Beat 'Buy American' policy with 'Buy Local'

And that's probably why the "Buy American" provisions contained in new U.S. legislation is so galling to Canadian manufacturers.

The provisions are part of rules contained in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was put in place in February. State and local projects funded under the act have to use U.S.-made components and supplies.

It's clearly a way to try to keep American tax dollars at home and working in the local economy, but at the same time, it cuts against the entire concept of global trade.

But while Canadian manufacturers steam about being shut out of a familiar and necessary marketplace, it's worth stopping to think about the benefits there are to having the closest of neighbours buy as much of your products as they can.

A consistent and directed effort to buy food products farmed inside this province, for example, would not only cut down on the environmental costs of shipping food into the province, but also could, over the long term, have nurtured a much-stronger local agricultural industry.

As it is, our ability to feed ourselves has atrophied to the point that food security is a very real issue: In the absence of regular ocean and air deliveries, we would run out of food in the island part of the province extremely quickly.

While the concept of a global economy is a marvellous thing, it's not without inherent and sometimes ludicrous transportation costs. As Adam Leith Gollner points out while discussing the global fruit industry in The Fruit Hunters, every year "the United Kingdom exports 20 tons of mineral water to Australia, while simultaneously importing 21 tons."

Obviously, there's a hefty dose of a travel bill that's being swallowed with every drink.

There are some efforts already to buy local in this province; consider the provincial government's efforts to have residents take their vacations in Newfoundland and Labrador. It's a straightforward idea: Why take dollars out of the province when they could stay and help the economy here?

But there are limits. It makes no sense to build extensive tariff barriers or arcane and Byzantine regulatory hurdles to try to keep products out. That's a concept that just shoots you in the foot, especially in a province like ours that depends so much on export.

Build a commercial fence like the Americans seem to have, and eventually you find you've fenced out every bit as much as you've been able to fence in.

What we could do is to take the time to spend our dollars wisely, pragmatically and strategically. There are products in this province -- and in other parts of this county -- that rival anything being produced in China or India. Take the time to shop local when you can. The benefits are obvious.

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 29, 2009 A13