United States President Joe Biden wants to promote job creation in the United States by strengthening local purchasing policies. (Photo: Getty Images) t
–
TO ANALYSE. The Biden administration is developing new legislation to strengthen the local purchasing policies of the Buy American and you Buy America. However, it could well be that there are exemptions for Canadian companies, estimates a Montreal firm specializing in international trade.
“The new version of the Buy America Act is taking shape. There is good hope that Canadian companies will benefit from exemptions, ”writes Bernard Colas, lawyer specializing in issues at CMKZ, in his mid-2021 forecasts in international trade law.
Check out my latest book Zoom on the World: 10 Geopolitical Keys to Understanding the United States by Joe Biden.
–
If so, Canadian companies would be treated as US companies in a way. Thus, Canadian exporters of goods and services would not have to comply with the Buy American and at Buy America, two measures aimed at creating jobs in the United States.
Adopted in 1933 during the Depression, the Buy American Act promotes purchases of federal government goods for public use (items, materials or supplies) valued above the micro-purchase threshold.
Adopted in 1982 at the end of the 1981-1982 recession, the provisions of Buy America for their part, apply to purchases relating to transport valued at more than US $ 100,000.
Since taking office in the White House, US President Joe Biden has enacted two initiatives that will ultimately strengthen the Buy American and the Buy America :
Interviewed at DealsLawyer Bernard Colas says there are likely exemptions for Canadian companies, because the Government of Canada is lobbying Washington on this issue intensely.
The lawyer is also optimistic because of the precedent of February 2010.
How the market has remained open for Canada
The new Democratic administration of Barack Obama (of which Joe Biden was the vice-president) then granted exemptions to Canadian companies in its plan to revive the American economy, in the wake of the Great Recession in the United States (of December 2007 to June 2009).
The Canada-U.S. Government Procurement Agreement allowed Canadian companies to participate in U.S. infrastructure projects funded under theAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
In return, Canada had opened up its sub-national procurement markets (that is, all provinces and territories except Nunavut) to US companies.
Access to government markets in the United States is a major issue for Canadian companies, due to the integration of North American supply chains, underlines a report released in June by the Special Committee on Economic Relations. between Canada and the United States of the House of Commons, in Ottawa.
During the hearings that led to the publication of this report, several companies and organizations expressed concern about the impact of strengthening the Buy American and you Buy America on Canadian companies if they did not have exemptions.
For example, Ontario’s IPEX, which manufactures thermoplastic piping systems for the municipal sector, has suggested it could build plants in the United States if Canada does not get an exemption.
For its part, the Unifor union recalled that the increase in required American content imposed in 2018 for “federally funded public transport purchases” from the United States forced a Canadian company to lay off dozens of members. from Unifor.
They worked in an assembly plant in Winnipeg.
– .
