U.S. President Joe Biden held a supply chain countermeasure meeting to solve the global logistics crisis by gathering allies on the occasion of the G20 summit. President Biden pledged to take the lead in resolving the global supply problem and asked for the cooperation of heads of state.
President Biden, who visited Rome, Italy to attend the G20 summit, presided over a summit on global supply chain recovery on the 31st of last month (local time). 14 countries including the European Union (EU), Korea, Australia, Canada, Germany and Japan attended the meeting.
U.S. President Joe Biden responds to a press conference at the G20 summit in Rome, Italy, on the 31st (local time). | AP Yonhap News
President Biden urged world leaders to unite to address supply shortages across the globe. “The supply chain problem is not a problem that can be solved by one country’s unilateral measures,” he said, emphasizing that “coordination is the key.” He proposed four key elements to strengthen the resilience of global supply chains: transparency, diversity, security and sustainability. Information should be shared transparently between countries, and markets should be open and diversified to avoid relying on a single source. He also argued that the market should be strengthened to be safe from cyberattacks, ensure the dignity of workers to be free from forced labor and exploitation of children, and aim for a sustainable supply.
In particular, he stressed that “supply chains should be free from forced and child labor.” As the US has consistently raised the human rights issue of the Xinjiang Uyghurs and banned the import of cotton and solar panels from Xinjiang on the grounds of forced labor, it is interpreted as a statement aimed at China in effect.
President Biden said he would increase funding to Mexico and Central America to alleviate US supply bottlenecks and improve customs procedures. He also said he would sign an executive order delegating the authority to release minerals and raw materials from the defense stockpile to the Ministry of National Defense. This is to respond more quickly to the shortage of defense industry supplies.
Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo will convene an international summit next year as a follow-up dialogue to establish the next step between the parties to more robustly restore global supply chains.
It is believed that a combination of domestic and international factors contributed to President Biden’s leading international conference to deal with supply chain issues head-on. First, domestic political considerations cannot be excluded. President Biden’s approval ratings have been on the decline in recent years. In such a situation, if the supply shortage is not resolved promptly, the economic recovery will be burdened, eventually worsening public sentiment, and political damage will be inevitable. It seems that the situational awareness that the current global supply chain problem is difficult to solve easily also played a role. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has warned that the logistics crisis could last until next year. In addition, it can be seen that, as in the case of the former Donald Trump administration, it was decided that the global supply chain problem could not be solved by approaching the problem in a monopoly style with the US first.
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