U.S. Chamber opposes ‘Buy American’ bill for Medical Supply Chain Investments

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Sunday that President Donald Trump will sign an executive order this week that would help bring pharmaceutical and medical supply chains back to the U.S., in part by placing new “Buy American” requirements on certain government agencies. And White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow added Monday the Trump administration is considering cutting taxes for companies that relocate their supply chains to the U.S.

Neil Bradley, the chief policy officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said a renewed emphasis on Buy American could hurt the international flow of medicine and medical supply chains.

This is not new news that the U.S. Chamber opposes Buy American bills.

Here are headlines the U.S. Chamber has released in the last 10 years.

January 2009 U.S. Chamber Opposes Counterproductive ‘Buy American’ Provisions

January 2010 The Cost of Buy American Mandates on American Jobs

June 2016 Reject the Expansion of “Buy Local” Rules

July 2017 The Illusion of ‘Buy American’ Policy

The above quotes from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce don’t align with our goals. “The Coronavirus has had a negative effect on the US economy and set fear into most Americans. The positive effect it has had is a renewed awakening on the leverage China has on our Medications and the supply chain on most of our products. It is unfortunate that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has taken this stance.” – Don Buckner, Founder, MadeInAmerica.com

While we believe in fair trade with countries to help maintain the supply of medical equipment and pharmaceuticals, we also believe it’s a national security risk to depend on an adversary for the majority of medications and medical equipment our country needs. It is smart to bring back domestic production of this industry to balance dependency during a crisis.

China RX

Using Medicines as Leverage for Global Power

The country that controls medicines controls the world.

If China stopped exporting ingredients to the US, within three months all the pharmacies would be empty.

Guy Villax CEO Hovione

U.S. has virtually no manufacturing capacity to make generic antibiotics

Because China makes the key ingredients, the U.S. can’t make generics antibiotics for:

  •   Anthrax exposure
  •   Strep throat
  •   Ear infections
  •   Urinary tract infections
  •   Pneumonia
  •   Lyme disease
  •   Tooth infections
  •   STDs
  •   Superbugs
  •   And much more

China Controls 80% of the Key Ingredients in World’s Medicines

China makes about 80% of the world’s active pharmaceutical ingredients, chemical intermediates and raw material for medicines.

United States Doesn’t Make

Penicillin

The last U.S. penicillin plant closed in 2004.

Vitamin C

Chinese companies are required by law to fix prices and control supply to the U.S.

Here is how we lost our manufacturing of Vitamin C

There has been an ongoing court case that went to the supreme court. A handful of Chinese companies came in and, once again, dumped really cheap ingredients to make ascorbic acid. This drove out all the producers in the United States and around the world. There were a handful of companies that challenged this, saying this is antitrust, against our laws. So in a federal court in Brooklyn, a jury saw this for what it was. There was unequivocal evidence. There was no dispute that the Chinese companies fixed prices and controlled supply of vitamin C to the U.S. There was a settlement that the Chinese companies had to pay. That was not the end of it. The Chinese companies appealed in federal court. Here was their argument — and the Chinese government actually came to U.S. federal court to put in a brief, and said we required our companies, as a matter of Chinese law, to fix prices and control the supply of ascorbic acid and vitamin C to the U.S.

Here is what members of congress can do

First, they need to have accurate information. They should ask why is that chemotherapy drugs are in shortage? They need to get the real deal. Not just that we are having trouble with our suppliers. If the product was banned by the FDA because it had huge issues of integrity of their product, members of congress should know that. There was a plant in China that exploded, and it exploded because the workers were not handling the chemicals right and that triggered a global shortage of an antibiotic to treat a life-threatening infection called sepsis. Members of congress should know that. We have a shortage of heparin, a blood thinner. We get so much of the raw material to make heparin from China.

The second thing that needs to be done is let’s get rid of the red tape. Make it much easier for the department of defense, our military, and the VA to find alternative suppliers, trustworthy customers — companies, who want to make quality medicines for our military at a fair price and sign long-term contracts for that, so our military and veterans do not have to go without. and that will support manufacturing to come back home, revitalize communities, and bring jobs back. – Rosemary Gibson, Senior Advisor to the Hastings Center

“The national security risks of increased Chinese dominance of the global active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) market cannot be overstated.”

– Christopher Priset, Department of Defense

It is a huge national security issue

Think of what you could do with medicines in a geopolitical context. If you control the supply of penicillin, if you are the dominant use of antibiotics, you can withhold those. You can contaminate them. You can make them look like medicine and have nothing in them. If you want to destabilize a country and demoralize a population really quickly, all you have to do is withhold medicine.

“My blood-pressure medications were contaminated with rocket fuel. I imagine active people have the same problem. This affects the readiness of our troops.” – Dr. Larry Wortzel, Retired Army Colonel

“Part of my mission on this issue is to make sure that these supply chains are delivering what we need and the epiphany I’ve had is that far too many of our pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and supplies have been offshored. Advanced manufacturing will allow us to bring domestic production back and lower the cost.” – Peter Navarro, Trade Advisor to White House

READ CHINA RX By:Rosemary Gibson

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