County will review source of purchases

Has the U.S. become too dependent on foreign sources for vital manufactured goods?
The Wood County commissioners say it’s time to consider the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on the availability of items that are crucial to national security and health care and recently approved a resolution calling for a discussion on diversifying manufacturing sources.
The resolution states that as the global economy has grown, companies from across the world have moved manufacturing and production overseas “and in many cases specifically to China.”
“Through the pandemic, it has become very apparent that countries around the world, including the United States, have become dependent on the over concentration of production in China for items that are vital to national security and the health of our citizens,” the resolution says. “The process for moving forward from the pandemic will require the cooperation and assistance of all companies and governments in the United States and around the world to assure that goods and services that are vital…are produced as close to home as possible and to significantly reduce manufacturing dependence on any single country.”
The resolution calls for business owners and local, state and federal office holders to cooperate on a “unified policy for supply chain diversification.”
The commissioners are also pledging to work with agencies such as the Wood County Economic Development Commission, Wood County Port Authority and Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments to discuss ways to reduce dependence on manufacturing from any single foreign country.
County departments and agencies will be required to provide specific information about the country of origin for equipment, materials and services purchased in 2019 to the commissioners to establish a baseline. With that data, the commissioners plan to determine if the county can reduce its dependence on purchasing from any single foreign country.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, manufacturing as a share of gross domestic product in the U.S. has fallen from 13 percent in 2005 to about 11 percent in 2019.