The White House announced on Monday that President Joe Biden will sign an order that requires the federal government to “buy American” when it comes to products and services. But the news didn’t sit well with people at Fox News who complained that Biden’s plan to boost American manufacturing could upset our trading partners, especially China.
The order fulfills Biden’s campaign promise to ramp up government purchases of American-made goods and ensures “that when the federal government spends taxpayer dollars they are spent on American made goods by American workers and with American-made component parts,” a statement from the White House read. “The dollars the federal government spends on goods and services are a powerful tool to support American workers and manufacturers,” the statement added.
But a Fox & Friends segment on Monday warned that President Joe Biden will “upset” China by rolling out a “Buy American” campaign.
“Could Joe Biden’s ‘Buy America’ initiative actually hurt our relationship with key trading partners?” co-host Steve Doocy asked while teasing the segment.
His colleague Ainsley Earhardt explained that Biden’s plan is aimed at “closing those loopholes for companies that are looking to take jobs overseas.”
“But our next guest warns the move could strain our relationships with U.S. trade partners,” Earhardt noted while introducing Brandon Arnold, executive vice president of the National Taxpayers Union.
Arnold argued that relationships with trading partners “could get a lot worse from here.”
“Now by putting these more restrictive ‘Buy American’ policies in place, we are further exacerbating some of the trade problems that we’ve had,” he opined. “It’s annoying people to the north, it’s annoying other countries.”
“We have to tread lightly here,” Earhardt agreed. “Because we want companies in America to do well but, also, we need PPE from other countries. Then we don’t want to do anything to upset that relationship, maybe with China or someone else — even though China is such a big threat.”
“The way you do it is you create better trade agreements across the globe,” Arnold remarked. “That’s something that Trump worked on. I don’t think he went quite far enough. I think there’s a lot more work that we can do.”
“There’s a lot more work this president could be doing and instead he’s going back to the old playbook of the last Democratic administration,” he added.
Watch the video below via Fox News.
