U.S. lawmakers and officials are crafting proposals to push American companies to move operations or key suppliers out of China that include tax breaks, new rules, and carefully structured subsidies.
On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order that gave a U.S. overseas investment agency new powers to help manufacturers in the United States. The goal, Trump said, is to"produce everything America needs for ourselves and then export to the world, and that includes medicines." "The whole subject of supply chains and integrity of supply chains... does have a greater place in members' minds," Representative Mac Thornberry, the top Republican on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, told reporters May 7."Coronavirus has been a painful wakeup call that we are too reliant on nations like China for critical medical supplies," said U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham in a press release on Friday. He is expected to issue a new bill this week.
Republican Representative Mark Green's"SOS Act" proposes funding takeovers of vulnerable U.S. companies that are critical to our national security. That would be a boon for states that are struggling to pay their own bills after widespread lockdowns, plummeting tax revenues, and a huge surge in COVID-related costs, one state official said.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow has talked publicly about using tax incentives instead to prod U.S. companies to move some manufacturing home.