U.S. Chamber of Commerce joins fight against Buy American

Source: Globe and Mail Update, Thursday, Jun. 11, 2009 03:24PM EDT

A major U.S. business group has joined Ottawa in pushing the Obama administration to loosen Buy American purchasing restrictions that have shut many Canadian companies out of lucrative U.S. contracts.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Thursday it will urge the U.S. Office of Management and Budget to give government agencies, states and cities greater freedom on where they buy products as the United States deploys billions in economic stimulus cash.

U.S. businesses and local governments are quickly waking up to the reality that Buy American restrictions are likely to cause them substantial harm, particularly if countries such as Canada retaliate with protectionism of their own, said Myron Brilliant, the chamber's senior vice-president of international.

“We could be at risk for billions of dollars and we're very concerned about those numbers,” Mr. Brilliant told reporters in Washington.



Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/us-chamber-of-commerce-joins-fight-against-buy-american/article1178098/

Has that very thing.

“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is effectively suggesting that America needs to buy more Canadian to dig out of our economic hole. That position doesn't pass the U.S. economic interest laugh test. The U.S. Chamber in Washington should change its name to the ‘Chamber for Offshoring U.S. Jobs.'”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/us-chamber-of-commerce-joins-fight-against-buy-american/article1178098/

Canada actually buys more finished goods from the US that they do from Canada. Its a positive trade relationship that encourages domestic production--one that should be promoted and guarded.

The reason there is a trade deficit with Canada is because Americans refuse to drill offshore and into Alaska. They would rather have Canadians fuck up their own oil sands. The US gets a plurality of their oil from Canada, due to their NIMBY energy policies (which do not help out the world, but just shifts environmental destruction out of eyesight). Anyway, this is the "cost" of pretending to be Green. I digress.

That would reduce our dependancy on foreign oil much faster than either option by itself.

Drilling will speed this up.

And its ultimately the end goal, so might as well make it the starting goal

Alternative energy still needs a lot of research.
Electrical energy needs better batteries before being efficient for example. And more research needs to go into the environmental consequences that goes along with creating and disposing of these batteries. The same can be said for all other alternative methods than oil, that they need much more research before being realistically implimented.

Additionally alternative energy will drive up the cost of vehicles. Poor people need to drive too. Cheaper gas helps the poor better.

Anything that raises the cost of gas right now is bad for everyone. Trucks run on gas and the consequences would be the prices of everything would go up. So raising the price of gas to force everyone to drive electric or some other alternative fuelled vehicle would be bad for our country until such alternatives become cheaper.

FYI I drive 60,000 miles a year myself so would be totally against anything that raises the cost of gas. If more efficient vehicles were to come out naturally I would upgrade to them if they are priced where I can afford to do so.

Until then, in the short run drilling at home is the best option. It will cheapen gas faster. It will reduce the need to pay for oil from totalitarian regimes or anyone else for that matter sooner. Drilling can be done now with todays technology. But must first give oil companies an incentive to drill, to get them to be willing to spend the cash to do the drilling.

Money sent to Canada doesn't fund the Canadian Al Queda branch, you know. You realize oil drilled domestically is sold on the world market by trans-national oil companies? Oil drilled in America doesn't belong to America. Its just the reality. All it could possibly do is increase supply, and decrease oil price (which would reduce the urgency for reducing fuel consumption). In the end, its a losing game. We have a problem that we cannot drill ourselves out of.

"Cheaper gas helps the poor better."

Not when their environment becomes unable to support agriculture. And there is always mass transit...

"until such alternatives become cheaper"

Alternatives are already cheaper (hydro/wind electrity). We merely need innovation in the market to take advantage of such alternatives. These types of cars already exist and are already on roadways (though starting at $15K). They are already getting cheaper.

"FYI I drive 60,000 miles a year myself so would be totally against anything that raises the cost of gas."

Hence, you are an admitted biased party. Anyone who drives that much naturally prioratizes the cost of gas over the detriment of the environment. I pay almost $4 bucks a gallon now (more last summer), but Im still trying to detach myself from the price and look at the situation in contrast to the impending global catastrophe

"drilling at home is the best option. It will cheapen gas faster."

The oil will be sold all over the world. Cheaper gas will not fix the environment.

"It will reduce the need to pay for oil from totalitarian regimes or anyone else for that matter sooner."

This is not right at all. The population is growing exponentially. By drilling, we wouldn't see much market downward pressure for, as some estimates go, 10 to 20 years. By such time, demand would probably out pace this adjustment. Its just an all around losing game.

"But must first give oil companies an incentive to drill, to get them to be willing to spend the cash to do the drilling."

LOL. They got plenty of incentive. You haven't seen their profit sheets lately, eh? In fact, the higher the price of oil, the more incentive they have.

per day that will feed the US thirst? Alaska's North Slope is in decline.
http://www.adn.com/money/industries/oil/story/728349.html

and the oil companies are sitting on thousands of land leases they haven't even used, but they want to drill where they don't have those leases. Also, those "American" oil companies export over half of our oil. So, we got the pro-offshore drillers crying that we got to drill at home and be more independent, while the so-called American oil companies are drilling here and selling it to the highest bidder (which appears not to be us).

A large part of the environmental destruction of the swamps of southern Louisiana is due to dredging canals to facilitate building oil rigs in those same swamps.

There is an environmental price to be paid for pumping oil and it's not always the same everywhere. Oil rigs at sea can actually increase beneficial marine life by acting as artificial reefs. In the swamps though I know for a fact from my own observation that oil production has been extremely detrimental to a critical ecosystem.

I'm just pointing out that trade is pretty par, except for us outsourcing the destruction (and there is definitely horrendous destruction in Alberta). This outsourcing based on NIMBY policy has a price, that shouldn't be considered in the trade balance.

When you don't consider this, the trade relationship between the US and Canada is fantastic and beneficial to both parties. This is how trade was supposed to work (between nations of similar quality of life, whereas competitive advantages would cancel each other out). The US/Canada trade relationship is not the reason for the plight of the American worker. America is more than welcome to have all those oil jobs back, but for the most part, they don't want em. :)

Exactly. The problem is trade with states where the 'efficiency' factor of comparative advantage includes slave-wages as a sub-factor.

companies that receive stimulus funds.

That amounts to about 5% of all the Canadian steel that the US purchases.

Applies there is correct.

But the individual states have requirements as well. As they are dispersing the funds their requirements have to be met.

If the matter is not resolved it could soon develop into a trade war.

Also like to add that the US steel companies have shut down their Canadian companies. Or they put them on temporary leave. After shutting down the furnaces.


http://www.thestar.com/business/article/649342#
Capitol Hill legislators are stubborn, Kristof Champney says, and believe it's sufficient that the bill contains a requirement that international trade obligations must be honoured.

"When we speak to members of Congress and tell them that provision has no application at all municipally or regionally, they look at you with a blank stare of confusion and then you see efforts to try to save face," she said.

"They sort of try to wiggle around the issue without addressing it head on ... Congress is not quick to admit error so it's not going to be an easy process to get this thing reversed."

A Canadian embassy official said earlier this week that many Capitol Hill legislators have been surprised to hear how many jobs in their jurisdictions are tied to trade with Canada.

the federal mandate.

What exactly is wrong with looking out for one's own economic interests in the middle of a recession?

Does not have a buy Canadian policy nor attitude.

Exactly. If Canada should adopt that policy it would be a realignment.

http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2009/02/canadian-businesses-support-buy-canada-.html

It does not bother me. I personally would save my own family before anyone else if I had to. I believe we have enough jobless families in the US. Any jobs left need to stay here as much as possible.

Has nothing about buy Canadian from the Federal Government.

The Ontario government has a requirement that 25% has to be local. How that number is calculated I do not know.

But please kill NAFTA.

Help us get a fair trade deal.

They had a big hissy fit when Newsweek and Time were outselling their poor excuse for a magazine a time back.

Canada is FULL of "buy Canadian" shit.

You can't even take your own tools across the border from the US to your cabin you may own in Canada...it's confiscated at the border...

You don't know what the FUCK you're spewing...

But that is quickly changing.

There also seems to be a current in Canada to start establishing stronger alternative European trading partners (which was also done during the trade wars of the Great Depression)

and the american worker has to much sense of entitlement :sarcasm:

economic prosperity.:sarcasm:

(see my post below)

American producers who sell overseas are worried that other countries will respond in kind and hurt what little exports we do have.

This is what happens when you have a negative trade balence, you have to walk on eggshells with everyone else so you don't shoot hourself in the foot.

pretty much says it all. Apparently walking on eggshells is an exercise in futility. Maybe we should put the interest of the country ahead of the interest of companies who sell overseas and accept all of the advantages of US taxpayer dollars to build and protect their businesses, and then avoid paying taxes by setting up P.O. Box headquarters in the Cayman Islands.

Maybe it's time to try something different like, say, insisting other countries start playing on a level playing field by not violating patent and copyright laws, and by not practicing inhumane labor and slave practices, and by not manipulating currency or violating environmental laws. All things that other countries engage in to "protect" their own interests. A form of perverted "protectionism".

Canada has it's own form of "protectionism". It has a significant advantage over American companies because the government is paying for its citizens health care with its taxpayer's money. That makes it easy for Canadian businesses to under-bid American businesses and costs Americans jobs. Maybe they need to be far more concerned about the U.S. health care bill that will be passing this year than about the minor pittance of taxpayer's money being used to stimulate our economy.

Maybe it is time to stop walking on eggshells and quit pretending that the rest of the world is going to spank us. They don't have that kind of power and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce knows it. This is about the "entitled" getting more and the rest of us being punked.

products that they no longer produce in the US. I would guess that is an even bigger issue than products being sold overseas.

If protectionism is on the march in the United States, it's the United Steelworkers that's been doing much of the bugle-calling.

Since January, U-S-W members have brought about the introduction of "Buy American" resolutions in states, cities, townships and boroughs across the country. The result: Canadian companies are being shut out of the bidding when many of these governments spend their stimulus money.

Leo Gerard is head of the United Steelworkers' union. He's also a Canadian. Today, he spoke to us from his office in Pittsburgh.
http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/asithappens/20090611-aih-3.wmv
http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/latestshow.html

The Chamber of Commerce is NOT a bunch of small businesses exactly. It has big backers from Big Pharma and lots of others. It also pressures small Democratic Businesses who refuse to join them. I really wonder how long it is going to take the Media to cover their practices. I am tapping my foot. Waiting waiting waiting....

Lewis F. Powell

Thom Hartmann spent a bunch of time on this guy yesterday, and he should become well known among all who would get exessive Corporate influence OUT of everything that matters to this Country.



more at link:
http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_accountability/powell_memo_lewis.html

Government represents the people, we can forget about altruistic hopes.

The posts up to now it seems obvious to me that everyone is looking at their bellybutton.

There doesn't seem to be a consideration of a possible opinion.

My suggestion is to keep up the pressure on your congress.

Please do.

I always thought it was the United...well, never mind!

And take your anti union anti worker economic fascism with you.

destroying what's left of our democracy.

They want corporations to control the world.

This threat to the Republic need to be shut down.