WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (CNA) - US President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Monday (Jan 25) giving American companies and products priority in contracting with the federal government, as the new administration attempts to spur domestic manufacturing.
The order is aimed at boosting national production and saving industrial jobs by increasing investments in factories and workers, and comes after Biden promised on the campaign trail to "build back better" as the US economy struggles through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Washington spends US$600 billion each year on contracts, and the order tightens loopholes that allow federal agencies to buy products stamped "Made in America" but which are often manufactured by companies that only produce a small portion of their products in the United States.
Revitalising the manufacturing sector, which accounts for about 12 per cent of the US economy, is a key part of Biden's broader push to drive up wages, create more union jobs, support minority-owned businesses and strengthen US supply chains, White House officials say.
"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 taxpayer money to rebuild America," Biden said.
"America can't sit on the sidelines in the race to the future. Our competitors aren't waiting," Biden said. "To ensure the future is made in America, we need to win not just the jobs of today, but the jobs and industries of tomorrow."
But the order risks running up against the country's outsourced supply chains and also rankling American trading partners, most notably Canada.
The US and its northern neighbour Canada along with Mexico are all part of a free trade agreement that took effect last year, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised the "Buy American" policy in a recent phone call with Biden, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Monday.
However she noted "the United States sells more to Canada than it does to China, Japan and the UK combined. And what we are really going to focus on in our work with the Biden administration is those win-wins."
