How should Canada react to the "buy american clause" ?

[Sandrine for you]

Sue USA ?
Do the same thing ?
Put taxes on petrol ?
Sell petrol to China instead of USA ?

[phantom power]

1. They should buy American, of course!

:evilgrin:

[Sanctified]

39. deleted, wrong reply n/t

[cherish44]

49. Stop selling us their cheap prescription drugs

That's what I'd do if were Canada. Hey we'd do something to fuck them over if they enacted a buy Canadian policy...

[liberal N proud]

2. Do what it says!

lol

[MNDemNY]

3. Make it a Buy American, (or Canadian) clause.

[Sandrine for you]

6. YEp I love that one.

[supernova]

4. But But, we're not being overrun with cheaply made RC Mountie Hats

and hockey sticks!

[Ganja Ninja]

16. No but they're probably building more cars sold in North America than we are

thanks to their national health care. They have a competitive advantage over us auto workers. And our motion picture and television production industry has been pretty much devastated by canadian policies. Granted it's not their fault so much as it is our government not having the will to take the steps necessary to keep American jobs in America.

[Oregone]

19. Ontario is devastated BTW

Not as bad as Detroit, but its still not good.


BTW, many don't realize this, there are US products everywhere in Canada, as well as US chains. Canadians also got to watch Linen N Things go under, the same as you. Its not like their market is closed to US goods and companies. There are a ton of US consumer companies and goods here, just as there are a ton of Canadian building materials in the States. Walking through a grocery store yesterday, I noticed a ton of US flags by all sorts of food products (this place shows the origins of the products).

Having this argument about China or Mexico is one thing. Having this argument about Canada is asinine.

[Ganja Ninja]

27. If Ontario is hurting it's not because of American imports.

All you have to do is look at our balance of trade with Canada to see who is getting the better. They're suffering from the same problem we are just to a lesser degree thanks to our Canadian oil imports.

I'm just saying we can't compete with them or anyone else if we don't start to demand a level playing field.

[Oregone]

35. No, its not from American imports at all, and I didn't say that

The Big 3 there is failing just as they are in the States. Bad management and competition with Asian imports is killing them.

There is no more of a level playing field for the US than Canada. That being said, there is such a thing as tariffs to settle disadvantages (if NAFTA was absolved). But outright bans are ridiculous.

[dbonds]

5. Buy American isn't for everything bought and sold in the US...

It is for the infrastructure projects that are paid for as part of this stimulus bill. If Canada wants to react to it then they can do the same with their stimulus bill.

[Sandrine for you]

10. So do the same thing...Yes but it's not legal...

[dbonds]

12. Canada can't put that restriction on tax payer projects?

Is that in the constitution?

[Sandrine for you]

14. We sign somes international agreements, it could become a real

legal and economic war...

If we act, we expose ourselves to be sued.

[dbonds]

18. But this is something very specific and special, would general agreements apply?

This is US tax payer money (mostly borrowed) that's main reason for being spent is to stimulate the US economy. It doesn't achieve that effect if it goes outside the US. In other spending all standing agreements would still apply. Canada has always played fair with the trade agreements with the US, I don't think normal spending will change.

[Sandrine for you]

29. I perfectly understand that the US people want that money to help

the us steel miners instead of the gaspesians one. But the fact is that our agreements apply also to governmental project. But maybe we should just stay low as someone tell here.

[pampango]

48. I've been aske by someone what is the international agreement commits

the US and Canada to permit each other to participate in governmental projects. Is that NAFTA or another agreement between the US and Canada?

Thanks in advance.

[pampango]

30. That's quaint. You actually expect to live up to the international agreements

they have signed. You Canadians really are different from Americans.

If we don't like our international agreements, we just pass new "special" laws that fund "special" projects so that we don't have to keep our commitments.

[meegbear]

7. OBEY!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

44. Your sigline is right on.

I want people to remember me as the asshole I've always been, hence no name change.

[terisan]

8. We should encourage trade between Canada and US-We need each other. nt

[Oregone]

9. Adopt a "Sell China" provision!

Sell all their oil and resources to China, and bring America wimpering on its knees in weeks.

[Sandrine for you]

11. Yes and we will become friend again...

[Oregone]

13. Yes, the US will learn to appreciate their best friend

Itd be tough to make it without the guy supplying a plurality of their oil, and a large chunk of industrial resources.


It would usher in a new age of global responsibility and diplomacy on the US's behalf. Hurray. That or the US would flip Canada the bird and start drilling in ANWR

[Sandrine for you]

15. I dont think It will be really good for the canadian economy if the USA go down the flush

[Oregone]

17. Their economic output was down .7% in December

No, it isn't good. Here is a country that has exercised a great deal of care over their finances (drastically reducing their deficit for a decade straight). They regulate credit branches and make sure that again, like during the great depression, their banks are not vulnerable to fail (not even a single one). They have done almost everything by the book for some time, except for what Harper fudged. They had an incredibly stable, strong, and growing economy.

Now they are prepared to run a two year $60 billion dollar deficit due to conditions they cannot control. Its not good for them, and many are incredibly frustrated. Diversifying their trading partners (which brought them out of the Great Depression by switching from the US to Europe) will only ensure future stability to avoid something like this will happen again. The US is going down the flush regardless (a trade war will only make it come a few years quicker). Now Canada has to figure out what they are going to have to do to avoid getting completely sucked down and protect their people.

[Sandrine for you]

24. Yes we have to diversify our partners...but as a canadian, I'm

more optimist about the US economy.

[Oregone]

36. And as a carpet-bagging American,

Im not at all.

I hope you're right.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

20. It should react in the manner the Queen of England tells Canada to react.

More seriously, however, it should respond as it wants to respond.

[Sandrine for you]

28. The Queen tell us that all your troop are in Irak, so we should take New-York City.

[applegrove]

21. I heard someone say that we should make our own cars.

People are not happy I can tell you that much.

[Oregone]

41. If you want America to makes its own car, advocate a nationalized Green Volkswagen project

Because trusting private companies under the current system to do one damn thing based on national loyalty is naive. But further, if you are looking to stimulate domestic production, there are a lot of places to go first, before Canada, to complain about (such as Mexico).

[elocs]

22. Isn't Canada part of North America? So aren't they also "Americans"? n/t

[Sandrine for you]

32. Yes you hijack this identity.

[TahitiNut]

34. Since when does the official name of any other western hemisphere nation include the word "America"?

Officially and diplomatically, we're the "United States of America" which is why it's OK to call us "the States" or "America" or our citizens "Americans." Get over it.

This imbecilic canard is meaningful only to idiots and assholes. :puke:

[Raskolnik]

23. They should shut up and hope we don't notice all the stuff laying around up there we could use.

We could revive our economy by seizing their vast canadian bacon mines in the Rockies.

[Kansas Wyatt]

25. They should react the same way Americans do...

When Canadians can come to the USA to work, but Americans cannot go to Canada to work. Just accept it.

[Ezlivin]

26. A preemptive strike

They should arrest most of the members of the previous administration and hold them hostage until we capitulate.

[Sandrine for you]

31. lol that's a good one..

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Name removed]

42. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[TahitiNut]

33. Canada exports $4.5 billion more to the U.S. than it imports.

Overall, Canada has a worldwide balance of trade SURPLUS. The U.S. has a worldwide balance of trade DEFICIT.

If other countries don't buy our products and services as much as we buy theirs, then we have to buy our own ... if only to survive economically.

It's that fucking simple. :shrug:

[Oregone]

37. So banning Canadian imports is the answer?

Oh my, just when I thought tariffs would become popular again, the Lemmings are jumping over the cliff.

[Name removed]

38. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[TahitiNut]

45. Ridiculous straw man.

Fallacy-plagued thinking deserves attention ... from educators and/or shrinks, not me.

:shrug:

[Sanctified]

40. Isn't buying from any country in North or South America buying American? n/t

[architect359]

51. No. n/t

[ContinentalOp]

43. Go screw themselves?

:shrug:

[Sandrine for you]

46. The canadian federal gouvernment want this question to be close before the Obama visit in Canada

[ColbertWatcher]

47. I'd like it if they invaded us. n/t

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

50. Take Washington and Oregon as a consolation prize.

[LSdemocrat]

52. Force their evil universal health care down our throats

Make us suffer under the jack-boot of socialism as every American gets free access to necessary health care imposed on them from above.

That'll show us . . .

[Spazito]

53. We should react to what is really behind the "Buy American" issue....

instead of all the hyperbole going on now, imo. The "Buy American" clause relates to using government infrastructure monies. The US SHOULD be buying US steel first, imo, instead of buying crappy Chinese steel while exporting US steel for a higher return.

NAFTA sucks and should be scrapped and a FAIR trade agreement negotiated. There will always be trade between Canada and the United States, there always has been. Before NAFTA, there were other trade agreements. We, in Canada, will continue to export our oil, electricity, water, etc. Canada is still a resource-based economy while the US has gone from a manufacturing economy to a consumer and credit economy.

I support the "Buy American" clause as it is meant to be used and all the whining by Canadians is ridiculous and solves nothing. We, Canadians, depend on the US economy being sound and I believe the "Buy American" clause regarding infrastructure monies is one of the ways to slowly fix the absolute mess the bush cabal left for the Obama Administration to fix.

[pampango]

54. Until NAFTA is scrapped, or at least amended, it gives Canada and the US equal rights

to participate in each others government projects. We may not like it. We may even decide to ignore the agreement and do whatever we want here. I don't think that ignoring international agreements and the negotiations that lead to them is that Obama's vision of foreign and economic policy, but we will see.

[Spazito]

55. Actually, if you go clause by clause in NAFTA, it gives corporations rights....

with regard to government and private sector trade/projects. Each country, Canada and the US, leaving out for the moment Mexico, can spend a great deal of time, effort and monies taking each other to the WTO and other agencies to protest such things as the "Buy American" clause relating to infrastructure monies or they can acknowledge these are very precarious times, economically for both countries and work toward helping each other overcome the crisis and move their economies to a sounder footing. I favor the latter over the former.

[pampango]

56. If you're saying that it might be in Canada's interest to ignore and not appeal

any "Buy American" policy, that could very well be true. That would be a decision that Canadians would have to make. From statements made by a Canadian minister the other day, it doesn't seem to be their inclination at least at this point. Maybe that will change.

I just hope that Obama doesn't start off his administration by ignoring provisions in agreements with our best trading partner and neighbor and telling them they can "like it or lump it". I don't think that is the kind of international diplomacy that he campaigned on. Now if Canada feels that it is in its long term interest to make an exception of any "Buy American" policy in the stimulus bill, I understand and hope that Obama discusses it with them first.

[Spazito]

57. There will be negotiations, I have no doubt...

President Obama is the antithesis of the bush 'for us or agin us", "bring it on" crap. Our government is currently neocon lites, albeit with a leash due to their minority status, but will have to acknowledge the current global economic crisis and negotiate terms that help both countries strengthen the foundations of their economies.