Madam Speaker, I am quite concerned, having listened to the parliamentary secretary quite attentively, because his comments showed the lack of understanding of the government in intervening with the Obama administration.
Yesterday, the U.S. senate defeated the amendment that was brought forward by the Republicans 65 to 31. It was a landslide. The buy American provisions will be in the bill going through the senate. It is already in the bill that has gone through the House of Representatives.
The parliamentary secretary continued to refer to rules-based trading. Linda Diebel requested in the Toronto Star that the international trade minister actually read the trade pacts. She said, “He might discover the North American Free Trade Agreement...allows an exemption for procurement contracts to allow only American iron and steel, a provision contained in last week's $819 billion stimulus package”.
My question is very simple. Does the government and the parliamentary secretary understand that buy American is legal under NAFTA and legal under the WTO? Speaking to the Americans as if what they are doing is illegal, when it is very clearly legal, means we cannot communicate our message effectively. That is why we failed.