Biden Looks to Curb Covid-19 Economic Damage With ‘Buy American’ Plan

WASHINGTON—Former Vice President Joe Biden is expected Thursday to outline a plan that his campaign says is aimed at reviving the U.S.

economy with an America-centric approach to job creation and manufacturing, issuing a direct challenge to President Trump as they compete for working-class voters less than four months before the presidential election.

Biden’s remarks in the November battleground state will coincide with a visit from Vice President Mike Pence, who is slated to make several campaign stops in eastern Pennsylvania on the same day.

The campaign said his proposals are designed to reduce America’s reliance on foreign countries after the pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities of the U.S., and other countries, in relying on foreign producers such as China for critical medical supplies and equipment.

Biden is expected to lay out a plan that calls for aggressively ramping up “Buy American” provisions covering U.S.

The Biden speech, a campaign adviser said, will serve notice to American trading partners that, even if Mr.

A senior Biden campaign adviser said Wednesday that, in implementing any such policies, the vice president “will not be ignoring World Trade Organization rules.” But he said that those rules are outdated and added that Germany and France—two countries that have tried to defend the global trading system against Mr.

The adviser also said Mr.

Biden won’t make a priority of entering new free-trade agreements or reviving the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership that President Obama negotiated at the end of his term and that Mr.

Biden won’t consider “entering new trade deals before the work is done at home to make investments in American job creation,” the adviser said.

On Thursday, he will add $700 billion in spending to that, according to a senior adviser.

Biden with roughly a 6.5-point lead over Mr.

Biden took additional steps to strengthen his Pennsylvania operation by hiring two top Democratic Party strategists for senior roles in the state.

Biden has said.