"Buy American" --- It's no longer that simple

Why Europe Is Fuming About the Stimulus Package - TIME: "The provisions might protect U.S. jobs in the short term, but the E.U. says they would hobble global trade, a key motor for the world economy. John Bruton, the E.U. ambassador in Washington, has described the measures as 'setting a dangerous precedent, and 'neither the right or effective response to the situation.' German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that 'past world economic crises showed protectionism would be the completely wrong answer.'

Similar measures to 'buy American' have been adopted or considered in Argentina, China, Indonesia, Ecuador, India, Russia and Vietnam. Pascal Lamy, director-general of the World Trade Organization, warned on Feb. 2 that any go-it-alone route would foster a spiral of retaliation. 'Today we run the risk of sliding down a slippery slope of tit-for-tat measures. It was Mahatma Gandhi who said 'An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,' ' Lamy said."