March 10, 2010

2010 Ontario Construction Secretariat conference

‘You don’t create job opportunities by cutting off business:’ Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters CEO

The new Buy America agreement between Canada and the U.S. doesn’t offer Canadian firms access to stimulus contracts that have already “gone out the door,” says the head of the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters.

“What it does do is put us in a stronger position to argue that Canada should be excluded from future protectionism in the United States,” Jayson Myers said in a speech to the Ontario Construction Secretariat’s annual conference in Toronto March 3.

“But we’re very concerned about the appearance of new Buy America restrictions, of new forms of protectionism, of tighter regulations that are being used by countries around the world, including Canada, to protect their markets and to exclude business from other countries.

“In my mind you don’t create job opportunities by cutting off business.”

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