Recovery Act Buy American Provision: Good News For Canadian Suppliers

On March 25, 2010, OMB issued amended guidance on implementation of the Buy American provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, 75 Fed. Reg. 14323, effective immediately, which (1) changed the threshold that applies to international agreements from $7,430,000 to $7,804,000; (2) added Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) as a party to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement; and (3) added the Canada/US Agreement on Government Procurement, effective February 16, 2010. That agreement, among other things, opens up certain Recovery-Act funded programs of the Rural Utilities Service, Ag Dept., DoE, HUD, and EPA to Canadian iron, steel, and manufactured goods.