Who spoon fed you such nonsense?
Imports and exports combined only make up 15% of our entire economy. They could disappear tomorrow and 85% of America would never miss 'em.
Currently, 9.5% of our annual GDP is from imports, while 5.5% is what we export. Well, if all imports were gone tomorrow, that would mean that we'd have to grow our domestic economy by 9.5% to make up for what we no longer imported.
That's hardly something to fear. Throw me into that briar patch.
Oh, it has something to do with being a former manufacturing engineer who was peripherally involved in supply chain management.
Imports and exports combined only make up 15% of our entire economy.
Fifteen percent is plenty. Try doing without memory chips or ASICs for cars and see how far your production goes.
...."Currently, 9.5% of our annual GDP is from imports,"......
Yes, but unfortunately, that includes alot of oil, and increasingly, steel. These are two critical resources that in the very short run are hard to develop the alternative domestic infrastructure.