April 3, 2023 Updated:
April 3, 2023
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)
at a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 13, 2022. (Kevin
Dietsch/Getty Images)
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)
is pushing for terminating America’s dependence on Chinese drug imports,
warning that China poses a security threat.
“We are dependent on
China overwhelmingly for our critical medical supply chains,” Hawley said in an
April 2 interview on Fox News. “You talk about being dependent, you
talk about a national security threat, that’s a national security threat.”
Hawley said this
is a direct threat to U.S. independence and to the health of Americans,
and that 60 percent of the key precursors for pharmaceutical drugs are made in
China or India.
“We should make these
drugs, including the precursors, in the United States of America,” he said. “We
can start by withdrawing China’s ‘most favored nation’ status, the sweetheart
trade deal that we gave them 20 years ago.”
The “most favored nation”
status granted by the Senate to China requires the United States to offer
preferential treatment in tariffs and trade deals to Beijing.
Hawley pointed out that
during the COVID-19 outbreak, the Chinese regime had threatened to withhold a
precursor drug critical for cancer treatments. If Beijing had gone ahead with
the decision, the supply of these drugs would have been reduced by half at the
Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals across the country.
Drug
Shortages and Foreign Dependence
Hawley’s comments come as
the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs released a
report (pdf) highlighting the critical situation of
drug supply in the United States. Between 2021 and 2022, new drug shortages in
the country rose by almost 30 percent.
By the end of last year,
there were 295 active drug shortages, the highest level during the previous
five years. The average drug shortage was found to last for about a year and a
half. But for 15 critical drug products, the shortages were found to be going
on for more than a decade.
“Shortages continue to
have devastating consequences for patients and health care providers, including
medication errors and treatment delays, and in some cases, have led to doctors
having to ration lifesaving treatments,” the report said.
The report pointed to
“overreliance on foreign and geographically concentrated sources” for key drugs
as well as limited domestic manufacturing capabilities as creating “health and
national security risks.”
The number of China-based
manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) that registered with
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration between 2010 and 2015 “more than
doubled.”
The Administration for
Strategic Preparedness and Response has estimated that 90 to 95 percent of
generic sterile injectable drugs that are used for critical acute care in the
United States are reliant on “key starting materials” sourced from China and
India.
In 2019, a report by Sen.
Gary Peters (D-Mich.) noted that almost 80 percent of manufacturing facilities
producing API are located outside the United States.
The Senate report called
for more domestic investment to protect America’s drug supply chains.
“The federal government
should build upon its efforts to engage industry and academic partners through
private-public partnerships that incentivize strategic onshoring and advanced
domestic manufacturing technologies for critical generic drugs.”
Ending
China’s Preferential Trade Deal
On March 20, Hawley’s
office announced a bill called the “Ending
Normal Trade Relations with China Act” in a bid to protect working class
American and reduce dependency. He also proposed placing “strong tariffs” on
Chinese imports.
“Providing China
privileged trade status contributed to the loss of 3.7 million good jobs across
manufacturing industries in America. When these jobs and factories disappeared,
communities suffered,” the announcement said.
“The unwinding of the
social fabric in these forgotten places led to declining rates of marriage and
fertility, and rising rates of addiction, divorce, and suicide. Policies that
weaken working men and women in America and enrich the Chinese Communist Party
must be repealed.”
Describing China as
America’s “greatest adversary,” Hawley called for returning the United States
back to its “long-standing formula” for success, which involves “strong and
independent workers.”
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