The United Steelworkers Union demand a Canadian exemption of the Bye American clause.

[Sandrine for you]

"Le président de la United Steelworkers Union, qui représente 850 000 travailleurs américains et canadiens de l'acier, a de son côté plaidé, mercredi, pour que les entreprises canadiennes soient exemptées de la clause Buy American. Il a fait cette demande à l'occasion d'une rencontre du caucus du Congrès sur l'acier, au Capitole.

M. Gerard a déclaré que, comme les industries de l'acier canadienne et américaine sont étroitement liées, les élus américains doivent travailler avec leurs homologues canadiens en vue de mettre en place une approche commune.

M. Gerard, qui est Canadien d'origine, avait également apporté cette précision, dimanche, lors de l'émission Question Period, diffusée sur les ondes du réseau CTV. « Le Canada n'est pas le problème en ce moment. Ce sont la Chine, les pays asiatiques et la Russie qui font du dumping de leur production aux États-Unis et au Canada. "

http://nouvelles.sympatico.msn.ca/abc/Grands_titres/ContentPosting_SRC_grands_titres.aspx?isfa=1&feedname=CBC_TOPSTORIES_V3_FR&showbyline=True&date=true&newsitemid=425753

The president of United Steelworkers Union, who represents 850 000 American workers and Canadians of the steel, pleaded from his part, on Wednesday, so that the Canadian companies are exempted from the clause Buy American. He(it) made this demand on the occasion of a meeting of the caucus of the Congress on the steel, in the Capitol.

Mr Gerard declared that, as Canadian and American steel industries are strictly connected, the American elected representatives have to work with their Canadian counterparts to set up a common approach.

Mr Gerard, who is Canadian of origin, had also brought this precision, on Sunday, during the broadcast(emission,issue) Question Period, spread(diffused) on the waves of the network CTV. " Canada is not the problem at the moment. It is China, Asian countries and Russia that make of the dumping of their production in the United States and in Canada. "

.........................................

Thank's M. Gerard !

Workers of North America : Unite !!

:fistbump: :fistbump: :fistbump: :fistbump:

[Hello_Kitty]

1. Canadian taxpayers should help with the stimulus then.

:shrug:

[Sandrine for you]

2. Yep 40 billions on stimilus, and american can bid...

[Hello_Kitty]

8. Let's see: $40 billion vs. $900 billion

Nope, no disparity there at all.

[Sandrine for you]

9. let see

USA: 305 529 237 hab.

CAN: 33 223 840

CAN/USA = 0.1087

40 billion is for now, an another 40 billions to come. So CAN = 80 billion.

80/.1087 = 735.97

Not so a big difference. Maybe our gouvernment is a little more on fiscal conservatism than the one you got. Also. It did not take in account the new investment of our provinces, who will have to make deficit, and we really hate that.

[Oregone]

10. Lets not forget...

You shouldn't really figure in tax cuts, tax rebates for car and home buyers, or whatever else that isn't going to bleed cross border (so the entire $900 is a bit fallacious). The actual comparison of both should probably be infrastructure spending, since the issue here is about material procurement cross border.

And as a note, Canadian federal infrastructure spending must be matched provincially (provinces only get the funds if they put up their own money also). So its actually going to be double what is stated in the federal budget. In the end, it is actually very comparable.

As the canadian federal budget is announced, other provinces are also following suite. I think they are going to go 30 billion in the red here in BC too (Even though deficits are supposed to be illegal. Canada is more of a federalist system, whereas the provinces have more power. A lot of the Canadian stimulus isn't just holed up in the federal budget.

[Hello_Kitty]

11. Yes, proportionately, the packages are similar

But in absolute terms the U.S. stimulus package is the biggest in the world and presents the most opportunities for lucrative contracts. It's like waving a big old slab of bacon to greedy gluttons who run multinational corporations.

Just so you know: The business leaders who oppose the Buy American rule claim that it violates NAFTA and the WTO. The WTO has a lot more member nations, some of them in low-wage Third World countries that just just so happen to have steel industries. You know who's got a big steel industry? India. India is in the WTO. So don't think that stripping the Buy American clause means a bunch of steel jobs are necessarily coming Canada's way.

[Oregone]

6. Are you under the impression the United States is the only country running deficits for stimulus?

[Uzybone]

3. Oh no "Buy American" is such a great idea

Even unions know its one of the more stupid ideas in the stimulus plan.

[Hello_Kitty]

7. Whereas using my tax dollars to create jobs in other countries is just brilliant

:eyes:

[w4rma]

4. I don't have a problem with exemptions for 1st world nations with strong environmental and labor

laws. Although, all of these nations, except our own, still have the competitive advantage of single-payer health care.

[Sandrine for you]

5. compare to the other occidental country, USA got half the rate

of syndicated employees.

[Hello_Kitty]

12. Well looky what I found!

Looks like Canada is a tad more protectionist about it's own industries than it wants us to be.

...While the United States (only) safeguards its preferences for domestic iron and steel used in federally funded state transportation projects, Canada simply carves out steel, motor vehicles and coal altogether (for all provinces, for all sectors), and also carves out all construction contracts issued by the Department of Transport. The EU carved out of its WTO procurement obligations all EU members’ country contracts awarded by federal governments and subfederal governments in connection with activities in the fields of drinking water, energy, transport or telecommunications. (On the links, just click on Appendix I, Annexes I-II, and the general notes. Some bits will be easy to read, other bits less so.)


Translated out of trade lingo, both Canada and EU give their nations' companies products much more generous preferences than Congress is even considering giving ours. While current U.S. laws (merely extended in the stimulus bill) give U.S. iron and steel a leg up over the foreign competition for transit projects, Canada and the EU give their firms products a leg up over American companies and products on EVERY aspect of transit funding, and many other government purchases besides...


http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2009/02/harper-gets-hypocritical-about-hypotheticals.html

Color me shocked at this! :eyes:

[StreetKnowledge]

15. One minor point......

It's called NAFTA! You can all this an unintended consequence, but NAFTA makes major trade protectionism illegal. The provinces can choose to use Canadian steel. America is the same. But what is different is that there is a preference. The idea of preference is the same as it is in the states - you want to work with domestic producers, right?

The Buy American rule will totally shut out any other producer from any other nation. In essence, your trying to kill a fly with a shotgun in trying to protect US steelmakers by outright banning everyone else.

[Hello_Kitty]

17. Wrong.

The Buy America Act (23 U.S.C § 103 (3)(4) and 49 U.S.C. § 5323(j) was adopted as part of the 1982 Surface Transportation Assistance Act,<2> and applies to transit-related procurements valued at more than $100,000, for which funding includes grants administered by the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) or Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Buy America provisions are a condition of U.S. federal government grants to state, municipal or other organizations including transit authorities. Grant programs and state procurement are not covered by NAFTA or the WTO's Agreement on Government Procurement (AGP).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4983574&mesg_id=4983574

Don't believe the spin.

[ContinentalOp]

18. You rock Hello Kitty! -nt-

[Hello_Kitty]

13. **crickets**

[Hello_Kitty]

14. ....aaaaand I'm still waiting....

[Sandrine for you]

20. Sorry dont have all the time, got to work alot too...come back on this.

[Hello_Kitty]

16. Oh, and guess what?

Turns out protections of U.S. iron and steel DON'T violate any trade pacts.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4983574&mesg_id=4983574

[ContinentalOp]

19. A K&R just for Hello Kitty. Canada, you get put on ignore! -nt-

[Bake]

21. Aren't Canadians "American"? North America, that is ...

Bake

[pampango]

22. Technically, sure they're American. As you know we have appropriated the term

to refer to US Americans. I bet most of the world couldn't tell a Canadian from an "American" if you paid them $100.

But Canadians do have a bit of an accent (or we do, I guess it depends on your perspective) and their passports are a different color than ours. They are so different from Americans (the US kind) that it boggles the mind that they would want equal treatment in anything. ;)

[Bake]

24. An accent, eh?

That's hard to get across in text! Damn!

:hi:

Bake

[IDemo]

23. It's actually "Buy", although "Bye American" applies increasingly as well