ITIF Releases Detailed Agenda for Next Administration to Restore US Leadership in Advanced Industries; Step 1 Is Creating a National Competitiveness Council
ITIF Releases Detailed Agenda for Next Administration to Restore US Leadership in Advanced Industries; Step 1 Is Creating a National Competitiveness Council
WASHINGTON—The United States is in desperate need of a robust techno-economic policy agenda to restore its global leadership in strategically important advanced industries in the face of fierce competition from China, according to a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF).
ITIF’s report offers 82 actionable recommendations for the next U.S. administration to enact such an agenda. It includes steps for budget and tax policy; foreign policy; trade expansion, enforcement, and export promotion; regulatory and antitrust policy; digital policy; R&D, technology, and manufacturing policy; clean energy innovation; and government organization and operation.
“America is at a critical juncture. We’re in a techno-economic power struggle with China, and we’re facing significant challenges in productivity growth, advanced technology manufacturing, and innovation across all economic sectors,” said ITIF President Robert D. Atkinson. “While both major party candidates express a desire to strengthen America’s economy, the reality is that neither ‘middle-out’ ‘Bidenomics’ nor inward-facing ‘America First’ economics will be sufficient. To surpass China’s continued development in advanced industries and reassert global leadership, it is imperative that the next administration prioritize innovation, productivity, and competitiveness as core elements of U.S. economic policy.”
ITIF’s report spells out an overall strategy with 82 specific recommendations across 12 policy areas. As a first step, ITIF calls on the next administration to create a National Competitiveness Council (NCC) within the White House, akin to the National Security Council and National Economic Council.
“Creating a National Competitiveness Council is a pivotal first step,” said Atkinson. “With out it, there is no nerve center for this agenda. The new NCC would be responsible for formulating and coordinating advanced-industry competitiveness policy across the federal enterprise. The NCC should be staffed not by economists, but rather by ‘productionists’—analysts who have a deep understanding of firm, industry, and technology dynamics.”
ITIF’s report describes how the NCC should oversee analysis of U.S. advanced-industry capabilities, especially vis-à-vis China. It would assess Chinese policies designed to erode U.S. advanced-industry leadership, identify key sectors needed for U.S. leadership, and organize a whole-of-government approach to advance the nation’s leadership on the sectoral level in industries such as semiconductors, biopharmaceuticals, aerospace, autonomous systems, and artificial intelligence.
“Recent policy initiatives that the administration and Congress have taken, such as the CHIPS and Science Act, are steps in the right direction, but they are not enough to meet the urgency of the challenges America faces today,” said Atkinson. “America is running out of time. Once lost, a firm’s—or a nation’s—technology advantage is almost impossible to regain unless it is willing to spend enormous sums of money, as China is doing. If the federal government does not act boldly within the next few years, it may permanently lose the ability to effectively compete in a range of critically important advanced industries.”
Contact: Sydney Mack, [email protected]
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The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational institute focusing on the intersection of technological innovation and public policy. Recognized by its peers in the think tank community as the global center of excellence for science and technology policy, ITIF’s mission is to formulate and promote policy solutions that accelerate innovation and boost productivity to spur growth, opportunity, and progress.
