Infant formula shelves remain empty in many US stores because of shortages caused by supply chain problems and a spate of product recalls.  US supermarket suppliers estimated it will take months before normal supplies back to normal.  President Joe Biden announced an acceleration in production to solve the shortage of milk powder.  
   
Within a week, 70% of formula products in the US were out of stock  
   
The White House announced June 1st that two million cans of infant formula will be imported from the UK and distributed in stores and online in the US starting from June 9, CNN reported.  In addition, an Australian formula maker is expected to make two emergency shipments of about 25,000 cans of infant formula to the United States next week.  
   
Abbott Laboratories said it plans to reopen a milk powder factory in Michigan on June 4 to ease supply pressure.  During previous inspections, investigators from the Food and Drug Administration found Cronobacter sakazakii in Abbott Laboratories factory and various types of infant formula are recalled .  
 
According to a market survey, 70% of formula products in the US were out of stock in the week ending on May 22.  An executive at one US supermarket chain believes it could be months before infant formula supplies improve.  
   
Biden announced imports of foreign infant formula and accelerated production  
   
It is reported that on June 1, local time, US President Joe Biden held a roundtable meeting with Xavier Becerra, Director of US Department of Health and Human Services, Vivek Murthy, Director of US Department of Public Health, and heads of several major milk powder manufacturers, announcing that the U.S. government would address the shortage of infant formula in the United States by importing foreign milk powder and using the Defense Production Act to accelerate domestic production.  
   
Biden government has also taken other actions, including quoted the Defence Production Act to accelerate the domestic milk powder production, and come to agreement with FDA to re-approve Abbott formula milk powder production. Allow FDA to exercise enforcement discretion to import infant formula, in order to ensure there is enough security infant formula milk powder for the use of American families.  
   
The "infant formula crisis" highlights the problems of the US system  
   
Analysts believe that the current "infant formula crisis" in the United States appears to be result in factors such as COVID-19 and Abbott's milk powder recall, but at a deeper level reflects the economic and political system in the United States, where the interests of the public have become the victim of industry monopoly, collusion between politicians and businessmen, and partisan rivalries.  
   
Faced with the "infant formula crisis", the US federal government’s reaction was too slow.  It wasn't until May 16 that the FDA announced foreign infant formula would be allowed to enter the U.S. market.  That day, Abbott reached a tentative agreement with the FDA to reopen the Michigan plant.  The company said the factory could reopen in two weeks, and it would take another six to eight weeks from that date for infant formula to be restocked on store shelves.  
     
The highly liberalized market economy in the United States leads to serious monopolies in many industries, and the highly monopolized infant formula industry is the direct cause of this "infant formula crisis".  
   
According to Dakota Lilley, an American independent writer, the highly monopolized infant formula industry is a microcosm of America's "sick" economic system.  Amanda Starbuck, research director of food & Water Watch, a US NGO, said the entire food production chain in the US is highly concentrated, and if there is any problem in the supply chain for necessities such as infant formula, ordinary people will suffer.     
Moreover, in America's sharply polarised political environment, any controversy is likely to provoke recriminations from both parties.  The infant health crisis has also become a partisan tool.  
    　  
Republican former President Donald Trump said it is a "national disgrace" that American mothers are unable to feed their babies while Democrats are busy sending money to Ukraine.  
   
Democrats accused Republicans in Congress of blocking the Biden government’s efforts to resolve the infant formula crisis.  The House of Representatives passed a Democratic bill On May 18 to allocate $28 million to the FDA to deal with the crisis, but nearly all Republicans voted against it.  
 
The Senate hasn’t yet to vote on the bill.  Some analysts believe Republicans could block the bill in the Senate.  Democrats said the callous action by Republicans was another example of how they were blocking aid to American families while pretending to be concerned about the shortage.