President Trump is calling for Republicans and Democrats to unite behind his American independence agenda to defeat the spread of the Chinese coronavirus. During a Tuesday press conference, Trump detailed the “critical” need for American independence in manufacturing, the energy sector, and territorially at the nation’s borders to stop the coronavirus crisis: We should never be reliant on a foreign country for the means of our own survival. I think we’ve learned a lot. This crisis has underscored just how critical it is to have strong borders and a robust manufacturing sector. For three years, we’ve embarked on a great national project to secure our immigration system and bring back our manufacturing jobs. We’ve brought back many jobs, record numbers of jobs, and this really shows, this experience shows how important borders are. Without borders, you don’t have a nation. [Emphasis added] Trump said his agenda to fighting the coronavirus and lifting the United States out of a state of globalist dependency includes manufacturing pharmaceuticals and essential supplies and equipment in America, made by American workers. “Our goal for the future must be to have American medicine for American patients, American supplies for American hospitals, and American equipment for our great American heroes,” Trump said. “Now both parties must unite to ensure America is truly an independent nation in every sense of the word.” “Energy independence, we’ve established it, something incredible we’ve established … manufacturing independence, economic independence, and territorial independence enforced by strong, sovereign borders,” Trump continued: America will never be a supplicate nation. We will be a proud, prosperous, and self-reliant nation. We will embrace commerce with all but will be dependent on none. Above all, we know the best thing for our economy and the world right now is a very, very powerful victory over the virus. [Emphasis added] On immigration, Trump has invoked a federal statute to close the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada borders to foreign migrants to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Trump has also implemented travel bans on China, Iran, and Europe to prevent travel-related infections in the U.S. Meanwhile, Trump’s administration has worked closely with private industry to ramp up domestic production of necessary supplies and equipment — including one deal with 3M to produce 35 million respirator masks a month at its South Dakota manufacturing plant. The results of U.S. free trade with China have meant that the U.S. currently depends on China to produce an estimated 97 percent of all antibiotics and 80 percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients that are needed to manufacture drugs in the U.S. Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was enacted and China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO), nearly five million American manufacturing jobs have been eliminated from the American economy — 3.4 million of which are due to U.S. free trade with China. The mass elimination of working- and middle-class jobs and depressed U.S. wages due to NAFTA and China’s entering the WTO have coincided with a 600 percent increase in trade deficits.

Thankfully, NAFTA is history, and many of those dreadful trade deals with China are being redone.  That said, we definitely welcome this new position by the Trump Administration.  We rely heavily on China and other countries for key products, goods and services.  And, recently, China not-so-subtly threatened to hold back critical drugs during this Wuhan virus epidemic.  We cannot allow ourselves to be held hostage to another nation for energy, or key goods and services like pharmaceuticals.  As we oftentimes say here at The Daily Buzz…  If given the option to buy a product made in China or maybe one that’s a few bucks more, but it says Made in the USA…PLEASE PLEASE consider buying the American product, made in America by American workers.  Let’s all vote with our wallets.