(RepublicanNews.org) – Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), says that he wants to see growth in domestic manufacturing, particularly pharmaceutical production. While giving a speech to a crowd in his hometown of Middleton, Ohio, Vance bemoaned the nation’s dependency on Chinese-made pharmaceuticals, calling into question their quality and reliability.
Vance observed that the U.S. imports nearly half of its penicillin, as well as 95% of its ibuprofen, and 70% of its acetaminophen from China. He added that he did not even “trust a damn plastic toy” that comes from China, let alone its drugs. He said that the American public should not trust the “Chinese attitude to public health” and argued that it was vital to increase U.S. domestic manufacturing capacity.
The U.S. makes few of its own drugs, with imports having massively increased in recent years. Currently, over 90% of prescription medication is imported from China or India. Vance claimed in his speech that former President Trump agreed with him that there should be a concerted effort to bring pharmaceutical production home.
Many have said that Vance’s position on the domestic economy and the need to increase U.S. manufacturing could see an increase in tariffs on imported products, something which Trump has also alluded to in recent months as a way to increase revenue without taxing Americans. While Trump and Vance appear to have somewhat divergent views on economics, with Vance seemingly more protectionist in his outlook, both have expressed concerns over China’s position as the world’s biggest manufacturer.
Such concerns are not unique to the Republican presidential and vice-presidential picks, and various researchers and politicians have suggested ways in which the U.S. could tackle the issue. In 2020, researchers from the Coalition for a Prosperous America pointed out that American companies were being made to compete with Chinese firms that received generous subsidies from their state. The Coalition found that two ways in which the U.S. government could help would be by introducing tariffs or quotas for the import of subsidized items, or by forcing federal buyers to buy critical drug supplies from domestic producers only.
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