Canada-United States Agreement on Government Procurement : Accord entre le Canada et les États-Unis en matière de marchés publics

The ARRA, like the Government of Canada’s Economic Action Plan and similar fiscal stimulus packages around the world, was intended to mitigate the effects of the global financial and economic crisis and to accelerate the eventual recovery. [...] Section 1605 of the Recovery Act states that, subject to certain exceptions, none of the funds provided under the Act “may be used for a project for the construction, alteration, maintenance, or repair of a public building or public work unless all of the iron, steel, and manufactured goods used in the project are produced in the United States.”3 In acknowledgement of the concerns raised by Canada [...] The role of the federal government was very much a leadership role in carrying out those negotiations… [T]he Government of Canada were the lawyers on behalf of our clients, industry, workers, and the provinces and territories in Canada.13 Several witnesses congratulated the federal, provincial and territorial governments for the speed with which they came to a consensus proposal to present to the [...] We did get one, and that cost is high.18 THE CANADA-US AGREEMENT ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT The Agreement between the Government of Canada and the Government of the United States of America on Government Procurement consists of three elements: an exchange of permanent commitments under the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA); 15. [...] In her view, the Canada-US AGP provides Canadian businesses with a degree of protection against unfair treatment in the allocation of state-level procurement contracts in the US.22 Jean-Michel Laurin noted that Canada now has the same guaranteed level of coverage in the US that European businesses have had for years.23 At the same time, however, some witnesses criticized the Government of Canada f