(ConservativeJournal.org) – Republican Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) is issuing a fresh call for American manufacturing to come home to the mainland after revealing that many common over-the-counter drugs are largely produced in China.
Vance gave a speech in his hometown, Middletown, Ohio, on July 22 where he suggested the dependence on Chinese manufacturing for cheap goods and pharmaceuticals was dangerous and unnecessary. He specifically highlighted antibiotics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like Tylenol and Ibuprofen as being made in China.
Vance told audiences that he wouldn’t trust the quality of a “plastic toy” let alone vital pharmaceuticals, especially when it came to the safety of his children. He advised a renaissance in American manufacturing and said that Donald Trump was in agreement on this point.
Conservative think tanks have shown that American imports for common over-the-counter as well as prescription drugs have increased dramatically over the last decade with the vast majority of the drugs coming from China and India. One report claimed that 90% of all prescriptions written in the U.S. are filled by drugs imported from abroad.
China leads the pack with 418 million pounds of pharmaceuticals imported by U.S. companies in 2021. The report also claimed that Chinese producers accounted for 95% of ibuprofen, 91% of hydrocortisone, and 70% of acetaminophen. Advil and Tylenol use ibuprofen and acetaminophen as their active ingredient, respectively. Hydrocortisone is a common anti-inflammatory drug.
Vance suggested incentivizing American manufacturing to enhance profitability of domestic drug production. The authors of the previously cited report suggested tariffs in addition to subsidizing domestic companies or otherwise incentivizing new companies to begin production.
According to Grok, the limited-language model in use on X, American imports from China over the last ten years have hovered between $435 – $540 billion dollars per year. If a significant portion of that sum was exchanged between American companies, American business owners and employees would benefit, instead of the Chinese.
Copyright 2024, ConservativeJournal.org
