Did the Democrats unintentionally fire the first shots in what will become an international trade war? Turns out Congress inserted a “buy American” clause in the $787 billion “stimulus” package.
In order to comply with the law, the town of Peru, Indiana rejected sewage pumps made in Canada. And contractors at Camp Pendleton, California, stopped their construction project to replace Canadian pipe fittings with American ones.
Here’s how the Washington Post describes the situation:
Canadian manufacturers doing business with U.S. state and local governments say they have been besieged with requests to sign affidavits pledging that they will only supply materials made in the USA.
Outrage spread in Canada, with the Toronto Star last week bemoaning “a plague of protectionist measures in the U.S.” and Canadian companies openly fretting about having to shift jobs to the United States to meet made-in-the-USA requirements. This week, the Canadians fired back. A number of Ontario towns, with a collective population of nearly 500,000, retaliated with measures effectively barring U.S. companies from their municipal contracts — the first shot in a larger campaign that could shut U.S. companies out of billions of dollars worth of Canadian projects
Liberals love to pass laws. Thousands and thousands of laws. We just wish they had a better understanding of the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Source: Washington Post
