More than 250 leading economists, including two Nobel laureates and former members of the Council of Economic Advisers, sent a letter to the Trump Administration and congressional leadership advising against the current push for “Buy America” policies in the response to the COVID-19 health crisis. “Buy America” provisions for medical goods or pharmaceutical products mean it would take longer and be more costly for American patients to get the health care they so sorely need, while baiting other countries into a protectionist trade war at a time when America cannot afford it.
The National Taxpayers Union put this letter together because, in this current crisis, economic protectionism is more harmful than ever. Bryan Riley, director of NTU’s Free Trade Initiative, said, “‘Buy America’ provisions will cause delays in the acquisition of needed medical goods and pharmaceuticals that Americans need most. If firms are denied access to the supply chains that would most rapidly deliver the supplies that Americans need, everyone - from patients to taxpayers - would suffer.”
The economists write:
"The variety, supply, and price of goods available to Americans will suffer under a broad Buy America regime. Taxpayers and patients will pay more for drugs and medical supplies... we can expect our trading partners to adopt retaliatory “Don’t Buy American” barriers targeting U.S. exports as this type of retaliation is already occurring between other countries."
In 2018, President Trump said that the goal of his administration’s policy was to work to lower, not raise, trade restrictions between countries. The economists urge the Administration to work for what President Trump declared was his goal. “The President’s intuition was correct when in 2018 he called for zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies,” the economists write.
To discuss the economists’ letter and how such a large, varied coalition came together, please contact Kevin Glass, National Taxpayers Union’s Vice President of Communications, at 703-299-8670 or at kglass@ntu.org.