The biggest reason why we don't exclusively source things locally (be it art or industrial machinery) is that protectionism begets protectionism. Sourcing locally is only economically advantageous if we're the only ones doing it. This is why we negotiate trade agreements - we give up our protectionism in exchange for other places giving up theirs, and then everyone ends up wealthier because we get to specialize in things that we're good at, and import the things we're not as good at. If we start sourcing things from locals only, we've broken the agreement, other places will do the same and we'll lose our export markets.
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