NAFTA and "Buy American"

I am having mixed feelings about Obama’s “Buy American” program. I can understand why people support it, and if I were an American, I would quite possibly feel the same way. In the short term, at least, it will likely be good for them, although the international anger they are courting will probably come back to haunt them in the long run.

I guess what I find most irritating, other than the obvious fact that Canadians will lose jobs, is the NAFTA issue. I was never a fan of the North American Free Trade Act, but we signed it, and so did the Americans. And I haven’t heard that they have any specific plans to back out of it. And under NAFTA they can’t “buy American” – all NAFTA countries have to be given the same treatment.

We are constantly told here that Canada cannot keep our oil for ourselves, even if we need it. We have to sell much of it to the U.S. under NAFTA rules. The Mexican economy has been devastated by NAFTA. Yet apparently the United States doesn’t even take into account the fact that, under NAFTA, the whole Buy American program is simply not allowed.

I am not sure what I would think without NAFTA. Certainly a large amount of our trade is with the U.S., but keeping things closer to home uses less fuel and decreases pollution. And we are going to have to become less of a consumer society in the future – the earth simply can’t support the strain we have been putting on it. And, of course, protectionism goes both ways – we really could use that Alberta oil.

But I am royally sick of the Americans imposing rules on everyone else, and believing that they don’t have to follow them. I was hoping that had ended with Bush, but I think it is bigger than one government. Maybe they should replace the American Eagle with something more appropriate – an American Ego.