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| TITLE |
'Buy America' raises 'grave concerns' |
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administrator |
DATE |
2009-01-30 09:03:56 |
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'Buy America' raises 'grave concerns'
By Kristine Owram, Thu 29 Jan 2009
TORONTO - Canadian steel producers and builders say they have "grave concerns" about a U.S. proposal that would call on major public works projects to favour U.S. steel over imported metal.
'There's no question about it that some of our members and even non-members export work to the U.S. and it's a substantial part of their business," said Mike Gilmor, president of the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction.
'We obviously have grave, grave concerns."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the provision, which has been attached to the massive economic stimulus package working its way through the U.S. Congress, goes against the spirit of free trade.
'I spoke to our ambassador about it yesterday and I know that countries around the world are expressing grave concern about some of these measures that go against not just the obligations of the United States, but frankly the spirit of our G20 discussions," Harper said in the House of Commons on Thursday.
'We will be having these discussions with our friends in the United States and we expect the United States to respect its international obligations."
Gilmor said the provision seems to be modelled on a 1987 act that already restricts Canadian companies from bidding on federally funded bridge-building projects in the U.S.
'We have been effectively shut out of the bridge market since '87 by that act, and this (provision) would expand it to gas and oil pipelines, to airports, to schools and a broad range of structures that our members participate in building," he said.
Canada's big steelmakers, the former Dofasco, Stelco, Ipsco and Algoma Steel, which have all been bought by foreign buyers, sell to the energy, auto, construction and energy pipe markets on both sides of the border.
The former Dofasco and Ipsco have long had major mills in the United States and operated in a continental marketplace.
Gilmor said that if the so-called "Buy America" provision is passed, it may be possible for the Canadian steel industry to challenge it under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
But that could be a long fight as the decades-long dispute over softwood lumber trade suggests.
'As you know, the softwood lumber industry has never really been successful in getting a good resolution," Gilmor said. "It takes a lot of money, a lot of government time and it's rarely successful."
Canadian lumber shipments to the U.S. are restricted under a 2006 agreement between the two countries, the latest in a series of trade-curtailing deals that go back to the 1980s in which the U.S. softwood lumber industry managed to get a curb on imports from Canada.
The U.S. forestry lobby threatened to use American trade law to fight what the American industry said was illegally subsidized Canadian wood shipments to the U.S. market.
As for steel trade, the European Union also warned Thursday that it would protest the "Buy America" provision.
EU spokesman Peter Power said the EU would not "stand idly by and ignore" a bill that "prohibits the sale or purchase of European goods on American territory."
The measure was included in President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package, which was approved late Wednesday by the U.S. House of Representatives. It will be voted on in the U.S. Senate next week.
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