An industry coalition representing a wide spectrum of domestic personal protective equipment (PPE) producers and the US textile industry outlined policy principles and objectives needed for reshoring and safeguarding domestic PPE manufacturing.
The coalition–including such organizations as the National Council of Textile Organizations, National Cotton Council and SEAMS–said the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed severe shortages in the country’s PPE supply and “an over-reliance on foreign sourced products, underscores how important it is for the U.S. government to incentivize, support and maintain domestic manufacturing capacity for PPE.”
The coalition called on Congress and the Trump administration to adopt principles it outlined through legislation, executive order and other appropriate means. The principles will meet current needs and ensure a reliable domestic PPE manufacturing base capable of meeting our public health needs during a future crisis, the coalition said.
The principles include creating strong domestic procurement rules for federal PPE purchases so that taxpayer funds don’t go to China and other offshore PPE producers and “create the stable demand for U.S.-made PPE that will incentivize investment in domestic PPE manufacturing.
The group also called on the government to provide funding assistance for companies to reconstitute domestic PPE supply chains” to help companies repurpose their factories and purchase equipment to ramp up production, and supply grants or tax credits for companies that make such investments.
