‘Buy American’ Hard to Halt: Harper

(CBC News)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned Canadians on Thursday that discouraging protectionist trade policies in the United States might not be a straightforward task.

Speaking at a news conference announcing a new economic agency for southern Ontario in Kitchener, Harper touched on the subject of how Canada could best discourage a growing call for trade protectionism by its southern neighbour.

Protectionism in the face of moribund local economies featured prominently in discussions in Guadalajara, Mexico earlier this week among Harper, U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

There are global fears that the “Buy American” provisions slipped into the $787-billion US stimulus package by the U.S. Congress last February and designed to stimulate job creation in the United States will cut off any nascent economic recovery in Canada at its knees.

Ottawa is confident that an agreement on the issue can be reached, Harper said, but he cautioned that won’t simply being a case of getting a pledge from Obama on the issue. Read more here.

Related: Canada, U.S. business groups unite against Buy American (Calgary Herald)