U.S. protectionism expanding: Clement

Source: The Canadian Press

WASHINGTON — U.S. protectionism is expanding rapidly despite President Barack Obama's commitment to free trade, Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement said Wednesday.

The so-called Buy American provisions in Mr. Obama's economic stimulus bill are increasingly slamming the door on Canadian companies looking to bid on contracts in the United States, Mr. Clement said following a speech to the National Association of Manufacturers.

“What's happened is, these provisions seem to be expanding in scope, and they're cascading down the system,” said Mr. Clement, in Washington to meet with key Obama officials and legislators.

“It seems to be metastasizing a little bit, which is of grave concern to Canada.”



Read more: http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090520.wclement0520/BNStory/Business/home

Why should US taxpayers spend untold billions to improve our economy only to see that much of it is going out of the country?

Item in the article.

On more than one occasion on Wednesday, Mr. Clement insisted that U.S. protectionism is more damaging to Americans than it is beneficial, though he couldn't explain why it's apparently spreading anyway.

http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090520.wclement0520/BNStory/Business/home

It is most likely that he and his boss are somewhat scared.
http://www.davidorchard.com/online/2do-index.html

Although typical of US protectionist efforts, high visibility, extremely high cost, completely off target, with zero practical benefit and agonizing retaliation against US value-added exports.

See: Bush II Steel Tariffs

Just thought I would enlighten the debate on this matter. :P

I prefer fair Trade that protects America's workers and America's consumers, and seeks to stop the exploitation of the environment and the use of slave labor in other countries.