In a similar vein of In𓆏dia's Atmanirtbhar campaign initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden signed a "Made in America" executive order earlier this week to strengthen American manufacturing. The order moves to close the loopholes in the current "Buy American" initiative and would reduce waivers granted on federal purchases of US-made goods.
Biden also instituted a new post at the White House to oversee the all-of-governmen🌸t Made in America initiative, after signing the executive order on Monday.
He said the Director of Made in America at the White House Office of Management and Budget will be helming the initi🐟ative.
“I don't buy for one second that the vitality of American manufacturing is a thing of the past. American manufacturing was the arsenal of democracy in World War II, and it must be part of the engine of American prosperity now. That means we are going to use taxpayers’ money to rebuild America. We’ll buy American products and support American jobs, union jobs,” Biden du🍃ring an event at the White House event.
Biden said the federal government eveꩲry year spends approximately USD 600 billion in government procurement to keep the country going safe and secure.
He said that there's a law that's been on the books for almost a century now: to make sure that taxpayers’ dollar🌺s for procurement are spent to support American jobs an🌼d American businesses.
Biden alleged that the previous administration didn't take it seriously enough and the federal agen✤cies waived the Buy American requirement without much pushback at all.
Big corporations and special interests have long fought for loopholes to redirect American taxpayers’ dollars to foreign companies wﷺhere the products are being made. The result: tens of billions of American taxpayers’ dollars supporting foreign jobs and foreign industries, he said.
In 2018, he said, the Defence Dep🐽artment spent USD 3 billion on foreign construction contracts, leaving American steel and iron🀅 out in the cold.
“It spent nearly USD 300 million in foreign engines and on vehicles instead of buying American vehicles and engines frౠom American companies, putting Americans to work,” he said as millions of Americans remained unemployed amidst the raging coronavirus pandemic.
The executive order signed on Monday aims tღo tighten the existing Buy American policies and go💞 further.
“We're setting clear directives and clear explana෴tions. We're going to get to the core issue with a centralised, coordinated effort,” he said.
Thജat starts with stopping federal agencies from🦩 waiving Buy American requirements with impunity, as has been going on.
If an agency wants to issue a waiver to say “We're not going to buy an Ame𒈔rican product as part of this project; we're going to buy a foreign product,” they have to come to the White House and explain it, he said.
These waivers would be publicly posted.
Biden directed the Office✃ of ✨Management and Budget to review waivers to make sure they are only used in very limited circumstances.
“For example, when there's overwhelming🅰 national security, humanitarian, or emergency nee𝄹d here in America.
"ꦬThis hasn't happened before. It will happen now,” he said.
Biden said that under the Build Back Better Recovery plan his administration will invest hundredᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚs of billions of dollars in buying American products and mate🧸rials to modernise infrastructure and competitive strength will increase in a competitive world.
That means millions of good-paying jobs, using American-made steel and technology, to rebuild roads, bridges, ports, and to make the⛎m more climate-resilient, as well as making them able to move faster and cheaper and cleaner to transport American-made goods across the country and around the world, mak💙ing the US more competitive.
“It also means replenishing 🐓our stockpiles to enhance our national security. As this pandemic has made clear, we can never again be in a position where 🍎we have to rely on a foreign country that doesn't share our interest in order to protect our people during a national emergency.
"We need to make our own protective equipment, essential products and supplies. And we'll work with our allies to make sure they have resilient supply chains as well,” ꦚBiden said.
Biden said that the executive action will not onl💦y require that companies make more of their components in America, but that the value of those components is contributing to the economy, measured by things like a number of American jobs created and/or supp🌺orted.
“At the same time, we'll be committed to🐟 working with our trading partners to modernise international trade rules, including those relating to government procurement, to make sure we can all use our taxpayer dollars to spur investment that promotes growth and resilient supply chains,” Biden said.
Shortly after taking office in 2017, Biden's predecess𒐪or, Donald Trump issued a s🧸eries of executive orders that were aimed to strengthen rules requiring federal agencies to buy US-made goods when possible. But critics argued that effort fell short, partly because of Trump’s failure to adequately enforce the rules.
With PTI Inputs
