Canadians Cry Foul as Buy American Policy Hits Home

(Toronto Star)

U.S. firms do thriving business in Canada as Obama policy shuts us out, owners say

As the poster boy for Buy American, steel industry executive Dan DiMicco is a leader in the campaign that is keeping Canadian companies from bidding on highly valuable urban renewal projects south of the border. But his North Carolina-based corporate giant continues to sell millions of dollars of structural steel in Canada every year with no problem.

The advantage enjoyed by Nucor Corp. and other huge U.S. companies has Canadian manufacturers up in arms, saying they are being barred from bidding on contracts in the U.S. even as American companies with free access to the Canadian market are beating them out for business here at home.

Their complaints have grown all the more urgent as efforts by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government to win an exemption for Canadian firms from Buy American in the U.S. have bogged down at the negotiating table.

John Hayward, who runs an industrial equipment plant in Halton Hills, said U.S. President Barack Obama talks about the importance of free trade “but the actions just aren’t matching up with the words. Read more here.