Certainly there are competent engineers in every country, but I think what they are referencing is that back in the 90s and 2000s there were a lot of fears from

Certainly there are competent engineers in every country, but I think what they are referencing is that back in the 90s and 2000s there were a lot of fears from US engineers that they would be replaced by less expensive engineers in other countries, which was attempted by some companies. Ultimately a number of these efforts failed to work well for the company, due to communication barriers and time zone differences.