President Orders Removal of Canadian Goods From Federal Procurement System

The President ordered the removal of Canadian-origin items from the federal civil procurement system in a memorandum signed on 16 September 2026 and published in the Federal Register of 21 September 2026 (Vol. 91, No. 181, p. 59979). The directive, titled Restoring Reciprocity in Government Procurement, answers Canada’s “Buy Canadian” policy and provincial restrictions on United States suppliers. It carries the official reference FR Doc. 2026-19336.

Who receives the order and why

The memorandum is addressed to the Secretary of War, the United States Trade Representative, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy, the Administrator of General Services and the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

In its statement of purpose, the document holds that Canada “unreasonably imposed new barriers” to United States companies seeking access to the Canadian government procurement market, including preferences for Canadian products and Canadian content, and that Canadian provinces have also limited access to their own procurement markets. It adds that Canadian companies retain preferential access to the United States Government procurement system, covering all procurement the United States agreed to cover at the Federal level under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement, which the memorandum values at over $280 billion annually.

What the memorandum directs

• The Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the United States Trade Representative, in coordination with the members of the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, must identify and take all steps permitted by law with respect to Canadian origin items in the Federal civil procurement system that can, where warranted, be removed or made non-available for purchase.
• The Director must notify the relevant executive departments and agencies of domestic alternatives to Canadian origin items, to the extent permitted by law.
• The Director must update the President from time to time on the progress of the actions taken.
• The Trade Representative must continue to monitor Canada’s treatment of United States origin items in Canadian federal and provincial procurement markets and report any circumstances that might indicate the need for further action, or that might warrant restoring a Canadian origin item’s availability, such as a change in Canadian policy.
• The head of each agency must take all appropriate measures within its authority, and may redelegate that authority under section 301 of title 3, United States Code.

Limits and legal safeguards

The general provisions state that nothing in the memorandum impairs the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the functions of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative or legislative proposals. Implementation must be consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations, and the memorandum does not create any right or benefit enforceable at law or in equity against the United States, its departments, agencies, officers, employees or agents. The costs of publishing the memorandum are borne by the Office of Management and Budget.

The memorandum sets no deadline for the identification and removal of Canadian origin items, leaving the pace to the Office of Management and Budget and the Trade Representative. Its practical effect falls on both sides of the border: United States agencies are pushed toward domestic substitutes, while Canadian suppliers lose access to a federal civil procurement market that the document itself sizes at more than $280 billion a year. The text also keeps the door open to reversing individual exclusions if Ottawa ends the treatment now applied to United States origin items.

Source: Federal Register, Vol. 91, No. 181, 21 September 2026, Presidential Documents, p. 59979 (official reference: FR Doc. 2026-19336).