Friend-shoring: A Major Turning Point Towards more Sustainable Value Chains?

Abstract

The concept of friend-shoring, which appeared in April 2022, could contribute to a profound transformation of international trade and, more surprisingly, prevent the environmental crisis from continuing. Friend-shoring, a contraction of “friends” and “offshoring”, suggests developing partnerships with close friend countries, stopping the relocation of industrial activities to the other side of the planet based solely on the criterion of low labour costs. The key idea is to build regional value chains, which could ultimately be much more sustainable. The objective of this short communication is to highlight the conditions of appearance of the friend-shoring concept and its main economic and environmental issues in a value chain perspective, and then to insist on the limits of its implementation. Given the current absence of friend-shoring experiments, the chosen methodology relies on a speculative approach based on the exploration of scientific knowledge about regional supply chains.