GOVERNMENT-LED DIRECTIVES of late are aimed squarely at bringing manufacturing back to the US. President Biden recently signed an executive order requiring the federal government to buy more goods produced in the United States and limiting the ability of federal agencies to issue waivers on overseas purchases. Earlier, President Trump had approved regulations that increased the share of a product's components that must be produced domestically to qualify as US-made. He also imposed a 25% tariff on goods imported from China. The $740 billion 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which took effect in January, includes a provision forbidding the purchase by the Department of Defense of printed circuit boards manufactured in potentially adversarial countries such as China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. Many in our industry have welcomed this new directive as a means of rebuilding the once-robust PCB manufacturing climate in the United States. But shoring up the domestic PCB industry will require much more.
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