This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on February 12, 2009.
In one of his more dramatic Question Period performances, the federal NDP Leader announced last week that the “United States has had a Buy American Act for 76 years,” and that “it's perfectly legal.” He then followed up: “Can the Prime Minister tell us what's wrong with a Buy Canadian policy as permitted under continental and global trade rules?”
The question was prompted by the new protectionist proviso attached to Congress's economic stimulus bill. It is, however, premised on a faulty foundation.
The legal truth is a complicated one. It involves a fine analysis of U.S. legislative history, along with Canada's treaty obligations under the North American free-trade agreement, and the World Trade Organization rules and their annexes on central and subcentral government procurement policies. The Canadian Auto Workers, with their allies the United Steelworkers, have procured a legal opinion on which Jack Layton's assertions are apparently based, although a careful reading of the opinion reveals the complexity. But if you think organized labour and its politicians can't turn a multifaceted legal question into a singular polemic about economic nationalism, then you don't know Jack.