International Law

Rule of Law, I Hardly Recognized You Anymore

By Stan

Hard to believe this is coming from a sitting U.S. President, but I guess sometimes things do change:

President Obama signaled yesterday that he would seek to remove the controversial "buy American" clause from the Democrats $900 billion stimulus bill. Previously, the bill would only have allowed U.S.-made steel, iron and other materials to be used in projects funded by the bill. The clause had been sharply criticized by the E.U. and Japanese government.

“I want provisions that are not going to be a violation of World Trade Organization agreements or in other ways signal protectionism," Obama told ABC news.

Hey, he might actually have something there:

No contracting party shall establish or maintain any internal quantitative regulation relating to the mixture, processing or use of
products in specified amounts or proportions which requires, directly or indirectly, that any specified amount or proportion of any product which is the subject of the regulation must be supplied from domestic sources. (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Article III(5).)

Maybe Obama could fax over a copy of the GATT to the French.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on February 09, 2009 (boomark / email).