The Business Roundtable has released a new report outlining policy recommendations for strengthening and securing critical supply chains. Resilient, Diverse and Secure: Improving Critical Supply Chains identifies dependencies in five strategically significant US supply chains and provides recommendations for diversifying and improving their resilience.
The report highlights the risks of relying on single sources for critical materials, particularly in the context of US-China competition and geopolitical risk.
The five strategically significant supply chains examined in the report include:
- Critical minerals
- Synthetic active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs)
- Agrochemicals (e.g. for crop protection)
- Printed circuit boards (PCBs) and printed circuit board assembly (PCBA)
- Foundational semiconductors.
The report concludes that:
- In an increasingly interconnected global economy, supply chain disruptions can arise from various sources, including natural disasters, geopolitical tensions, pandemics and economic crises. Maintaining resilient supply chains enables businesses to mitigate the impact of such disruptions, ensuring continuity in operations and minimizing financial losses.
- Resilient supply chains also offer businesses a competitive edge by enhancing their agility and responsiveness to changing market conditions, customer demands and regulatory requirements.
- Corporate leaders are acting on this urgency, but a more sophisticated and sustained policy response is needed both broadly and in targeted supply chains. While the US government has taken steps to build resilient supply chains, the actions outlined in this report are urgently needed to bolster the United States’ long term economic strength.
