsequently they, or their paymasters in Tehran, haven't hidden even slightly that their goal isn't coexistence, it's extermination.

          They said, in effect, "No thank you, we don't want to share this land, we

  • So (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Friday April 17, 2026 @11:14AM (#66098562)

    The entire premise is simply “not China”?

    I was told manufacturing jobs would come flooding back to this country.

    • Re:So (Score:5, Insightful)

      by r1348 ( 2567295 ) on Friday April 17, 2026 @11:25AM (#66098580)

      Next: the US annexes the Philippines, again.

    • The entire premise is simply “not China”?

      I was told manufacturing jobs would come flooding back to this country.

      But you weren't told when. This sounds like a way to get cheaper labor and less environmental rules; and I doubt they can ever scale anywhere Cole to China in terms of output or price. China could simply drop prices to make this an unattractive investment, leaving it just another promise to appease Trump without having to actually do anything substantive.

    • Trump's own commerce Secretary (Score:5, Informative)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Friday April 17, 2026 @01:15PM (#66098836)
      Admitted on TV that even if the factories came back the jobs wouldn't because the factories would be automated.

      One of the things I really hate is the way we just keep lying to people. The only way we're going to get a lot of good middle class jobs in this country is with a massive amount of government jobs repairing our crumbling infrastructure and building out renewable energy and some desalinization plants to deal with drought.

      But that would involve taking money away from trillionaires and we can't have that. If we start diverting resources away from the upcoming trillionaires some of them might not even become trillionaires some of them might be mere multi-billionaires.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Good news. "This country" is expanding! Again.

    • It was an unusual campaign in that 95% of campaign promises weren't not just unfulfilled but 180* opposite of policy. Ultimate con man.

      But now that Philippines is nearly out of oil China has made overtures to take care of their oil needs which have been defacto accepted.

      The quid pro quo isn't stated yet but US caused their oil crisis so this announcement isn't real.

  • This is, like a lot of Trump administration "policy", an attempt to establish a legal gray zone in which Trump cronies can do crimes. The zone being proposed in this case just happens to be a physical one.
  • Rent free, immunity, etc... that's all good. In fact it's absolutely great! But we must be giving something to Manila in order to get this deal, like protection from certain asshole neighbor (you know who), or an iron dome installation, some other defensive capabilities against naval/aerial adversaries. We're not seeing those details.

    • They probably gave away some swamp land. I expect it to be Foxconn 2.0 https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/2... [cnbc.com]

    • Massive foreign direct investment? We already have military bases there.

    • Why is this not getting proper outrage? NEVER has there been an officially run foreign development zone in a nation with diplomatic immunity, like an embassy but expanded... to a privatization of embassy powers for corporate use. This is a whole new form of Fascism. Think about it. Does this not scream Pandora's box?
      It is similar to past efforts to run private cities owned by foreigners (because their local gov wouldn't allow it and they have more protection being foreigners.) But this is government reco

      • I have a terrible time trying to understand what you mean... are you even sure you know what you're talking about?

    • Rent free, immunity, etc... that's all good. In fact it's absolutely great! But we must be giving something to Manila in order to get this deal, like protection from certain asshole neighbor (you know who), or an iron dome installation, some other defensive capabilities against naval/aerial adversaries. We're not seeing those details.

      Oh dear. Is there some danger here of an alliance that actually benefits both parties?

  • Last I checked, Philippines is not helping to soon to fail U.S. job market.

    • Since when did Trump want to help the US job market? This is just another grift either for him directly or for one of his billionaire handlers - they can claim they're "on-shoring" manufacturing without having to pay for US workers (and, I imagine, without meeting US safety and environmental requirements).

      It's also unclear exactly what this is supposed to accomplish with regards to the "critical minerals" mentioned. From the summary, at least, it seems likely the administration doesn't have a plan in that r

  • Meanwhile, the US supports an army of vetocrats whose only job is to say no. When combined with NIMBY lawsuits, if makes a formidable opposition to building anything.

  • Right, American industry... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by whitroth ( 9367 ) <<whitroth> <at> <5-cent.us>> on Friday April 17, 2026 @12:12PM (#66098690) Homepage

    In the Phillipines. Where they won't have to worry about unionization, and paying living wages. It's ALL about that.

    But MAGAts vote for him because he screams "America first" (when he's equating "America" with "himself".)

    • It's stunning to see so many assertions about what people you don't know think.

      • We are talking about a sick senile old pedophile who lies and contradicts himself so much that you can pretty much find a contradicting statement RECORDED for just about everything he says. One can assume anything from a contradiction (if you study formal logic you learn this. which is what makes accepting contradictions the biggest error.) The man is the embodiment of the 7 deadly sins, or more accurately, 7 of the 9 traditional cardinal sins. He is from my research of evil (something oddly people do not

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by sabbede ( 2678435 )
          Chill out. Go take a walk and let those strawmen fade away in the sunlight. You sound like you're trying to wind yourself up until your mind breaks. He's one guy who won't be President for much longer. Worry about your own soul for a bit. Go find someone who needs help and help them. Rage and resentment aren't going to help you, they're going to ruin you.

          • I'm not young enough to enjoy the ignorance of being a happy moron. Being complacent is how things go foobar and it's only begun but you grew up in and what you think is normal was a huge step down. Clearly stuff has to get a lot worse for you to realize what is going on; if you ever do, being in a cult... the dunning krugar is strong in you.

            • Please stop imagining what I think. Or my age, I think you got that one wrong too.

              We all have problems, live is neither fair nor easy, but if you think your problems or their solutions have anything to do with D.C., your real problems are only worsening from neglect.

          • Chill out. Go take a walk and let those strawmen fade away in the sunlight. You sound like you're trying to wind yourself up until your mind breaks. He's one guy who won't be President for much longer. Worry about your own soul for a bit. Go find someone who needs help and help them. Rage and resentment aren't going to help you, they're going to ruin you.

            Well, that's all they have.

            Orwell was very prescient ... though one wishes the Two-Minutes Hate only lasted Two Minutes per day. .

            • They have so much more though. Mabe they've just forgotten.

              You mention Orwell, and it troubles me that they cling to 1984 so wrongly. They'll scream about superficialities without realizing that they're embracing Newspeak to do it. They talk about authoritarianism without recognizing how they're creating it. They're lost, hurt, and scared. It troubles me. There are people here that I've come to care about who are definitely just trying to distract themselves from their own pain by tying themselves up

  • The electricity bill, logistics costs, and having another Taiwan to cover for may cause this idea to fail in the near future. It'll take a while to build the site too. All they're doing is kicking the can down the road instead of helping to develop the manufacturing community in the US.
    • Why not build this 4000 acre manufacturing site in Detroit ?  Ecologically safe ( rivers already polluted ) &  lots of open land and unemployed workers. Oh wait ...
  • Anyone know how to pronounce that?

    If the left wing or even the center had even a tiny little bit of political acumen this would be all over the news. It's like when Trump literally said he's not going to heaven. Or that moment when Trump was talking about a bill he wanted to pass and in the middle of a sentence started talking about a non-existent person named Bill.

    The left and the center just don't have that kind of killer instinct that guys like Carl Rove and Steve Bannon have. To be fair I think

    • Well, for starters, my local rep always says the media won't give them the time of day getting out any message that isn't entertaining... or Republican. The Republicans can put out a nasty remark that doesn't really convey any news but they'll do it often in unison and get coverage. Bernie does great work every day and gets only a little coverage and he is the #1 most popular politician in the world for years now, with Zelenskyy maybe leading a few times. If it's quite entertaining or embarrassing or self

  • That Americans don't want do do manufacturing.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      Not "don't want", can't [slashdot.org].

      Although, this manufacturing zone may introduce some market stability when sourcing ghost guns, previously manufactured in many small villages by children using hand files.

  • is this the “America First” policy that MAGAts have been banging on about for a couple of years now?

    what’s wrong with setting up in Puerto Rico? they could really use investment and jobs.

    or was it never about investing in the USA after all?

  • I wonder how long it will be before someone builds a private prison there
  • Make The Philippines American again?

  • Look for the Philippines to (again) become a US protectorate; or maybe even the 51st state, assuming that Agent Orange doesn't try to take Canada first.

  • Remember that the point was to employ Americans. So howsny will these factories employ?
  • The US has ignored the Philippines since dictator Marcos was kicked-out and the US base was closed. It'll be "overpaid, over-sexed, over here" dislike for the Forbidden City full of Americans.
  • This proposal sounds like the creation of a cover for a high tech manufacturing black site - far away from the prying eyes pesky citizens. What gadget could they want to build? Drones, micro surveillance devices. Who knows.âsïðYsâoe

  • Americans don't want manufacturing jobs for themselves, they want some poor shmuck to take those jobs so they feel affirmed. I can't blame anyone for pulling that off because manufacturing workers are viewed as expendable drones in the US.

    Management and labor in the US are historic enemies for good reasons. Lest we forget the objective of employment is eventual retirement while doing as little as possible so you destroy less of your body. The objective of management is maintaining ones escape from labor.

    Pin

  • Lots of businesses have been destroyed by greedy barons after prices have been agreed upon. Hurt: Emirates, Korean International Hospital in Clarke and more. Even Trumps planned Casino died when no tax exception was granted. Not sure where the power will come from. Cyclone season will also jazz things up.

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