As the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting continues in Davos, Switzerland, this week, discussions around global trade, the future of advanced manufacturing, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution are at an all-time high. In particular, the popular news media has been making a daily diet talking about the U.S. trade war with China. Unfortunately, they are missing the real story: the potentially profound effects of reshoring on U.S. manufacturing and on the widening skills gap.

President Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto signed the new U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement — or USMCA — in Buenos Aires on Nov. 30. The agreement provides increased requirements for automotive components to be produced in North America and follows more than a year of talks to update the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which supports about $1.2 trillion in annual trade among the three countries in the USMCA.