Retailer suggests policies meant to cut imports, create jobs

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Walmart on Wednesday proposed a series of policy moves that it says would boost U.S. manufacturing, create jobs for Americans and reduce imports.

“As we’ve worked over the last four years alongside our suppliers toward our goal to source an additional $250 billion in products that support American jobs, we’ve learned a great deal about the challenges our suppliers face in domestic manufacturing,” said Cindi Marsiglio, Walmart vice president for U.S. Sourcing and Manufacturing. “The good news is we’ve also learned how to overcome the challenges and, because of our experience, Walmart is uniquely positioned to help facilitate broad engagement in accelerating the expansion of U.S. manufacturing.”

The retailer cited an analysis by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) suggesting that removing policy barriers to domestic manufacturing would create an opportunity to shift about $300 billion in consumer goods that are currently imported to domestic production. That in turn could result in the creation of an estimated 1.5 million American jobs. That analysis, which laid the foundation for the policy roadmap, was based in part on Walmart’s sourcing data and interviews with merchants, suppliers, and other policy experts.

The proposals include:

• Building vocational training programs linked to local industry.
• Encouraging the growth of component production to help close supply chain gaps.
• Facilitating public-private cooperation to promote manufacturing clusters.
• Coordinating manufacturing regulations across different levels of government, and streamlining compliance requirements.
• Creating a globally competitive tax environment.
• Expanding and protecting targeted state and local tax deductions that support investments in manufacturing.
• Modernizing trade agreements to boost the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers.

“It’s important to note that there is no silver bullet that will solve the problem on its own,” said Dustin Burke, a partner in BCG’s manufacturing practice.. “The barriers to domestic manufacturing are just too broad and too complex. The purpose of Walmart’s Policy Roadmap to Renew U.S. Manufacturing is to provide a framework for collaboration among key stakeholders and highlight 10 actionable policy levers that, taken together, can help strengthen U.S. manufacturing and significantly reduce long-term unemployment.”

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon last month signaled the company’s intention to pursue policy proposals that help create a favorable climate for job creation in his remarks to more than 500 small- and medium-sized companies that attended Walmart’s fourth annual Open Call for U.S. products on June 28.

“We are also committed to participating as a leader in the country when it comes to policy,” he said at the time. “We believe that we should be one of the voices at the table and we want to help renew U.S. manufacturing and drive the creation of manufacturing jobs across the United States.”