President Joe Biden will sign an executive order today that gives U.S. companies and products priority in federal contracts, continuing the “Made in America” line endorsed by former President Trump.
Senior White House officials said the order aims to promote American production and save industrial jobs by strengthening investment in manufacturing and labor to “Build Back Better. This is the strategy proposed by Joe Biden during his campaign.
Biden has been in office for less than a week now, and although his cabinet is not yet fully in place, such as the Secretary of State, which has yet to be approved by the Senate, Biden is still pushing his priorities through executive orders.
Reuters reports that the existing “Buy American” rule already provides the structure for the federal government to purchase $600 billion in goods and services annually.
Biden’s latest executive order aims to fix loopholes in existing regulations, make exemptions more transparent, and will create a top White House post to oversee the process.
The new executive order should make it more difficult to circumvent the requirement that federal authorities give preference to U.S.-made products, according to an AFP analysis.
Since some companies provide the government with products that are often only a small percentage of the products are made in the United States. To reduce the legal loopholes available to businesses, Biden wants to limit the way federal agencies identify their own purchases as “Made in the USA.
Biden’s decision echoes the attitudes of former U.S. presidents, especially Trump. Trump has issued executive orders urging the federal government to purchase more U.S.-made products and to turn tariffs into a weapon against imports.
Lower pay and environmental standards in China and other countries over the past few decades have triggered an exodus of key U.S. productivity, including medical equipment. These critical gaps were evident during the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.
China surpassed the United States as the world’s top manufacturing country in 2010 and accounted for 28 percent of global production in 2018, according to United Nations (UN) data.
Trade experts say rebuilding critical supply chains and developing new ones is key to U.S. economic growth.
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