Thursday, June 25, 2009

Day pushes for new free-trade talks with U.S.

When I replaced my ancient stove with something slightly less antiquated, I phoned Dave our local garbage contractor to pick up the old one. Dave, you see, knows who best to pass it on to - whether that be a scrap metal joint, a dangerous appliance refurbishing business, or just someone looking to build stovehenge in their backyard.

Dave knows this valuable info because he lives here. Somehow I suspect that the International Waste Management Consortium in Houston Texas is not as up on the day-to-day requirements of the local stove-stacking crowd, so it's a good thing that our local municipality gets to Buy Local and give the contract to Dave instead.
In fact the Foreign Affairs page on "Assessing Government Procurement Under Canada's Trade Agreements" explicitly states that WTO, GATs, and NAFTA do not apply.

Day pushes for new free-trade talks with U.S.
... in which the same government that formerly freaked at the idea of revisiting a single page of NAFTA to prevent bulk Canadian water exports is now hoping for a whole "new chapter of free trade" to "ease the tendency by states, provinces and municipalities to favour local companies". Provinces and municipalities would allow US companies to bid on local contracts and in return Canadian businesses get to bid on theirs.
Notwithstanding that the US Fed has already misplaced its ability to account for trillions of their bailout money, why would US taxpayers go for this?
.
One North American economic security perimeter : it's not a new idea and "a feared rise of protectionist Buy American measures" is just the latest justification for giving it another push.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to call up Dave. The more I think about that stovehenge idea...
.

2 comments:

skdadl said...

Heh. Stovehenge. In my current life circs, that could give me ideas.

Alison said...

Yes, although I suspect Toasterhenge might lack a certain gravitas.

Blog Archive