Furniture builders in our area were once big; pieceworkers would make 25 to 30 dollars an hour 25 years ago. Now it's all outsourced, and the price of furniture is higher than ever, and it's often cheaply made.
Outsourcing U.S. Drug Manufacturing to China was a Mistake—A Lethal One .
Most products we use include a country-of-origin label, from your Costa Rican fruit to Ethiopian coffee to even your Canadian car doorframe. Unsurprisingly, many of these goods sport the "Made in China" label.
While the American public and political leaders have long lamented the exodus of American manufacturing overseas, rarely has it put us in mortal danger. But the COVID-19 pandemic shows how the departure of one specific sector—pharmaceuticals—has left the U.S. dangerously exposed, at a fearsome cost. It has literally cost us lives. The U.S. Government and private industry need to immediately recognize this problem and join together to create a new plan to build and protect manufacturing of life-saving medication domestically.
The problem has long been gestating. Drug manufacturing has largely moved overseas—mostly to China and India—leaving few drug ingredients or finished drugs produced here. Even of those finished drugs that are produced here, estimates are that over 80 percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) in the drugs come from foreign nations, mainly China. That is just a guess, as the FDA itself doesn't even know. And while estimates are that over 80 percent of API may come from foreign nations, in the case of many antibiotics and drugs that treat high blood pressure, China is the sole source of API. Making it worse, while many generic drugs are produced in India—estimates are 70 percent or more—they also use API from China.
https://www.newsweek.com/pharmaceutical-manufacturing-america-china-lethal-mistake-1502008
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