Buy American Act – Pros and Cons
The primary advantage of this Buy American Act is that the concerns amidst consumers regarding the quality of the products will be considerably less, due to the reason that the products are manufactured within the United States, and hence the level of trust and confidence amidst the consumers would be much higher and hence, for domestic sellers, this certainly is an advantage. There will be no room for cultural differences and eventual conflicts, while there will also be no form of time zone problems related to the sales and deliver of goods and services.
The most important disadvantage that is associated with ‘Buy American’ is that if the number of people supporting this act increase, then eventually the global efficiency of both the product as well as the manufacturer would decrease. The cost of living, specifically in terms of tariffs, is much higher in relation to the buy American philosophy. Moreover, increase manufacturing within the United States would mean an increase in energy burden as well as levels of pollution too. In terms of costs, buy American has increased amount of disadvantages.
Contracting Officers
The four major types of contracting officers are as listed below:
PCO (Procurement Contracting Officer) – They are representatives who issue legal contracts between the contracting establishment and the government of United States.
ACO (Administrative Contracting Officer) – ACOs are part of the Defense Contract Management Agency and predominantly deal with negotiation of agreements dealing with forward pricing agreement rates.
CACO (Corporate Administrative Contracting Officer) – These officers essentially have more than one operational location and have corporate level policies and protocols to follow, and
TCO (Termination Contracting Officer) – TCO is a contracting representative who is entitled the responsibility of negotiating terms of termination of a contract that is currently active with any government contractor, in case of situations when the contract has to be terminated earlier than the actual term.
References
Insight Community. (2016, January 12). Mandates To Buy American Should Be More Carefully Considered. Retrieved from Insight Community: https://www.insightcommunity.com/case.php?iid=1333
Richard J. Bednar, J. T. (1987). The DOD contracting officer: a study of the past, an assessment of the present, recommendations for the future : a report. American Bar Association.
