The Biden administration has begun ramping up another “Buy American” campaign. Promoters of international commerce will respond that privileging the purchase of domestic products is inefficient and thus immoral: If manufacturing is cheaper in China, Chinese laborers and American consumers both benefit. Others find American economic self-sufficiency, producing the things that we need at home, to be politically appealing — especially for strategic goods and essential defense articles. But will Biden’s “Buy American” campaign be effective more broadly, especially when it comes to concerns like fighting the use of slave labor in autocratic countries?
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