What's the big deal about "Buy America"?

"Buy America" what? You must be thinking it's now more important to keep your bosses happy so that you still get paid monthly. You have no extra $$$ for Levi's and Timberland anyway! True true, so what's the fuss about the U.S. insisting on "Buy America", it don't seem to affect us in Asia, right? We're so far away?!

With a new president and a global recession, the U.S. is in a hurry to "stimulate" its economy. Pick up a copy of the Straits Times' Friday edition in Singapore (30 Jan) and you'll read that a "stimulus package" is working its way through the U.S. government that wants new bridges, highways and similar projects within the package to use U.S. steel only, even if it's 25% more expensive than steel from anywhere else in the world!

Yes, it sounds really strange. Deliberately spending 25% more when you can get the same thing at a lower price somewhere else? That don't sound like what an Asian will do at all! Across Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and elsewhere in Asia, many will queue for hours or even overnight to get a 25% discount (think cars or houses).

See this YouTube video to hear warnings about how a "Buy [insert country]" call is a bad idea.


More relevant to us in Asia is this. If "Buy [insert country]" gets popular around the world, we will suffer much more and the recession will remain with us even longer. More factories will shut down as demand for our (cheaper) products drops further. For this reason, China is clearly against "Buy America".



It is unlikely right now that "Buy America" will degenerate into a worldwide trend just yet. But if it does, more of us will be forced to take unpaid leave or receive retrenchment letters. :(