Smoot-Hawley II?

[Guest]

It looks like the Buy American provision in the stimulus plan is starting to make some noise. It will be interesting to see where the WH goes with it...Canada and Europe and not happy about the current wording.

Canada and other nations fear "Buy American" barriers could trigger a cycle of retaliation that would strangle world trade and undermine efforts to end the global economic crisis.

http://www.reuters.com/article/polit...50U1XY20090202

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., has included an even broader measure in the Senate bill that would require that all materials and equipment used in the projects be American-made. Both House and Senate provision would allow a waiver if the cost of the project was driven up more than 25 percent by using U.S. materials.

But major U.S. manufacturers, including GE and Caterpillar, are lobbying against the measure, warning that foreign nations will raise trade barriers, hurting U.S. exports.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...MNP215LLOC.DTL

[myboynoah]

We'd be taken to the WTO and probably lose.

I'm amazed. I thought the free trade debate had been settled long ago. The best thing Al Gore ever did was reveal Perot for the fool that he was/is. Where have Dems been for the past 30 years?

[Guest]

Sounds as if cooler (smarter) heads will prevail, but I'm sure Biden, unions and some Dem senators put on a frowny face...

Last night Mr Obama gave a strong signal that he would remove the most provocative passages from the Bill.

“I agree that we can’t send a protectionist message,” he said in an interview with Fox TV. “I want to see what kind of language we can work on this issue. I think it would be a mistake, though, at a time when worldwide trade is declining, for us to start sending a message that somehow we’re just looking after ourselves and not concerned with world trade.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle5655115.ece