White House trade policy adviser Peter Navarro said Monday that the administration was planning on issuing a “Buy American” executive order for medicine and related supplies by the end of the week.
“The essence of the order … is to bring all of that home so that we don’t have to worry about foreign dependency,” he told CNBC, arguing that too much of the supplies are dependent on foreign sources. “We’ve got face mask issues, goggle issues, things like that.”
Navarro indicated the order, first proposed last week, would be used to allocate emergency funds authorized by Congress to “flip the switch” in a U.S. facility in Virginia “so we can make stuff here and do it more cost-efficiently.” He did not indicate how much funding would be directed to the factory and in what form, or if other facilities were being considered.
