https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...will-never-rely-on-rest-of-the-world-for-help
Trump economic adviser Peter Navarro said Thursday that the United States would soon return to manufacturing medicine and medical supplies rather than relying on other nations to supply them.
"Never again should we rely on the rest of the world for our essential medicines and countermeasures," Navarro, the director of trade and manufacturing policy and national Defense Production Act policy coordinator, said during the White House press briefing.
Navarro said that, post-coronavirus crisis, all federal departments, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense, should buy medicines, medical supplies, and equipment manufactured in the U.S. so as to be supplied even in the case of a crisis in which those materials are not available by trade.
"One of the things that this crisis has taught us is that we are dangerously overdependent on a global supply chain," Navarro said. "For our medicines like penicillin, our medical supplies, masks, and our medical equipment like ventilators."
The Food and Drug Administration, Navarro said, would have to greenlight medical manufacturing so that the U.S. can "leapfrog" other countries, "so we don't have to compete against cheap sweatshop labor, lax environmental regulations, different tax regimes, and massive subsidies of foreign governments."
2:02:27 Peter Navarro answering a question from the press:
One of the things this crisis has taught us is that we are dangerously over dependent on a global supply chain for our medicines like penicillin, our medical supplies like masks, and our medical equipment like ventilators.
We have right now as we speak over 50 countries that have already imposed some form of export restrictions in their country against the rest of the world.
And what we're learning from that is that no matter how many treaties you had, no matter how many alliances, no matter how many phone calls, when push comes to shove, you run the risk as a nation of not having what you need.
And if there's any vindication of the President's buy American, secure borders, and a strong manufacturing base philosophy, strategy, and belief it is this crisis because it underscores everything that we see there.
So the buy American order which is going through process would do a couple of things.
It would simply say - not during this crisis because we don't want to disrupt anything, I want to be really about that but going forward after this is over - the VA, DOD, HHS, and this government buys American for essential medicines, our medical countermeasures, and the medical supplies and equipment we need.
At the same time it will deregulate so we can get the FDA, and EPA to facilitate domestic manufacturing, and then innovate. Because then the key here is having advanced manufacturing on US soil that can leapfrog other countries so we don't have to worry about competing against cheap sweatshop labor, lax environmental regulations, different tax regimes, and the massive subsidies of foreign governments who are actually directly attacking our industrial base.
So be patient with that Sir, the other priorities we have right now are to DPA and what the task force is doing. But if we learn anything from this crisis it should be never again, never again should we have to depend on the rest of the world for our essential medicines and countermeasures.