Canadian Businesses Support "Buy Canada"

[Joanne98]

We've reported on the disappointing efforts of offshore-happy corporations like Caterpillar to invoke the "Shock Doctrine" and roll back "Buy America" rules already on the books and consistent with our trade obligations. We've reported on the hypocritical campaign by the Canadian government to accomplish the same, even though they committed even fewer types of procurement contracts to the WTO than we did.

But one question has been nagging me: what kinds of "Buy Canada" policies are actually on the books? Turns out there are a few major examples

In Ontario, mass transit vehicles are given preference if they have 25% Canadian content. (This is a compromise from the 50% demanded by the New Democratic Party and the Canadian unions, and the 60% by some others.)
In Quebec, mass transit vehicles are given an increasing scale of preference the more Canadian content that they have.
Another major difference between here and there is that the business and exporters' associations actually support Buy Canadian policies (including the Manufacturers and Exporters of Canada, where my friend Birgit works!)

And a recent USTR report shows that the Europeans are making good use of their flexibilities under the WTO:

In 2004, the EU adopted a revised Utilities Directive (2004/17), covering purchases in the water, transportation, energy, and postal services sectors. Member States were mandated to implement the new Utilities Directive by the end of January 2006, but some EU Member States still have not implemented it. This Directive requires open, objective bidding procedures, but discriminates against bids with less than 50 percent EU content that are not covered by an international or reciprocal bilateral agreement. The EU content requirement applies to U.S suppliers of goods and services in the following sectors: water (production, transport, and distribution of drinking water), energy (gas and heat), urban transport (urban railway, automated systems, tramway, bus, trolley bus, and cable), and postal services.


Congrats EU and Canada! Nice to see we're all doing what we can to support a local industrial base!

http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2009/02/canadian-businesses-support-buy-canada-.html

[louis-t]

1. Canada has had Canadian content laws for decades.

In the '70's, if a Canadian music group was available to do a bar gig, they got preference. My question is: why is it ok for other countries to have those policies but they threaten us if we try to stabilize our economy by doing the same thing? I understand that treaties are in place. If our economy tanks, so does half the world.

edit because checking for grammar AFTER posting is what I do. You got a problem with that?

[AdHocSolver]

2. The treaties are manipulated by US corporations to eliminate US jobs and avoid US taxes. n/t