Beyond Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow being in the third story on CBC-TV’s The National (with approximately 1.3 million viewers) last night, we’ve had other coverage on the issue of a possible procurement deal with the United States.
The Canwest News Service reports in newspapers across the country today that, “In exchange for opening the procurement sector, Canadian companies could begin bidding for work linked to the $1-trillion US stimulus plan. The possibility drew caution from citizen’s activist group the Council of Canadians. ‘If Obama is going to agree to let Canadians bid on U.S. stimulus contracts that’s fine but if that means applying NAFTA and other international trade rules to the provinces and cities, then the drawbacks for Canadian companies could be far more significant than the modest and temporary benefits of equal access to U.S. markets,’ said its national chairwoman Maude Barlow.”
This article is at http://www.kelowna.com/2009/10/01/buy-american-exemption-far-from-a-done-deal-lawyer-says/.
For additional background, please see the blog post ‘Buy American exemption deal for Canada in the works’ at http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=1893.
Our media release, ‘Show us the Buy American deal before signing it’, is at http://canadians.org/media/trade/2009/30-Sept-09.html.
Our media release also appears in this trade magazine, http://www.building.ca/issues/ISArticle.asp?aid=1000342712.
