The U.S. House of Representatives have passed a motion to favor the usage of domestic steel in public U.S. projects. This type of protectionism is set to cause serious harm to the Canadian Steel industry. Some estimates say this could cause a 40% decrease in Canadian jobs in the Steel industry.

Prime Minster Stephan Harper told Parliament this is a “serious matter, a serious concern to us. I spoke to our ambassador about it,” Canadian International Trade Minster Stockwell Day commented “the U.S. has very clear legal obligations under both [the] North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization, and Canada expects the U.S. to live up to them.”

U.S. President Obama will make his first official foreign visit to Ottawa on Feb 19, 2009, where Canadian PM Stephan Harper should address this serious problem.

Canada has had similar problems with illegal U.S. policies concerning trade, such as with U.S. Canadian lumber disputes where international bodies have favored in Canada’s position.