Build America, Buy America Rules for Foreign Manufacturers

Yes, a foreign manufacturer can supply a federally funded US infrastructure project, but the routes in are narrow. Build America, Buy America (BABA) covers infrastructure paid for with federal financial assistance. On those projects, iron and steel, manufactured products and construction materials must be produced in the United States.

A non-US product can still get in three ways: it sits outside those categories, it meets its category's US production standard, or a published waiver covers it.

Before you email a single US contractor, answer two questions: how is the target project funded, and which category is your product in?

When a manufacturer based outside the US wants American contractors as clients, my rule is simple: the compliance screen comes before list building. Not after.

An eager reply from a contractor whose job your product cannot legally go into is a wasted sales call for both sides. If you have not run the screen yet, fix that first.

Treat this as a working screen and check it with your own counsel. I built it from the federal rule text and agency pages as they read in October 2026. Where I could not verify a date, I say so.

Which projects does Build America, Buy America cover?

BABA set a domestic content preference for infrastructure projects whose federal financial assistance was obligated after May 14, 2022, as the Department of Commerce's BABA page summarizes it. The operating rules are in 2 CFR part 184, which OMB added after publishing its guidance in the Federal Register on August 23, 2023.

Part 184 says funds for an infrastructure project may not be obligated unless all the iron, steel, manufactured products and construction materials used in it are produced in the United States. The preference also has to be written into every subaward, contract and purchase order under the award.

For a supplier abroad, this changes who asks the question and when:

• Funding is the trigger. A project with no federal financial assistance sits outside BABA, whoever builds it and wherever its materials come from.
• Direct federal buying is a separate track. The Made in America Office treats domestic preferences for direct federal purchases and for federally assisted infrastructure as two different things. BABA covers the second. If a US contact mentions the Buy American Act, that is the direct-purchase rule, a different track from BABA.
• The question lands on your desk. Because the preference sits in purchase orders, the contractor pushes it down to every supplier it buys from.

Which BABA category is your product in?

As of October 2026, part 184 splits covered products into three groups, each with its own test of what "produced in the United States" means:

The listed construction materials are glass, lumber, drywall, engineered wood, optical fiber, fiber optic cable, non-ferrous metals, and plastic and polymer-based products. FHWA's BABA Q&A explains that a construction material is generally made of only one item from the 2 CFR 184.3 list, and that minor additions of other items do not change its category.

The same Q&A notes that BABA brought this category into Federal-aid highway projects. FHWA's existing rules for steel, iron and manufactured products remain in place, because Section 70914 does not replace them.

For manufactured products, 2 CFR 184.5 spells out how component cost is counted. Your bill of materials is where the calculation starts. For components you buy, count the acquisition cost, plus transportation to the place where the part goes into the product and any applicable duty. For components you make yourself, count all manufacturing costs plus allocable overhead, but not profit.

Take a made-up product with USD 100 of components: it clears the 55% line only if more than USD 55 of that cost is US-origin, counted that way.

• Start with the construction materials list. It is closed, so the answer takes a minute.
• If the product is iron or steel, trace every stage from melting to coating. One stage abroad fails the standard unless a waiver applies.
• Send anything assembled from components to the manufactured products test, which is where FHWA's highway stages bite hardest.

If two categories seem to fit, ask the contractor which one its project documents use before you pick.

Where do FHWA's manufactured product rules stand?

On Federal-aid highway work, FHWA's Buy America page describes a long-standing domestic manufacturing requirement for steel or iron products permanently incorporated into Title 23 projects. FHWA describes its manufactured product standards as similar to OMB's 55 percent standards.

Manufactured products used to sit under a general waiver. FHWA ended that general waiver with a rule that took effect on March 20, 2025. What applies to a given job depends on when federal funds were obligated for it, as FHWA's Q&As set out:

The obligation date is the day the agency committed the federal money to the project. The day an inquiry reached your inbox does not matter. A highway job in the last row needs every manufactured product permanently built into it to be manufactured in the US.

I found no confirmed start date for a component-cost stage on highway work, so I do not give one. Before you quote, ask the contractor which manufactured product test its contract carries, and read FHWA's current Q&As yourself.

These stages are FHWA's own. Outside highway work, the part 184 standard from the category table applies, and each agency adds its own programs and guidance on top. EPA, for example, applies BABA to more than 70 of its programs. Read the funding program's page before you borrow FHWA's dates.

How does the Buy America waiver process work?

Part 184 lets a federal agency waive the preference on three grounds:

• Public interest. Applying the preference would go against the public interest.
• Nonavailability. A US-produced version is not available.
• Unreasonable cost. Under 2 CFR 184.7, as of October 2026, an agency can waive the preference when using US-produced materials would raise the cost of the overall infrastructure project by more than 25 percent.

FHWA runs its own waiver process, and its page describes waivers on public interest and nonavailability grounds. Its page also lists the public interest waiver for de minimis costs and small grants, which USDOT published in the Federal Register on August 16, 2023.

Read the waiver text itself for its limits before you count on it, because some products and funding types may sit outside it.

Waivers are public. The Made in America Office portal lists proposed and approved waivers, and says contractors and grant recipients can use it to understand existing waivers when bidding. EPA links every BABA waiver it has approved with the Made in America Office. Commerce lists proposed, approved and denied waivers for its own programs.

For a foreign supplier, those lists are a free market screen. An approved waiver for your product type on the program you are targeting is a reason to look harder at that program. A string of denials on your product type tells you to send the outreach budget elsewhere.

Agencies issue waivers for a program or a project. Never pitch a contractor as if you can obtain one yourself.

What should a non-US manufacturer check before emailing US contractors?

Run these in order. Stop at the first "no" that has no way around it.

1. Covered project. Is federal financial assistance for infrastructure behind the target project? If not, BABA is not your obstacle.
2. Category. Iron or steel, a listed construction material, or a manufactured product? Write down which one, and why.
3. Production location. Where do the melting-to-coating stages, the listed manufacturing process or final assembly happen? For highway work, hold the answer against FHWA's table above.
4. Component cost. Can you show the US-origin share of component cost, counted with the part 184 method? A contractor will ask this early.
5. Waiver. If step 3 or 4 failed, is there an approved waiver for that product on that program? If there is none, drop the program.
6. Paperwork. Can you hand the contractor a certification it can pass up the chain? Ask the contractor what certification its state DOT or funding agency requires, and in what format, before you promise anything.

Can a UK manufacturer supply US infrastructure projects?

Yes, in some cases. Part 184 looks at where and how a product is produced, so a UK address on its own does not exclude a supplier.

A UK manufacturer usually has a route in when:

• the project has no federal financial assistance behind it
• the product falls outside the three covered categories
• the product meets its category's standard, for example US final assembly with enough US-origin component cost
• an approved waiver covers that product on that program

It usually has no route yet when:

• iron or steel was melted or coated in the UK and is going into a covered project without a waiver
• a manufactured product is finally assembled in the UK and is headed for a highway job under FHWA's final assembly requirement
• a listed construction material is manufactured outside the US

My rule before any quote: the contractor has told you in writing the funding program, the category its project documents use and the certification it needs, and you can name the standard you meet or the waiver that covers you.

Who should you contact once your product passes?

Contractors, distributors and fabricators whose work is mostly federally funded infrastructure feel this rule the most. If your product passes the screen, start your list with them. If it fails, private or non-federal work is your US market.

Inside those companies, my team and I start every list in the same place: the supplier's own customers. Current clients first, then past ones. That is where your real buyers already are.

For each project you have already won, go back and find who actually made the call to buy. That is the person who signed off, and often not the one you talked to most. Once you know those decision-makers, look for US companies that resemble the ones who bought, with similar work, similar size and similar projects. Those go on the list.

Use the titles those buyers really held in your niche. A bare "manager" title says nothing about who signs a purchase order, so generic titles like Assistant, Manager and Associate come off the list first. The full method is a step-by-step B2B lead list build.

The compliance answer also belongs in the first message. A US contractor reading a cold email from an overseas supplier wonders one thing before price: can this go into my job?

Name the category, the standard you meet or the waiver that covers you, and the certification you can supply. Say it in one line, for example: "Manufactured product, final assembly in the US, certification available on request." That beats any claim about quality. (The line is an example.)

A contractor checks who sent the message before replying, and the decision follows that check. Your LinkedIn profile and website should carry the same compliance facts as the message. Construction product manufacturers selling to contractors face the same check.

If the funding is not federal, or your product clears its category test, build the list. If it fails and no waiver covers it, spend the outreach budget on private work instead. Check the rules first. Then send the email.

Selling building products into the US from abroad? Book a call once your compliance screen passes, and I will help you pick the first contractors to write to.