Prime Minister Stephen Harper, far right, is making his first trip to the White House since U.S. President Barack Obama assumed office. He is joined on the trip by cabinet ministers, from left, Peter Van Loan (public safety), Lawrence Cannon (foreign affairs) and Jim Prentice (environment). (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

The economy, the Buy American clause, the situation in Afghanistan, the environment and energy security could all be on the agenda Wednesday as Prime Minister Stephen Harper visits U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington.

The visit marks Harper's first trip to the White House since Obama assumed office.

Harper will also meet with the leadership of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on Wednesday.

While Harper's meeting with Obama is reported to be anywhere from 42 minutes to an hour in duration, Washington-based consultant and former Canadian ambassador Paul Frazer said every meeting between heads of government is of value, even if they are not lengthy.

"They don't need to be meetings that go over a long laundry list … of things, or aggravations or positives or complaints," Frazer told CBC News.

"But I think the two men tomorrow will have a chance to address at least the leading and major issues within the bilateral relationship," he said.

Frazer also believes the Buy American clause will be on the table when Harper visits.

The Buy American policy gives priority to U.S. iron, steel and other manufactured goods for use in state-level and municipal public works and building projects funded with taxpayer stimulus money. Canadian governments and businesses have railed against the policy.

"This is not a time to beggar thy neighbour, as I think most reasonable people would agree, but we also have local political needs and realities that have to be addressed, one way or another," Frazer said.

Protests

To coincide with Harper's visit to the U.S. capital, some environmental groups staged protests Tuesday in Fort McMurray, Alta., and in Niagara Falls, N.Y.

In Alberta, about a dozen Greenpeace protesters forced a partial closure of Shell's Albian Sands site at Fort McMurray. They surrounded a huge dump truck with their own trucks and chained them together, and then some protesters climbed up on the dump truck and chained themselves to it. The ongoing protest is against what the environmental group sees as Canada's so-called "dirty oil" being exported to the U.S.

In Niagara Falls, activists hung a 21-metre banner showing arrows that point forward to a "clean energy future" and backward to "tarsands oil." After a few hours, protesters let go of the banner and were arrested.

Susan Casey-Lefkowitz of the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defence Council, a coalition of North American environmental groups, said that with Harper's visit to the U.S. the groups want to send a message to Canada "that it's important for both of our countries to be developing a cap on greenhouse gas emissions that cover all of the major emitting sectors," including the oilsands.