The Biden administration strongly promotes the “Buy American” government procurement requirements, but the US defense industry does not seem to buy it

The Biden administration passed the “Executive Order to Ensure the Future is Made in America by All American Workers” at the beginning of taking office, requiring the U.S. federal government to first consider “Buy American” when conducting procurement activities. During a visit to the Mack Trucks plant in Pennsylvania this summer, Biden reiterated his intention to revive U.S. manufacturing by implementing relevant requirements in U.S. government procurement activities so that “buy American” is no longer an empty slogan. and stimulate U.S. job growth. However, the U.S. defense industry does not seem to buy it, and is even worried that the Biden administration’s continued implementation of this protectionist government procurement policy will damage the overseas sales of U.S.-made weapons systems.

The above-mentioned executive order issued by the Biden administration in January this year clearly requires the new procurement contracts of the US federal government to increase the proportion of US products year by year, as the United States repairs its semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and other key global supplies damaged by the new crown pneumonia epidemic. As one of several measures in the chain, the Biden administration was expected to redirect up to $600 billion a year in the U.S. federal government budget to the U.S. economy. The executive order proposed that the proportion of U.S. products in the new procurement contracts of the U.S. federal government should be increased to 75% in 2029. Later, the relevant bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives also included clauses requiring the U.S. Department of Defense to increase the proportion of U.S. products purchased. A regulation issued by the US Federal Acquisition Regulatory Commission (FARC) on July 30 also requires seven years to increase the proportion of US product purchases from 55% to 75%.

However, critics in the U.S. defense industry believe that the Biden administration’s “buy American” policy is actually no different from the “America First” of the previous administration of the United States. A source in the U.S. defense industry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, pointed out that the Biden administration’s measures could have the opposite effect, as it hastily determined the requirement to increase the proportion of U.S. products purchased without a comprehensive assessment of the complexity of the global supply chain.

Eric, president of the Norwegian-U.S. Defense and Homeland Security Industry Council. Eirik Tord Jensen (Eirik Tord Jensen) pointed out that if the result of the Biden administration’s implementation of the “Buy American” procurement policy is to make the US federal government’s ministries and agencies no longer purchase goods produced by US allies such as European countries, then the US defense industry should pay The export of US-made weapons systems by these countries will likely face the same trade barriers.

The Global Business Alliance, which represents the interests of foreign companies in the United States, pointed out that the “Buy American” procurement policy ignores the fact that foreign companies have created 2.8 million jobs in the United States. Comes from a longstanding partnership that includes NATO allies. Nancy, the head of the organization. In a recent letter to the Biden administration, Nancy McLernon pointed out that for foreign companies operating in the United States, the cost of adjusting global supply chain arrangements significantly exceeds the possible gains in the U.S. federal government procurement market. Therefore, if the Biden administration adheres to the “buy American” procurement policy, the United States will likely lose a lot of investment and jobs created by foreign companies.

John is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a think tank, and retired general of the U.S. Army. In a recent article, John Ferrari also pointed out that he believes that the real solution to the problem of “the US supply chain is easily disrupted by China’s interference” is not the “buy American” procurement policy, but by supporting US allies and partner countries to expand production capacity and increase production capacity. A new idea for reducing the proportion of Chinese products in the U.S. global supply chain by importing large commodities.