Canada can deal with Biden's embrace of Buy America, says Freeland | CBC News

President Joe Biden signs an executive order to strengthen Buy American  provisions, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland insisted today the federal government knows "how to deal with" American protectionism.

Freeland was asked by CBC News if she or the Canadian government had been promised a policy exemption by Biden — one that would allow Canadian companies to retain access to the $600 billion the U.S.

"The previous administration didn't take it seriously enough," Biden said Monday. "Federal agencies waived the Buy American requirement without much pushback at all.

"The result: tens of billions of American taxpayers' dollars support foreign jobs and foreign industries. Under the previous administration, the federal government contracts awarded to foreign companies went up 30 per cent. That is going to change on our watch.".

The strengthened Buy American provisions come just days after Biden scrapped the Keystone XL pipeline permit, effectively killing the $8 billion plan to pipe Canadian oilsands bitumen to the U.S.

"We need the federal government particularly now, Madame Speaker, in a crisis, to stand up for workers in every corner of this country," said O'Toole.

The deputy prime minister and finance minister also said that her government has a track record of being able to sit down with Americans and explain how trade restrictions and protectionism hurt the U.S.

"Once we show to our American neighbours and trading partners the extent to which every trading relationship with Canada is not a simple one-way trade, but is about a set of mutually dependent, really, really complicated manufacturing and trading relationships, we find that we are very often able to explain to our American partners that trade is in the mutual interest of Canadians and of Americans," she said. .

Vice President Kamala Harris about the Buy American provisions.

Watch: Freeland discusses how Canada will fight the Biden Buy American plan:.

The source also said that while Canada is concerned about the Buy American provisions, officials expect to have weeks, if not months, to lobby against any harmful changes.

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the replacement trade deal for NAFTA negotiated under Donald Trump, does not include specific government procurement provisions between the U.S.

Biden "remains committed to working with partners and allies to modernize international trade rules — including those related to government procurement," the White House said

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce issued a statement after Biden signed the order, saying it will have a chilling effect on business that will hit harder in Canada

"Buy American restrictions remain a perennial problem for Canadian businesses seeking to access government contracts with our largest trading partner," said Mark Agnew, the chamber's senior director of international policy