U.S. Protectionism Remains Alive — To Canada’s Detriment

(Barbara Yaffe — Vancouver Sun)

An ever-thickening border between the two countries imposes annual costs of $15 billion to $20 billion on Canadian exporters, official says.

Despite a warm, fuzzy glow that followed Barack Obama’s February visit to Ottawa, Canadians are witnessing serious signs of greater U.S. protectionism and a thickening border.

That’s the conclusion of several former senior government officials who put forward their view this month in a series of articles on the Canada-U.S. relationship.

John Manley, Derek Burney and Colin Robertson, writing in the latest issue of Policy Options, a political journal published in Montreal, assert that Canada needs to get a lot more aggressive in protecting its trade, energy and security interests. […]

[T]he Buy American provisions are poised to hurt Canadian industry.

In fact, the damage already has begun, asserts Manley. He cites Hayward Gordon Ltd. in Ontario, shut out of bidding for a Maryland water treatment project, and a Calgary company, DIRTT Environmental Solutions, that has opened a plant in Georgia to get around the Buy America provision.

Writes Manley: “The siren call of protectionism has grown louder as the economy has deteriorated and Canada’s vital interests are at risk.” Auto manufacturers in this country, he says, “are under intense pressure to relocate manufacturing to the U.S.” because of the ever-thickening border. Read the complete article here.