White House trade adviser Peter Navarro says the coronavirus crisis shows, “not surprisingly,” that the U.S. has offshored too much of its supply chain.
Navarro expressed confidence on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures, saying the “American economy is exceedingly strong and not particularly vulnerable to what happens in China.”
He emphasized his goal to bring more of the U.S. supply chain home. “A lot of it is in China, some of it is in India, some in Europe, but we’ve got to get that back on shore,” he said.
Navarro said he’s dealing with the immediate issue of face masks, specifying a request coming this week for N95 face masks, which he said China put export restrictions on.
“People need to understand in crises like this, we have no allies,” Navarro said. “Back in 2009 during the swine flu problem, our best friends in Australia, Great Britain and Canada basically denied us what we needed.”
The bottom line, he said, is that “this administration is moving as rapidly as possible in my part of the portfolio to make sure our supply chain is secure and we have what we need.”
