In his first bilateral visit with a foreign leader, President Joe Biden had a virtual sit-down with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The stakes were high, not least because Biden cancelled the permit for the Canadian-backed Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office, forcing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to delicately balance his country’s economic interests and the need to rebuild a fractured relationship with the United States.

Surprisingly, scant attention was paid during the meeting to the bilateral trade relationship and repairing damage suffered during the Trump years. Of particular note, Biden did nothing to address concerns over his executive order strengthening “Buy American” requirements for government procurement contracts, from which Canada has sought a waiver. The unwillingness to accede to this request was a missed opportunity that risks prolonging simmering tensions between the two countries.

Buy America requirements for procurement contracts have been around since 1933. Deeming the current state of affairs under these requirements insufficient for his own version of economic nationalism, the Biden administration has stiffened both them and the rules around how waivers are granted. Among these measures are a new means of measuring domestic content, an increased threshold for domestic content requirements for end products and construction materials, and increased price preferences for domestic products (essentially, the amount of money the government is willing to pay a domestic firm beyond the price offered by a foreign competitor).

Canada is no stranger to navigating such U.S. protectionism. In 2010, when Biden was Vice President, the country secured a waiver to Buy America rules implemented as part of President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan. It’s unclear whether this time will be different. When asked about a waiver for the United States’ third-largest trading partner, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki only offered that “no changes are anticipated” and “we’re still evaluating the application of that and how it will apply.”

Ottawa will certainly be interested to learn about the outcome of that evaluation. In 2015, the U.S. government awarded roughly 47,000 contracts worth $12.1 billion to foreign firms. Of that, Canadian firms received nearly 2,900 contracts worth $623.6 million—approximately 5 percent of the total. Although the amount is relatively modest, the stakes for Canadian firms could be raised if, as is widely expected, the Biden administration pushes forward with an infrastructure spending binge, where Canadian companies could certainly play a role.

If Canada is unable to secure a waiver, its options will be limited. While the North American Free Trade Agreement required that Canada, Mexico, and the United States provide non-discriminatory, “national treatment” to suppliers of goods and services from each other in many public sector procurement contracts, the agreement’s successor—the United States-Canada-Mexico Agreement (USMCA)—removed Canada from this chapter. In other words, a formerly competitive procurement market that treated Canadian and Mexican companies the same as American ones—thus ensuring the best cost and quality for American taxpayers—has been upended. Canada therefore does not have the option of pursuing a dispute under the USMCA.

Ottawa’s lone means of recourse is filing a dispute at the World Trade Organization, since both Canada and the United States are parties to the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA). But such a move could risk the goodwill established by the recent Biden-Trudeau meeting and encourage Biden to revisit the GPA and perhaps lessen U.S. commitments—a move he has already signaled a desire for. Furthermore, the WTO route will provide no quick resolution to matters with years of litigation a virtual certainty. Even worse, dispute settlement at the WTO has not been functioning since the Trump administration blocked the appointment of new members to the Appellate Body (the WTO’s appeals mechanism). Any appeal filed there would effectively be made “into the void.” In practical terms, it’s not an option.

While Trudeau was all smiles at the official briefing, and did much to reiterate the importance of the Canada‑U.S. relationship, his “merci, mon ami” may have been premature. Yes, the two sides laid out a comprehensive roadmap for cooperation covering a variety of areas—but there were no clear deliverables. No concrete steps were taken by Biden to signal that the United States actually had turned the page. Niceties aside, what matters is policy, and right now the White House has done little to assuage one of its closest allies—and likely the rest of the world as well—that its approach on trade will be different.