If you read various news reports on any given day, there is a good chance two headlines will repeat. The first reads: U.S. Manufacturers Bringing Jobs Home. The second reads: China’s Economy is Slowing Down. Though different topics, they are interrelated because many of the jobs that could be brought home to the U.S. are currently in China. President Barack Obama has vowed to promote tax credits that would promote the return of jobs to the United States, but sadly, those tax credits are desperately needed because the U.S. has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the industrialized world.

There have been some successes already. In February 2012, Master Lock brought jobs back from China to its Wisconsin plant. The plant is running at capacity for the first time in over ten years. The Ford Company has committed to returning 2,000 jobs to its U.S. plants by 2015. Those jobs are currently in Mexico, Japan and China. Yet at, the same time the Ford Company is trying to aggressively grow its China presence so it can produce vehicles for a rapidly growing middle class in Asia.

Complicating this scenario is the fact that China’s economy is slowing down from 9.2 percent in 2011 to a projected 7 percent in 2012. Though the U.S. remains the largest economy in the world, China’s is still the fastest growing economy. In an economic period of retrenchment coupled with looming U.S. tax hikes and European austerity, the slowdown of China’s economy is a mixed blessing. The global economy needs the impetus of a growing China, while the slowdown spells opportunities for the U.S. manufacturing. Why produce overseas if the sales can be made closer to home?

If manufacturing grows in the U.S., there will be more opportunities for minority and women businesses (MWBEs) and especially those companies not large enough to compete globally. The smaller diverse businesses tend to get cut out of the opportunities that come with outsourcing overseas but should find many more opportunities if the U.S. physical plants return to domestic production. The plants operating overseas like to use local foreign suppliers for the obvious reasons: it’s cheaper than paying import fees and it promotes goodwill goodwill. If the plants crank up in the U.S., the jobs and many of the suppliers will be U.S. based.