The president of the United States, Joe Biden, will order this Wednesday to develop a national supply strategy so as not to depend on the production and imports of “foreign rivals” such as China.
Biden will sign the executive order at 4:15 p.m. local time (9:15 p.m. GMT) at the White House, according to the presidential agenda.
In the order, the US leader will instruct his government to develop a strategy to develop a national supply chain together with allied countries in Asia and Latin America to produce drugs, computer microchips or minerals.
In addition to revitalizing the US economy to emerge from the crisis created by the pandemic, the strategy aims to diversify sources of trust to overcome vulnerabilities in the supply chain, government officials explained in a call with journalists.
The United States does not want a repeat of cases such as the shortage of masks that it experienced at the beginning of the pandemic or the current lack of microchips for computers, so it seeks to move from the strategy of “reaction” to that of “prevention.”
Among the strategic products officials cited are high-capacity electric batteries, drugs and medical components, food, computer microchips or minerals.
The executive order will not name any country in principle, but White House officials acknowledged that the United States is overly dependent on China.
Two weeks ago, Biden had a two-hour telephone conversation with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, from which he emerged with the feeling that China will “eat lunch” if the United States “doesn’t wake up.”
“We just have to speed up,” Biden explained.
Relations between China and the United States deteriorated dramatically during the presidency of Donald Trump, although the new White House has made it clear that there are many pitfalls to overcome in ties with Beijing.
Bilateral collisions on planes such as commercial, diplomatic or technological were constant under Trump, and although Biden has promised another approach, his administration does not seem to be in a hurry to completely end the trade war with Beijing.