Thread: Harper asks Congress to fight Buy American

Harper asks Congress to fight Buy American

Sheldon Alberts, Washington Correspondent, Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, September 17, 2009

WASHINGTON -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Thursday urged Democratic and Republican leaders in the U.S. Congress to fight protectionist legislation that threatens to shut Canadian companies out of the American marketplace.

In a rare visit for a Canadian prime minister to Capitol Hill, Mr. Harper pressed Canada's case for an exemption to Buy American provisions that have been inserted into several pieces of legislation, most notably the US$787-billion economic stimulus bill.

Mr. Harper met with Senate majority leader Harry Reid and his Republican counterpart, Senator Mitch McConnell, before a separate session later with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner, the Republican minority leader.

"The discussion focused on our integrated economies, where the prime minister took the opportunity to raise the continued importance to fight protectionism by promoting open and free trade," Mr. Harper's spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, said following the Senate meeting. "The prime minister reiterated Canada's proposal on the issue of the Buy America clause and expressed the importance of the role that the American Senate can play in supporting a resolution."

Mr. Harper's visit to the U.S. Capitol was part of a concerted push to take Canada's concerns over Buy American provisions in the stimulus bill directly to their place of origin in Congress.

But for all the sharp rhetoric emanating from Ottawa recently about rising U.S. protectionism, Mr. Harper did not voice them in public while on Capitol Hill.

The prime minister, Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Boehner refused to take questions from reporters during a five-minute photo opportunity outside the Speaker's office. But Harper did make one error in protocol -- mistakenly referring to Mr. Boehner as the House majority leader, in English and French remarks.

Ms. Pelosi did not try to correct the prime minister, and made no reference to bilateral trade irritants during her own brief remarks.

"Canada and the United States are, as we know, the closest of friends and we value that friendship enormously in the Congress of the United States," Ms. Pelosi said. "We know they are our biggest trading partners, they are our very close neighbours, and our very good friends."

Mr. Harper is to speak Thursday night in New York to a Canada-U.S. business group before returning to Ottawa for a confidence vote in Parliament on Friday.

The meetings on Capitol Hill followed an hour-long White House visit on Wednesday with President Barack Obama, where he called "forces of protectionism . . . a very significant threat" to the Canada-U.S. trade relationship.

The Harper government is in talks with the Obama administration aimed at winning an exemption for Canadian companies from Buy American provisions in the stimulus bill.

The two sides have appointed negotiators to explore the possibility of an agreement that would give U.S. companies access to provincial and municipal contracts in Canada, in exchange for opening state and local contracts to Canadian firms.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2004525

That was a National Economic Recovery Plan. It was never intended to be International, nor should it. We need those provisions and you still get enough money from normal trade. Keep your hands off our stimulus.

What makes any of these foreign leaders think they need to get in the middle of our business? Geez! Butt out Harper........

I've never seen a "made in Canada" label.

Dixie