'Twas Ever Thus

Canada signed off on two free-trade deals with its neighbouring giant; the original FTA (Free Trade Agreement) between the two countries, and its successor, NAFTA -- the North American Free Trade Agreement, between Canada, the United States and Mexico. Despite the agreements there have always been trade disputes, mostly initiated by lobbyists appealing to the U.S. Congress, reverting to trade-protectionist reflexes.

The U.S. Congress can override any agreement it wishes. Disagreements can always be referred to the WTO, the World Trade Organization whose purpose is to judge such disputes through global rules of trade, and often finds against the United States, which decision does not always sit well with Congress and occasionally is ignored by it. It's what happens when you're big and powerful.

You're always -- well, usually -- right, since might makes right. And the United States is mighty big, mighty powerful, mighty wealthy and mightily self-absorbed. And prone, very much so, despite signing off on free trade deals, to cling to protectionism. So a small power bargaining with a much larger one can expect to get whomped occasionally by the short end of the stick, and it smarts.

But there are recourses. As much as the U.S. tries to close itself off to competition from abroad, it also insists it has the right to make inroads within other national boundaries. So, since that's the kind of game played by the U.S. why shouldn't others reciprocate? Whether the issue is lumber or wheat, manufactured products or services, the U.S. often pulls rank and cites unfair advantages from the other side.

"Buy America" seems to sound the peal of liberty and love of country when economic times are teetering on bad. As they were recently, and still are, from 2008 forward with the global melt-down, which emanated in large part from the failure of American financial houses to discipline themselves when they issued worthless paper through mortgages that had no financial spine and fell apart on the international market.

Canadian manufacturers have simmered with frustration over American protectionism excluding them from bidding on U.S. public sector procurement markets. If they build and operate factories to produce in the United States they're spared exclusion. The alternate doesn't occur. So why not restrict U.S. manufacturers from bidding on Canadian procurement markets int he public sector? Sounds eminently sensible.

Stimulus funding during the recession had a "Buy American" stimulus that precluded Canadian companies bidding to the Department of Transportation for transit, highway or airport projects. Stimulus spending was directed to domestic American companies or foreign companies with manufacturing facilities in the U.S. Canada's temporary pleading of special-relationship relief has expired, with no new talks in the offing as yet.

And as Congress -- while the United States gradually but surely hauls itself out of the recession it has wobbled in for years --  has voted to fund more appropriation bills and infrastructure programs, it has also slapped more protectionist "Buy American" provisions along to stick with those bills. Free trade, as it were, be dammed.

Now the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters organization with the backing of Canada's steel producers are calling on the Government of Canada to apply reciprocal measures. Government has been urged by Jayson Myers, president of the CME, to use the $53-billion infrastructure investment to "ensure that Canadian companies can compete on a fair and reciprocal basis against international competitors."

Sounds more polite than "Buy Canadian", since Canadians at every level are hugely supportive of free trade. Open access to foreign bidders is the Canadian way, but not, evidently, the U.S., China or Korean way. Canadian industry would like U.S. companies like Nucor Corp., which bids on Canadian public projects to be locked out. That would deliver an unmistakable message that correction should be made.

Besides which, the tone was set for trade and cooperative alienation in the current American administration with the Keystone pipeline, whose decision remains pending, with huge amounts of both expectation and dread. The environmental lobby has instilled its voice and its ostensible conscience within this president's political correctness psyche. Irrespective of the validity of claims of 'dirty oil' whose carbon footprint is minuscule in comparison to the American 'dirty coal' imprint.

The border that was once so open between the two countries, simplifying the passage of goods and services has now become fairly sclerotic in its old age, post 9/11.