On February 24, 2021, Venable partner Ashley Craig was quoted in the Financial Times on President Biden’s executive order calling for a review of critical supply chains to reduce the U.S. dependence on China.
According to the article, the order requires federal agencies to conduct 100-day reviews of supply chains for semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, electric vehicle batteries, and critical minerals used in manufacturing products such as cars and weapons. It also requires a separate one-year review for six sectors: defense, public health, biological preparedness, IT, transportation, and energy and food production.
Craig said the Biden team was engaging in a “careful balancing act” because it wanted to tackle supply chain vulnerabilities but “did not want to agitate trading partners who are just coming back in from the cold” after Donald Trump’s “America first” approach.