	canadians urge exemption from u s  bill a group of canadian lawmakers from ontario today asked their u s counterparts to exempt canada from the mandatory  retaliation provisions in a major  bill being considered by the u s congress at a meeting of the northeast midwest coalition an organization of u s legislators david cooke chairman of the ontario parliament s select committee on economic affairs said the exemption would help  relations the  legislation to be considered by the full house in late april would require president reagan to retaliate against foreign unfair  practices unless the  actions would harm the u s economy currently reagan can reject  sanctions on any grounds cooke a member of the liberal party told the u s congressmen i can understand the  bill i think it has to do with concerns you have with the other parts of the world i would suggest to you that we are your best friends you do not have those concerns with canada and you should sincerely consider exempting our country from that bill he added canada is the united states largest trading partner with two way  more than billion dlrs in according to the coalition but the u s ran up a billion dlr deficit in manufactured goods that year compared to a billion dlr surplus in services  with its neighbour reuter 
