Biden to Sign Buy American Order for Government Procurement
From this morning's WSJ:
WASHINGTON—President Biden will sign an executive order Monday imposing tougher rules on government procurement practices to increase purchases of products made in the U.S., a step toward fulfilling his Buy American campaign pledge to strengthen domestic manufacturing.
The new policies will include tightening the government procurement rules to make it harder for federal agencies to purchase imported products, revising the definition of American-made products and raising local-content requirements. The executive order also ensures that small and midsize businesses will have better access to information needed to bid for government contracts.
While their styles are different, Mr. Biden’s Buy American initiative has similarities to Mr. Trump’s domestic preference policy, which was part of his America First policy that featured tariff wars with China and other trading partners.
Mr. Biden’s Buy American policy is being watched closely by America’s allies, which are hoping for friendlier trade relationships than during the Trump administration. Mr. Biden has repeatedly said he would work more closely with allies and multilateral trade rules.
I have mixed feelings about this. Run correctly, it can benefit our economy, our producers and our work force, run poorly it can become a crutch for poor performance.
In the early 70's the Buy American act, which dates back to 1933 was being rigidly enforced (we were in a recession). To specify any product not available from a US based producer required submitting it for review and approval to a Federal review board. At the time, it was seen as a giant pain in the ass for design engineers and architects. I can't say how well it created the intended results.
Last edited by Dave Grubb; 01-25-2021 at 03:41 PM.
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