Washington should focus its industrial policy on strategic, cutting-edge technologies rather than trying to bring back manufacturing wholesale, particularly in areas where the US has little competitive advantage, said members of the former Joe Biden administration.

This comes at a time when US policy circles are debating whether the nation should borrow some of China’s playbook as the bilateral competition intensifies and how far it should go as China’s state-led system makes a big bet on advanced manufacturing and future industries like AI, robotics and biotech in its coming five-year plan.

“Industrial policy is necessary, necessary in instances like with the Chips Act where it is a true matter of national security,” said Gina Raimondo, former commerce secretary in the Biden administration, at an online event this week organised by Harvard Kennedy School.

But the current administration has a very different view, she acknowledged. “Today you have somebody else in the White House who I think would also say he wants to make everything in America. I don’t agree.”

Raimondo was instrumental in the design of the Chips and Science Act of 2022 to consolidate the US dominance in the strategic sector as well as the ban on high-end chip sales to China.

Former US President Joe Biden holds the “Chips and Science Act of 2022” after signing it during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on August 9, 2022. Photo: AP

Citing a recent conversation with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, the former commerce secretary warned that a fully made-in-America car seat could cost as much as US$600.