Gas prices??? What are we to do??

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I cannot see how it is cheaper for companies to ship things overseas to assemble, then ship back..

Considering the cost of the base resource, the labor costs associated with doing the manual labor, and taxation on all parties (especially for the UK, which has a national health care system to pay for), it can easily cost less, even with high fuel costs, to ship raw materials to a third world country for processing.

This is only made worse when raw materials must be imported as well (ie. American car manufacturing going to Mexico), and it costs significantly less to import the goods to the third world nation that's doing manufacturing.

Maybe the fuel prices raised will make it less profitable to do so?

Only if fuel costs rise above the financial gains realized from less regulation, taxation, and a cheaper workforce. The real point here is that we don't want to move manufacturing jobs into developed nations, we need to be focusing on the things that made us great in the past, which is to say an environment that fosters innovation and invention through education and the ability to raise your position in life through merit and accomplishment.