April 15, 2022 – White House officials says that, though COVID-19 exacerbated issues with supply chain, it did not create the issues and they will likely continue to cause disruptions after the pandemic ends. According to a New York Times report, economists analyzed supply chain disruptions as part of the Economic Report of the President, an annual document outlining the administration’s position on key issues and how the president hopes to address them.
Of the seven chapters in the report, one is dedicated to the supply chain. One of the pre-COVID issues that’s still affecting our supply chain is offshoring, where the US leans on supplies produced in low-cost countries. The report says, “Because of outsourcing, offshoring and insufficient investment in resilience, many supply chains have become complex and fragile. This evolution has also been driven by shortsighted assumptions about cost reduction that have ignored important costs that are hard to turn into financial measures, or that spilled over to affect others.”
Officials have offered several recommendations, including encouraging domestic production of essential products. However, independent experts are saying that the suggestions are unlikely to solve the issues.