Canadians not the only ones peeved over 'Buy American'
By Jason Buckland, Sympatico / MSN Finance
In the grand scheme of the world’s economy, Canadians are a little like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction.
We’re cute, we’re cuddly, and we seem to do everything right. But we do NOT take rejection well.
Such was the case in recent days when the now-infamous Buy American strategy reared its head from the U.S., effectively choking off the chance any of the near-$800-billion stimulus package might make its way into the hands of Canadian business.
What’s transpired since hasn’t exactly blown anyone away. Detractors of the Buy American strategy, like Liberal head Michael Ignatieff, have warned of the policy’s threat to destroy the Canada-U.S. trading relationship. Stockwell Day is also irked.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) even voted in a retaliatory “Buy Canadian” resolution that would – not unlike the Buy American strategy – aim to shut out U.S. bidders from a shot at local city contracts. The FCM will now give the Canadian government 120-days to find a fix to the issue before instituting the resolution, it said Saturday.
But while Canada is (perhaps rightfully) pissed, the ripples of the controversial U.S. strategy are being felt far and wide.
Japan and Singapore, other major U.S. trading partners, have begun expressing their distaste with the Buy American movement, warning it could “beget other actions and then cause the situation to snowball in the wrong direction.”
Singapore’s trade minister has even started to wonder the legality of the move, suggesting that shutting out global trade partners only exploits “gray areas” in world trade rules. (Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are part of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which prohibits discrimination when considering, for example, international manufacturing contracts).
Of course, all this makes you wonder one thing: who’s really in the wrong here? If it’s indeed the U.S., it’s certainly hard to tear down a country for trying to jumpstart its own economy by encouraging spending from within. We’d surely do the same thing if we thought it would work, wouldn’t we?
Yet maybe the U.S. can’t simply look out for no. 1, after all. Maybe they need to heed a higher level of trade responsibility when they know full well the rest of the world lies at the mercy of the peaks and valleys of their massive economy.
Sure seems like that’s the standard we want to hold them to, anyway.
Posted by: Jenny | Jun 10, 2021 8:30:11 AM
I watched a documentary the other day. It was all about the American economy and the American National debt. It was quite interesting. The United States of America are so far into debt that it will now become a miracle if they can get out of it. All through history they have gone into debt and then paid most of it off. Bill Clinton did a marvelous job of reclaioming part of the US. George W. Bush is responsible for his down fall. Single handedly he has accumulated more debt than anyother time in the history of the US. Their debt is something like 122% their GDP. This being said, I understand the whole "buy American" movement. They need their money to stay whithin their country to avoid going bankrupt. China is the largest single holder of Americas debt with just about half of it, followed by Japan. The last thing the US wants to do is upset those countries and risk them calling in their debt. It would mean financial doom. We have all heard of physical war, but financial warfare is very real as well.
Posted by: jim.h | Jun 12, 2021 10:20:28 AM
this oboma "buy american" policy is great! hopefully they'll keep it up and and nafta will just wither away and die. "free trade" isn't really all that free in the end. we can argue the pros and cons till the cows come home but what it comes down to is this, do we want to sacrifice our morals, quality of life and national sovereignty just so we can compete economically with all our "trade partners" down south and across the pacific. to this i say go obama go. i'm behind you 100%, brother. as for my fellow canadians, if you really want to see change stop voting for the same two parties. vote anything but lib. or con. and they'll get the hint, eventually.
Posted by: BG | Jun 15, 2021 9:51:53 AM
Recently our gov'nt annouced the purchase of new trucks for our military. The truck plant in Ontario, promptly closed and the contract was awarded to a Michigan plant.The US wants to buy American. How can they build or do any business without Canadian petrolieum or electricity? If our gov'nt had any intestinal fortitude it would tell the Americans to buy their own. Can't be done! The Americans should be made aware that they aren't in this world alone and Canadians are getting fed up with one-way trade.