DETROIT – The New International Trade Crossing would be able to contain Canadian steel under a waiver the state has requested from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Federal rules require projects using federal funds to contain U.S.-sourced materials, and the new bridge would fall under that rule because the state is planning to use money spent on the American side to match federal transportation grants for projects elsewhere in the state.
Canada had agreed to nearly all of the U.S. aid eligibility requirements in the crossing agreement signed in June to allow Michigan to use the bridge costs and state match despite Canada agreeing to pick up all of the initial construction costs.
“Canada justifiably took the position that they could not agree to permit only U.S., and not Canadian, steel to be used in the project given their willingness to fund the project and assume 100 percent of the financial risk,” Governor Rick Snyder said in the letter requesting the waiver. “Given these extraordinary circumstances, I believe the requested waiver of the Buy America requirements is justified and is in the best interests of the US, Canada, and Michigan.”
The waiver would specifically limit the bridge, though, to containing American and Canadian steel. There had been a brief dustup earlier in the year when there was a suggestion that the Canadian government was planning to use Chinese steel in the project, but officials there have since insisted that was not their plan.
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