Canada Needs to Put Its House in Order, Too

(David Hale — Financial Post)

It is difficult to imagine the United States and Canada having a trade war after signing a free-trade deal in 1988 that was later broadened under NAFTA to include Mexico. Yet the rhetoric around trade on both sides of the border has been heating up. California recently cancelled an order for Ontario steel. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities voted by a margin of 189-175 in June to exclude U.S. companies from infrastructure projects funded through Canadian cities.

The fact that both countries are federations has produced a unique trade conflict centering on state and provincial government procurement policies, one that could have been avoided if Canada and the United States had properly finished the trade deal they began negotiating in the late 1980s. That conflict can now be resolved if both governments finally address omissions of the past. Read more here.