LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A year of pandemic-driven shortages of vital safety goods and medicines - not to mention consumer items like bikes and electronics - has not made Americans more willing to pay extra for U.S.-made goods.Schwinn Bicycle Company, formerly of Chicago, Illinois.
Yet a large majority think the government should do so.
A new Reuters-Ipsos poll found 63% of Americans want U.S. agencies to buy American-made products in general, even if they cost significantly more, and 62% think the government should strictly buy U.S.-made vaccines. That enthusiasm dims a bit when it comes to other types of safety equipment, such as face masks: a majority, 53%, agree it is fine to buy personal protective equipment - or PPE - from foreign sources, while 41% disagreed.
The poll shows a longstanding contradiction: Americans like the idea of buying American goods - but not if it means paying more personally for it.
It also underscores a challenge facing the Biden administration, which has vowed to bolster manufacturers of crucial safety goods and pharmaceuticals as part of its larger push to revive the U.S. factory sector.
One of President Joe Biden’s first acts was an executive order aimed at closing loopholes in existing "Buy American" rules, which cover about a third of the $600 billion in goods and services the federal government buys each year. The U.S. government is the world’s biggest single buyer of goods and services. Past administrations have also sought to shift more government spending toward domestic goods, with mixed results.