U.S. politician uses blockade at Canada-U.S. border to argue for Buy American

This item is part of Watching Washington, a regular dispatch from CBC News correspondents reporting on U.S. politics and developments that affect Canadians.

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A U.S. lawmaker has seized on blockades at the Canada-U.S. border to argue for more Buy American-style policies and for less reliance on buying goods fromCanada.

The call from Michigan Democrat Elissa Slotkin comes as the protestatavital Windsor-Detroit crossing has slowed commercial cargo deliveryand hit car plants, with several companies stopping production.

"Michiganders have been saying for decades that when our manufacturing is outsourced too much, we end up paying the price," Slotkin wrote in a series of tweets Wednesday night.

"It doesn't matter if it's an adversary or an ally we can't be this reliant on parts coming from foreign countries," she said.

"The one thing that couldn't be more clear is that we have to bring American manufacturing back home to states like Michigan. If we don't, it's American workers ... who are left holding the bag."

She said she had contacted the White House about the problem and was waiting for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to make a move.

What's the context

The timing of this is problematic for Canada and not just because car companies are already suffering parts shortages, while the price of goods surges through inflation.

It's also because this counters months of efforts from Canada to keep the countries connected in the production of next-generation electric vehicles.

Canadian federal and provincial officials and business leaders have been visiting Washington for months, urging against a tax credit that would favour electric cars built in the U.S.

It hadbecome the biggest bilateral irritant between the countries, with Canadian politicians warning that the credit as designed would be devastating to Canada, violate trade dealsand negate more than a half-century of integration in the auto sector.

Now one of the up-and-comingmembers of the Democratic Party says current events prove the opposite: that the U.S. should rely less on Canada.

Slotkinwas a star recruit for the Democrats in 2018, a former CIA analystwho narrowly won a seat in the House of Representatives in a swing district in Michigan.

Her party is expected to lose control of the House in this year's midterms and will be fighting hard to hold her district, which has had its borders adjusted slightly since 2020.

What's next

It will be a pivotal few months for North American auto policy. At the moment, theelectric vehicle taxcredit and its accompanying Buy American debate is in suspended animation, after one senator, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, blew up talks aimed at passing President Joe Biden'ssignature Build Back Better bill.

But expect talks to resume. Manchinholds a key vote in the Senate and has hinted several times that he could be amenable to reviving the Build Back Better plan in some other, smaller formand under a different name.

It's unclear whether the irritant will make it into a final bill.Manchin has expressed some misgivings with the electric-vehicle credit but has been vague in public remarks about the specifics of what he wants.