Buy American Act

Summary of Buy American Act

A 1933 act of Congress which provides that Federal agencies and certain contractors to the Federal government are obliged to buy articles of American manufacture unless American goods cannot be procured at reasonable cost in relation to foreign equivalents. The act has been challenged in multilateral trade negotiations as a nontariff barrier to trade. Many other nations have similar national purchasing arrangements. The act has been largely supplanted as the result of U.S. adoption of the GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT CODE (read this legal term for further details).

(Main Author: William J. Miller)