US President Joe Biden, within a week of taking office in January 2021, issued an executive order to strengthen compliance with the Buy American Act. The initiative, which further limited foreign access to US government procurement contracts, has been meet with concern in Canada and official Ottawa.
“Let’s be very clear: [Buy American, Buy America] are federal procurement policies. I wouldn’t characterize that championship by President Biden as a barrier that the administration is throwing into the US-Canadian trade relationship,” Tai said during a press conference.
Canada’s Minister of International Trade Mary Ng said during the press conference the areas of cooperation between the two countries, including electric vehicle manufacturing, are gaining in importance.
Both trade envoys defended the state of US-Canada trade relationship, with Tai urging reporters to consider the global context.
Nevertheless, a range of trade disputes continue, most notably over dairy products. Tai called the longstanding dairy dispute over Canada’s notoriously protectionist supply chain a “difficult area” of the relationship, evading questions about a possible resolution before the next USMCA meeting.