Coronavirus: Donald Trump to force government to buy US medical supplies in extended ‘Buy America’ programme amid concerns over China, says trade adviser
- Adviser Peter Navarro says president plans to sign executive order requiring federal agencies to buy US-made medical products and pharmaceuticals
- Business leaders and officials fear move could prompt China to curb urgently needed shipments of N95 masks and other protective gear
US President Donald Trump will soon sign an executive order requiring federal agencies to purchase only American-made medical products, a White House official said on Monday.
The order, according to Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro, will help spur lagging medical manufacturing in the US. But critics say it could result in China restricting exports of desperately needed protective gear to the US as the country scrambles to battle the coronavirus.
Speaking on Fox News on Monday, Navarro – who has been put in charge of coordinating the American production of medical supplies – announced the new order, saying that the coronavirus outbreak had laid bare America’s over-reliance on China.
Navarro, a noted China hawk, has been vocal about what he contends was Beijing’s role in the coronavirus pandemic.
“China spawned the virus and they hid the virus for about six weeks, which allowed that virus to escape Wuhan and infect the world,” he said on Monday, “and then during that time, China hoarded an enormous amount of personal protective gear.
“They essentially went around the world vacuuming up over two billion masks.”
Navarro’s announcement was viewed with alarm from inside and outside the administration. Government officials and medical workers fear that if China draws down its exports to the US before America can ramp up its own production, it will leave the US with an even worse shortage of supplies just when they are most desperately needed.
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Even some of Trump’s closest advisers – US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow among them – have argued against the proposed order, according to administration officials.
As early as March, business leaders were warning against such a move, with more than 80 coming together to say that they feared that such an order would worsen shortages of drugs and supplies and even delay the development of a vaccine.
The announcement comes at an especially fraught time in the US fight against the coronavirus.
The White House continues to push for the reopening of the economy, with President Trump encouraging protesters at state capitals demanding rollbacks of stay-at-home restrictions.
But behind closed doors White House officials are projecting an increasingly grim reality, according to an internal government document cited by The New York Times on Monday.
The document, featuring government modelling assembled in chart form by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, shows a steady rise in the anticipated number of cases and deaths nationally over the next month, reaching about 3,000 deaths a day on June 1, nearly twice the current level of about 1,750.
US deaths forecast to surge to 3,000 a day, government document shows
The chart also anticipates about 200,000 confirmed new cases daily by the end of May, up from about 25,000 cases now.
The coronavirus has hit the US far harder than any other country., with nearly 1.2 million confirmed cases and more than 68,000 deaths so far.
Navarro, considered to be among Trump’s most influential advisers on China despite controversy surrounding his purported expertise, did not provide specifics about the executive order, which would be the fifth to reflect the White House’s much- touted “Buy America” principles.
Just on Friday, Trump signed a similar order directing the government to buy only American made power components for the national power grid.
In addition to the “Buy America” executive order, Navarro said, the White House is also considering a new raft of tariffs on Chinese goods and other orders intended to reduce American dependence on Chinese goods.
“So, ‘Buy American’ is going to be the law of the land.”
Additional reporting by Reuters
