I...don't even know what to say about this.

[therealjae]

As I was running around town today, I listened to a podcast of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's October 17th edition of the Canadian political affairs programme "The House." One of the things they've been dealing with on that programme lately is the ways in which the U.S.'s protectionist "Buy American" policies have affected their largest

Comments

[pene]

good heavens.

[redbird]

The American is probably one of the people who thinks foreign=overseas, so of course the policy doesn't apply to a land border.

There's an argument that all political boundaries are imaginary, in the sense that they aren't physical things the way rivers or mountaintops are, but I somehow doubt that the mayor of Courtland is being that philosophical. If he has a theory, it probably doesn't go any deeper than "I've been going there without a passport for years" (and not noticing that the rules have changed).

[therealjae]

If he's been coming here without a passport for years, then it's been a while since he's been. But my concern is that it's more that he's never been to Canada at all, ever, and so he doesn't really get it.

But that's just the one U.S. mayor--the bigger question is about the U.S. Congress. Could they have really just not considered that "Buy American" meant more than just "Don't Buy Chinese and Indian" when their largest trading partner shares a border with them? That's...insanity!

-J

[wcg]

No, I don't think it could possibly be true. While I'm willing to accept that a few members of the US Congress are that short sighted, they don't constitute a voting majority.

What I do think would have made more sense would have been to craft the law so as to provide exemptions for both Canada and Mexico, as the other two members of NAFTA.

[locketportrait]

I would've guessed that "Buy American" was designed with Mexico as one of the targets!