Democratic Congressman Says Economic Nationalism May Grow in Congress
Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., said that many of his colleagues think “that we can pull back and do everything ourselves,” and that he thinks they may look at the shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic response as evidence that reshoring is the way to go. “You will see more capacity building in the United States, and that makes sense; the idea we can do it all ourselves is pure folly.” Schneider, who was speaking on a webinar hosted by the Washington International Trade Association on April 28, also thinks there needs to be redundancy in supply chains, and more warehousing and less “just-in-time” delivery.
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“If we have to manufacture everything here ourselves, store everything here ourselves, it’s going to cost us a lot more and odds are we’re not going to have everything we need,” said Schneider, a member of the New Democrats and a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Schneider believes the trade war with China and increased tariffs on Europe put the U.S. in a position this year “where it was much more difficult to get cooperation in trading.” He said China “is a challenging trade partner,” but said that it's wrong to make China into a scapegoat.
In questions at the end of the webinar, Schneider was asked if he's hearing from constituents about the challenge to comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which is going into effect July 1. He said that he's not getting those kinds of comments -- instead, companies are concerned about where to source masks for when their workers come back, or just how they can keep their businesses open at all. But he said if the federal government is “giving conflicting guidance” to industry on how to comply, benefits of the trade deal could be lost.