Trump's ‘Buy American’ directive

President Trump has signed a new executive order requiring that more money spent by the federal government on infrastructure projects goes to US-based companies.

This ‘America first’ policy was recently signed by President Trump. The executive order recommends that the money spent by government agencies goes towards US manufactured products, including aluminum, steel, concrete and iron.

The executive order follows on from a Buy American directive issued in April 2017. That document focused largely on reducing federal agencies’ use of waivers of the domestic-preference policy to allow the use of foreign materials. Some administration officials felt agencies had used waivers too frequently.

The new order goes further than the earlier one, by having the Buy American policy apply in cases where ‘federal financial assistance’ is used.

Speaking at the White House before signing the directive, Trump said, “We want American roads, bridges, and railways and everything else to be built with American iron, American steel, American concrete and American hands.”