[CTC] Statements on today's Buy American order

Mon Jan 25 16:11:44 PST 2021

Several statements below...

https://teamster.org/2021/01/made-in-america-executive-order-takes-necessary-steps-toward-strengthening-economy/

MADE IN AMERICA EXECUTIVE ORDER TAKES NECESSARY STEPS TOWARD STRENGTHENING ECONOMY

Press Contact: Galen Munroe Phone: (202) 439-7427 Email: gmunroe at teamster.org
EO Establishes Path to Review and Reform Buy American Policies to Close Procurement Loopholes, Limit Waivers Under Buy American Process 

(WASHINGTON) – The Teamsters Union applauds President Biden’s efforts to reform and strengthen Buy American policies through the Made in America Executive Order signed today. 

The Made in America Executive Order will set in motion a series of reforms to current federal procurement policies that are designed to eliminate the excessive and unnecessary use of foreign suppliers through trade-pact waivers. These waivers, which can be used to procure goods from 60 countries that are U.S. trade partners, have allowed billions of tax dollars to be spent overseas rather than with American suppliers. 

“The Made in America Executive Order is an important step toward ensuring that our tax dollars are invested in American manufacturing which in turn, strengthens our economy,” said Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa. “American workers can out-produce and out-perform any other workforce in the world when given the opportunity. By closing loopholes and reforming the government procurement system, we can make sure American tax dollars are helping American companies and workers.”

The executive order also directs federal agencies to increase the threshold of domestic content – the percentage of a product that must be manufactured in the U.S. to qualify under Buy American law to be purchased. Enforcement of these new guidelines will fall under a new, senior-level position established under the executive order within the Office of Management and Budget. The Director of Made-in-America will oversee the implementation of all aspects of the executive order. 

“President Biden is signaling his commitment to the American worker and economy with this executive order,” Hoffa said. “Buy American policies will be strengthened and enforced under these new directives and that will only benefit our economy in the long run.”

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org <http://www.teamster.org/> for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and “like” us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teamsters <https://www.facebook.com/teamsters>.

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https://www.goiam.org/press-releases/machinists-union-bidens-buy-american-executive-order-is-critical-first-step-toward-bringing-our-jobs-home/

Machinists Union: Biden’s ‘Buy American’ Executive Order is Critical First Step Toward Bringing Our Jobs Home

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2021 – Robert Martinez Jr., International President of the 600,000-member International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), released the following statement on the Biden administration’s “Buy American” executive order:

“The Machinists Union applauds the Biden administration’s executive order to strengthen Buy American laws, a key step in creating good manufacturing jobs here at home.

“As a candidate, Joe Biden made it clear that U.S. workers will be a priority in his administration. Just a few days into office, President Biden is already beginning to fulfill his promise by setting in motion a framework long advocated by the IAM that finally removes loopholes to Buy American laws—from lax rules on how U.S. content is calculated to exceptions made when domestic goods are slightly more expensive than foreign goods. 

“This executive order is just the beginning. The Machinists Union looks forward to working with the president and his administration to ensure that Buy American lives up to its name. This president and our union are partnering already to help create U.S. manufacturing jobs, which have been decimated over the past four years.”

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) is among the largest industrial trade unions in North America and represents nearly 600,000 active and retired members in the manufacturing, aerospace, defense, airlines, railroad, transportation, shipbuilding, woodworking, health care, and other industries.

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https://www.usw.org/news/media-center/releases/2021/usw-commends-executive-order-supporting-domestic-manufacturing

JAN 25, 2021
USW Commends Executive Order Supporting Domestic Manufacturing
Contact: Jess Kamm Broomell, 412-562-2444, jkamm at usw.org <mailto:jkamm at usw.org>
United Steelworkers (USW) International President Tom Conway issued the following statement in response to the announcement that President Joe Biden would today sign an executive order tightening domestic content requirements and narrowing exceptions to existing domestic preference rules for federally funded projects:

“Manufacturing is the backbone of our economy and remains essential to our national defense.

“When we undertake federally funded projects, we must ensure that our tax dollars support American production and jobs rather than our foreign competitors, who all too often seek to undermine our industries by flooding our markets with unfairly traded products.

“Today’s order strengthening domestic content requirements, closing loopholes in how domestic content is measured and calling for stricter enforcement of existing legislation like the Jones Act is an important step toward revitalizing our manufacturing base, as well as protecting and creating thousands of good, family-sustaining jobs.

“Further, taking concrete steps to make it easier to identify and utilize U.S. suppliers, as outlined in the order, will help ensure we are efficiently meeting our own needs as we look to rebuild our long-neglected domestic supply chains.

“The Covid-19 crisis demonstrated that we are sorely unprepared to meet our own needs, and this remains true of countless products. If we want to heal our nation in the wake of the deadly pandemic, we must take bold action to rebuild our economy, creating good jobs and broadly shared prosperity. President Biden’s executive order is a critical part of that effort. 

“Our nation is long overdue for serious, robust investment in our crumbling infrastructure. Today’s action is crucial not only for rebuilding our nation’s broken economy and making our country safer, but for laying a foundation so that all of the work that stems from this investment supports American jobs. 

“For too long, we have allowed foreign-made products to dominate our markets. We look forward to working with the Biden administration as together we seek to ensure our federal policies serve our country’s best interests.”

The USW represents 850,000 workers employed in metals, mining, pulp and paper, rubber, chemicals, glass, auto supply and the energy-producing industries, along with a growing number of workers in health care, public sector, higher education, tech and service occupations.

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Biden Buy American Order Good First Step: Enacting EO’s Goals Will Require Elimination of Trade-Pact Buy American Waivers for 60 Nations

Statement of Lori Wallach, Director, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch

Note: Today, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to strengthen Buy American policies.

Today’s order will be a good first step and can help rebuild our nation’s economic and health resilience, promote innovation and create American jobs if it translates into the many Buy American loopholes and waivers actually being eliminated and domestic content rules being strengthened.

Thanks to past presidents granting trade-pact waivers to Buy American, today billions in U.S. tax dollars leak offshore every year because the goods and companies from 60 other countries are treated like they were American for government procurement purposes.

The Biden campaign platform showed impressive insight by including plans to “Update the trade rules for Buy American <https://joebiden.com/made-in-america/>: Biden will work with allies to modernize international trade rules and associated domestic regulations regarding government procurement to make sure that the U.S. and allies can use their own taxpayer dollars to spur investment in their own countries.” And by committing to: “… updating trade rules to ensure <https://joebiden.com/supplychains/> we have strong understandings with our allies on how to best ensure supply chain security for all of us.”

If the Biden administration’s planned stimulus funds are to be reinvested here to create resilience and jobs, then the massive trade-pact loophole to Buy American needs to be closed immediately. Otherwise billions will leak out in offshored government procurement contracts.

And, a cross-agency high standard for Buy American waivers based on price and tighter rules for what qualifies goods as American-made needs to be implemented. As well, the government needs to recruit small and medium sized manufacturers to produce the goods the government needs, rather than regularly declaring that no domestic goods are available and waiving Buy American rules.

BACKGROUND: More details are available in this <https://mkus3lurbh3lbztg254fzode-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/Procurement-from-FTAs.pdf> briefing paper, which explains:

·       Firms and products from 60 nations with which the United States has trade pacts have been given the same access to U.S. government contracts as domestic firms and goods for all but the lowest-value government contracts. This Buy American waiver is enacted by regulation. Congress delegated authority to the president to change the waiver list at any time. (19 U.S.C. 2511) 

·       The current trade-pact waiver policy offshores our tax dollars rather than investing them to create jobs and innovation at home. These Buy American waiver applies to subsidiaries of firms based in countries that have not signed agreements, such as China, and have not provided reciprocal access as long as a subsidiary is operating in a country that has a signed a U.S. trade pact. These limits on procurement policy apply to most U.S. federal purchases, with limits for U.S. defense agencies and some specific products listed in each trade deal.

Setting limits on how our democratically elected federal and state governments can spend our tax dollars on procurement was not a traditional focus of trade agreements. U.S. firms that offshored production did not want to be excluded from lucrative U.S. government contracts. They pushed for trade pacts to include rules that required companies operating in trade partner countries to be treated like U.S. firms – and foreign-made goods to be treated as if they were made in America.

·       The Procurement Act of 1949 gives a U.S. president broad powers to enact “policies and directives” for federal contracting. President Lyndon Johnson used this authority to issue an executive order in 1965 to prohibit contractors from discriminating against any of their employees – not just those performing federal work – on grounds of race or gender. President Barack Obama used this authority to set minimum wage and sick leave entitlements for federal contract employees.

·       The U.S. government has a long tradition of using its contract spending, which was more than $600 billion in 2019, to promote national policy goals. For instance, a share of federal government contracts must be awarded to small businesses and women- and minority-owned firms; to qualify for government construction projects, firms must agree to pay workers prevailing wages; and the Buy American Act in effect since the Roosevelt administration requires preferences for purchase of American-made products. Indeed, the president has the authority under the Trade Agreements Act of 1979 to ban altogether government purchase of goods from countries such as China that have not signed trade pact procurement agreements.

·       Even if the underlying notion of offshoring our tax dollars in exchange for providing opportunities for individual U.S. firms to obtain contracts from other governments was a good one, the way it is done in trade pacts is a losing proposition for the United States. A recent GAO report found that the United States opened twice as much procurement to foreign firms as the next five largest WTO GPA signatories combined (European Union, Japan, South Korea, Norway and Canada). In exchange for some U.S. firms getting some opportunities to bid on equal terms with domestic firms on contracts in other nations (most of which have much smaller amounts of procurement), almost all U.S. government contracts are made available on terms equal to U.S. firms for all firms operating in 60 other countries

·       These constraints are enacted through a waiver of Buy American and other domestic procurement preference policies through regulation, not by statute. The Trade Agreements Act gives the president discretionary authority to waive domestic procurement preferences, but does not require a waiver. This waiver authority has been delegated to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). USTR’s practice is to add new trade agreement countries or countries joining the WTO procurement agreement to a list found at 48 CFR 25.400.

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https://aflcio.org/press/releases/bidens-buy-american-executive-order-will-boost-economy

Biden’s ‘Buy American’ Executive Order Will Boost Economy

Statement from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on President Joe Biden’s executive order on tightening “Buy American” provisions:

The concept of Buy American is simple: Our tax dollars should be used to create jobs and advance production here at home. For far too long, America’s workers have suffered as many corporations wrap themselves in the American flag and simultaneously seek out loopholes to qualify for Buy American status with foreign-made products. 

The Trump administration used the right words but never put in place policies to affect meaningful change. This executive order will close loopholes that allow agencies to sidestep Buy American requirements and increase the thresholds for domestic content. We know that when America’s workers are given a level playing field, we can compete with anyone. This order is a good first step in revitalizing U.S. manufacturing, which Trump’s policies failed to do over the past four years. 

As we continue to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, we will work with the Biden administration to pursue policies that will build a stronger, fairer economy with a robust manufacturing base, and this executive order is an important piece of that strategy. 

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826

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