The White House is looking at a number of ways to boost American-made products and reshore vital industries to the United States from abroad, special assistant to President Trump for domestic policy Theo Wold says.
In an exclusive interview with SiriusXM Patriot’s Breitbart News Daily, Wold said the president is “looking at a number of things that we can do within the law” to better inform American consumers about where products and goods are made.
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“We have been looking at a number of things that we can do within the law, because it won’t surprise your listeners to hear there are legal restrictions on what we can advertise or how we can let consumers know about what products are made where,” Wold said.
“But we’ve been looking at a number of different avenues to inform the American consumer about ‘Hey, these goods are made here in the United States with American made labor. It’s not exploited, it’s not trafficked. There are no human rights violations involved in the making of these goods. Put your money here in the United States, and support your fellow citizens,'” Wold continued.
Such economic nationalist policies have overwhelming, near-unanimous support among Americans.
An FTI Consulting survey from May revealed that 94 percent of Americans support requiring labels on each product that indicates all of the countries where the product was designed, manufactured, and assembled and indicates what percentage of the product was made in each country.
Similarly, Americans support increasing tariffs on foreign imports by a 66 percent majority and about 76 percent said they are willing to pay five percent to 100 percent more for U.S.-made products over products made abroad.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to email companies to say, ‘When you say it’s imported, what does imported mean? Oh okay, it’s made in China, got it. Thank you. No thank you,'” Wold said. “That kind of diligence, American consumers are going to have to take.”
Wold said the White House is also considering ways to reshore vital industries like medical supplies and pharmaceuticals, potentially with subsidies and tax incentives to bring production back to the U.S.
“Right now, Dr. Peter Navarro and a number of us have sort of a phased approach that we’re pushing to reshore heavy industry, bring manufacturing back to this country,” Wold said.
“I think now during the pandemic this has come into sharp relief for millions of Americans that, you know, the fact that China makes 90 percent of our country’s latex gloves or makes 90 percent of our aspirin is a real problem,” Wold said. “So we’re going to be looking to provide any number of incentives, whether it’s a tax based incentive, or some actual direct subsidies to reshore our heavy industry, including biotech and the pharmaceutical producers who are currently in China and India. Bring those jobs, but more importantly, putting those critical industries under the control of the United States.”
Results are already being seen.
The Eastman Kodak Company secured a $765 million loan through the Defense Production Act, the first of its kind, to help them reshore essential pharmaceutical manufacturing. The plan will create about 350 U.S. jobs in Rochester, New York, and will produce drugs such as hydroxychloroquine.
Such plans are welcomed by Americans, the FTI Consulting survey showed. For instance, 88 percent of Americans said the government should require that medical supplies are made in the U.S. About 81 to 87 percent said they support requirements that pharmaceuticals, products bought by the Defense Department, airplanes, and airplane parts be made in the U.S.
As Breitbart News has chronicled, the U.S. has suffered from a shortage of vital drugs, rubber gloves, and plastic bottles due to decades-long free trade policies. The plurality of these basic necessities are made in China. About 95 percent of ibuprofen and 70 percent of acetaminophen imported to the U.S. arrive from China.
Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed and China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO), five million American manufacturing jobs have been eliminated from the U.S. economy and at least 50,000 manufacturing plants have shuttered. About 3.4 million of those jobs were lost due to U.S. free trade with China.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.