Biden promised to double down on ‘Buy American’ and require all materials used in federal infrastructure projects to be made in the U.S.
\nCanadian manufacturers are concerned about a promise made by U.S. president Joe Biden in his state of the union speech Tuesday evening, pledging to use only American materials in infrastructure projects.
\nThe Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters were quick to respond Wednesday morning, calling the promise \u201cbad news\u201d for Canadian manufacturing and \u201cintegrated North American supply chains.\u201d The trade association said there is a need for a \u201cstrong response\u201d to \u201cpush back and protect Canadian access to the U.S. procurement market.\u201d
\nCEO Dennis Darby said in an interview Canada is going to have to push to be included, as it has successfully done in the past. He noted the United States is the most important market for Canadian manufacturers and exporters.
\n\u201cWhen the U.S. president, even in a domestic speech, says we\u2019re going to increase \u2026 U.S. requirements for procurement projects, that\u2019s concerning.\u201d
\nCanada is going to have to follow up and figure out \u201care we inside the tent or not,\u201d Darby said.
\nIn the speech, Biden promised \u201cnew standards to require all construction materials used in federal infrastructure projects to be made in America.\u201d He said that includes lumber, glass, drywall, and fibre-optic cables.
\n\u201cAnd on my watch, American roads, bridges, and American highways are going to be made with American products.\u201d
\nBiden also added a line not included in the text of the speech. \u201cI get criticized for this, but I make no excuses for it. We\u2019re going to buy American \u2026 And it\u2019s totally consistent with international trade rules.\u201d
\nInternational Trade Minister Mary Ng said in an emailed statement that \u201cCanadian businesses, manufacturers, and workers have long-served as the cornerstone for strong and reliable U.S. infrastructure \u2014 and we will always stand up for them.\u201d
\n\u201cAs a top exporter to over 30 US states, it is important to have fair trading systems that support Canadian jobs, create stability for our workers, and growth on both sides of the border.\u201d
\nThe BC Lumber Trade Council issued a release calling Biden\u2019s statements \u201cconcerning\u201d and said it is \u201cseeking to better understand what this means for Canadian producers.\u201d But the group\u2019s president, Linda Coady, said in the statement its focus \u201cremains on working on both sides of the border to maximize the opportunity Canada has in providing the sustainably produced, low-carbon lumber products we know American homebuilders, consumers and construction workers want and need.\u201d
\nIn his speech, Biden referred to Buy American, which has been law since 1933. \u201cBut for too long, past administrations, Democrat and Republican, have fought to get around it. Not anymore,\u201d he said.
\nBuy American rules apply to direct purchases by the U.S. government. The United States also has a separate law called Buy America, which applies specifically to purchases of manufactured products for infrastructure projects.
\nTrade expert Peter Clark said both laws are \u201crestrictive.\u201d While Canada has previously managed to negotiate exemptions to be included in made-in-America criteria, such as with electric vehicles, he wasn\u2019t positive that would be the case again.
\n\u201cI think their chances of getting locked out are much greater than being included.\u201d
\nHe said there is no recourse to these provisions other than trying to negotiate on a specific product.
\nClark said Canada has been dealing with similar issues for decades. While Canada has sometimes able to negotiate exemptions, in general situations in the past have played out in a way that was favourable to the U.S. and not favourable to Canada, Clark said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very frustrating field.\u201d
\nDarby was more optimistic. \u201cI don\u2019t think Mr. Biden woke up and thought, boy, we better keep Canada from competing,\u201d he said.
\nHe said there\u2019s a need to take a \u201cteam Canada\u201d approach in response to these types of announcements.
\n\u201cThat we work with our counterparts, our government officials work with their counterparts, to make sure that we don\u2019t get caught in oftentimes what are policies which are, if I could delicately say, usually not aimed at Canada. They\u2019re aimed at other countries that are dumping products into the U.S. market.\u201d
\nDarby said the first step will be to figure out the specifics of Biden\u2019s promise. \u201cThe devil is in the details. Right now we have to go back to our officials, and our embassy and others and \u2026 get the details.\u201d
\nU.S. ambassador to Canada David Cohen said in emailed statement that \u201cPresident Biden\u2019s build back better agenda is all about improving economic prosperity, security, and competitiveness \u2013 issues we know Canadians also care about deeply.\u201d
\nThe statement noted Buy American \u201chas been a feature of federal procurement law in the United States since 1933.\u201d
\n\u201cAs the President noted in his State of the Union Address, Buy American relates only to federal government public procurement. It does not relate at all to private commercial trade. We believe there are ample opportunities to work with Canada on supply chain security and resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nationalpost<\/p>\n
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Biden promised to double down on ‘Buy American’ and require all materials used in federal infrastructure projects to be made in the U.S. Canadian manufacturers are concerned about a promise made by U.S. president Joe Biden in his state of the union speech Tuesday evening, pledging to use only American materials in infrastructure projects. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1155],"tags":[1169,1563,1375],"class_list":["post-5520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-biden","tag-joe","tag-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5522,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5520\/revisions\/5522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}