' B.C. forests minister launches major attack yet on U.S. and softwood dispute
By GREG JOYCE
VANCOUVER (CP) - Canadians are being treated "despicably" by American
authorities involved in the countries' softwood lumber dispute, B.C.'s forests
minister said Tuesday.
In his strongest attack yet, Mike de Jong assailed the U.S. government on
what he perceives as foot-dragging in efforts to solve the impasse. "Weeks and
weeks have passed (since a Canadian proposal to the U.S.) and the U.S.
administration hasn't had the decency to supply us with a counterproposal," de
Jong said in a speech at a wood-products trade fair.
"I think we have been treated despicably. They are our neighbours. They are
our allies."
Canada is challenging a 19.3 per cent countervailing duty imposed on lumber exports to the United States last August at the behest of American lumber producers. They contend Canadian softwood is subsidized through low provincial stumpage fees - the royalty charged on Crown timber.
The provisional duty expired in mid-December but it could be reimposed, along with an average 12 per cent anti-dumping duty, if U.S. trade authorities confirm both tariffs in late March.
Canada served notice it was challenging the countervailing duty last summer. The World Trade Organization's dispute-settlement body established a panel in December to hear Canada's complaint.
De Jong, whose province accounts for half of lumber exports to the American market, devoted the bulk of his speech to a tirade aimed at the U.S. role in the softwood dispute.
He reminded the audience that Canada had presented a proposal to the United States last fall aimed at settling the dispute.
"What have the Americans done since that time?" asked de Jong. "Nothing."
Despite repeated efforts to get the counterproposal on the table, the minister expressed frustration at apparent U.S. unwillingness to respond.
De Jong even raised the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 to drive home a point to the audience.
Canada had responded immediately to the U.S. plight by allowing American airliners to land at Canadian airports, he said.
Those planes didn't have to keep circling, but "we're still circling over and over and I think we deserve better.
"President Bush speaks of us as family," said de Jong. "Well, I'm not very fond of this family at the moment because I think we've been treated with a tremendous amount of disrespect and a healthy dose of contempt."
At the World Economic Forum in New York last weekend, International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew said he had demanded the United States table its counterproposal when softwood negotiators meet again Thursday and Friday in Ottawa.
De Jong said he would be at that meeting, although he didn't what was on the agenda, nor did he know what the Americans intended to propose or say.
But he used strong language to advise them to not come unless they have a counterproposal ready.
"If you intend to come and present a proposal that can form the basis for a solution, then come," he said. "But if not ... if there is no intention to move forward then please don't come at all."
The warning received a smattering of applause from a huge crowd, which listened to most of the speech in stony silence.
De Jong's hope for a solution has cratered since last fall, when he optimistically touted a B.C. proposal - making Crown timber pricing more market sensitive and reforming market-distorting forestry regulations - as the basis for settling the decades-old dispute.
"Keep your bad faith negotiating," he said Tuesday.
"Keep your empty promises and keep your disingenuous posturing. The country I live in and the province I call home deserve a lot better than that."
Canadian exporters will pay hundreds of millions of dollars in tariffs if the punishing duties are confirmed next month.
The provisional duties sparked mill closures last fall, throwing thousands of Canadians out of work, especially in British Columbia.
The powerful U.S. Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, the producer group spearheading the attack against Canadian exports, has signalled it's not satisfied with provincial proposals to reform their forest policies.
The major producing provinces - B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Quebec - have proposed putting more of their timber into market-style auctions and relaxing cutting provisions that the Americans say keep the price of Canadian wood down.
American producers have a vested interest in confirming the duties because under U.S. law, the money collected flows to the companies deemed to have been injured by the unfair trade.
Canada supplies about one-third of the $10-billion US softwood lumber market in the United States, where consumer associations are backing the cheap Canadian imports because they hold down the cost of housing. '
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