What I don't understand about this type of argument: wouldn't it have been more cost-effective policy BEFORE out-sourcing and offshoring jobs, to condition off-

What I don't understand about this type of argument: wouldn't it have been more cost-effective policy BEFORE out-sourcing and offshoring jobs, to condition off-shoring etc on full documentation of all the workflows, all the trade secrets, paying for reverse engineering of tools they did not make themselves, ... after spending that cost they are free to offshore jobs, BUT all of this information is available to any citizen and free of charge, through say normal or university libraries. If another national sees how to automate parts of the offshored company they can have at it, they can gang together to figure out how to reimport the jobs profitably.