Our Economy Needs Exemptions to the ‘Buy American Plan’ | Apr 29, 2021
The Canada-US Committee continued its discussion last night on the impact of President Biden’s “Buy America” program on Canadian exporters.
IPEX Group of Companies is a Canadian company that produces plumbing pipes and other resin-based products for infrastructure projects, much of which is exported to the US market. I had an interesting exchange with their representative Veso Sobot.
Mr. Sobot said that it was in the US’s best interest to exempt Canada from “Buy America”. Without Canada’s exports, he claimed the US could face shortages which they would have to be made up through other suppliers, like China.
In making the case for an exemption he said, “Canada and the US have similar regulations and are allies”, adding “if former Prime Minister Harper could get President Obama to exempt Canada, surely Prime Minister Trudeau could negotiate a similar deal with President Biden.”
If the Trudeau Government is unable to negotiate an exemption for Canadian exports, all the exporters on the panel agree – they will have little choice but to relocate much of their production to the US.