In light of the supply crisis gripping the nation, today U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced the Make in America to Sell in America Act, a bold new economic agenda to revitalize American manufacturing while securing critical supply chains. Senator Hawley’s bill would require multi-national corporations make more critical goods in America by instituting new local content requirements to boost new investment in domestic manufacturing.
In August, the U.S. trade deficit reached a record high. Foreign imports from countries like China are surging, all while global supply chains are breaking down, goods are backlogged at our seaports, and new shortages are sweeping the nation. Senator Hawley’s bill would end this dangerous overreliance on foreign factories to help ensure a supply crisis never happens again.
Senator Hawley said, “Joe Biden’s supply chain crisis is getting worse with every passing day, straining the finances of working Americans who have already been forced to endure so much over the past year and a half. Biden’s policies have given us empty shelves and rising prices across the country. It’s past time for the U.S. to end its crippling dependency on foreign manufacturing in countries like China and ensure that we actually produce the goods we need here at home.”
Full text of the Make in America to Sell in America Act can be found here.
Background
The Make in America to Sell in America Act will:
- Direct the Department of Commerce (DOC), in consultation with the Department of Defense (DOD), to produce an annual report that identifies finished and intermediate manufactured goods that are critical for the national security of the United States or the protection of the industrial base of the United States.
- Require that the goods identified by DOC and DOD be subject to a local content requirement of over 50 percent, meaning that over 50 percent of the value of the good must be produced in the United States in order to be sold commercially in the United States. These requirements would go into effect three years after enactment.
- Enforce these requirements similar to anti-dumping duties, whereby domestic manufacturers can petition the International Trade Commission and DOC for enforcement actions against importers of goods that fail to meet the new standards.