Jon Williams was recently quoted by Bloomberg Government Federal Contracts Report in their article “Acetris Wins Buy American Dispute With VA, but Not Drug Contract.” When asked about the ruling which no longer allows the VA to rely on Customs and Border Protection determinations for deciding whether a contractor is offering a product manufactured in the U.S. or a foreign country, Jon told Bloomberg Government, “the court concluded that procuring agencies and officials must ‘independently ascertain’ whether an offered product is manufactured in the U.S. The injunctions apply only to future VA procurements, so it will be interesting to see whether other federal agencies change their approach to CBP’s determinations about foreign made products.”
Jon went on to say, “It will also be interesting to see if VA appeals or if there is any Congressional or regulatory response to amend the applicable statutes and rules. This ruling could create inefficiency in requiring federal agencies to do their own analysis to determine if a product is ‘U.S.-made’ and potentially contradict a similar analysis done by CBP, which is better-positioned to do that analysis.” (Federal Contracts Report, 109 FCR 218, 7/24/18)