As part of the fallout from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration is “turbocharging” an initiative to remove global industrial supply chains from China, according to sources in Washington DC.
US President Donald Trump, who has stepped up attacks on China, has long pledged to bring manufacturing back from overseas and had imposed import tariffs on the eastern nation as part of a trade war last year.
The US Commerce Department, State and other agencies are looking for ways to push companies to move both sourcing and manufacturing out of China, sources said.
The recent reports have been gaining traction following a leaked Department of Homeland Security report that claimed the Chinese government likely withheld information about the severity of the novel coronavirus outbreak to hoard and acquire critical medical supplies.
The report says that in January of this year, before sharing full details on the novel coronavirus outbreak with the World Health Organisation, Beijing dramatically increased its imports and decreased its exports of medical supplies.
According to US officials, the United States is pushing to create an alliance of “trusted partners” dubbed the “Economic Prosperity Network, which would include companies and civil society groups operating under the same set of standards.
The US government is working with Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Vietnam to “move the global economy forward,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said on April 29.