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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: frankw1900 who wrote (12020)	11/29/2001 8:41:27 PM
From: Condor	Respond to of 281500

I'll make one observation on the US-Canada lumber dispute. I read that Canada expected to lose 50,000 direct forestry jobs and 100,000 spin off jobs. That would equate to a job loss in the US ( at 10 x's the population) of 1,500,000 jobs. It is a huge and painful issue in Canada. Regards C

To: frankw1900 who wrote (12020)	11/29/2001 9:02:50 PM
From: axial	Respond to of 281500

Hi, frankw - The thing I like about your and Teevee's posts is your mutual awareness of the fact that in balance, trade relations have been good. Anyone with eyes to see knows that this (the Softwood Lumber Dispute) has been a horrendous blow to Canada. However, there is a distinction to be made between policy and the success of a lobbying effort. Quite often political debts are repaid, only to founder on policy. I just don't believe this will hold. If it does, then damage will be done to bilateral trade mechanisms, specifically NAFTA. We may find ourselves reverting to protectionism, which IMO is a lose-lose proposition. And maybe that is the intent, the hidden agenda. "I voted in favour of Mulroney's free trade platform in the hopes it would protect us from US swamp water politicians. Fond hope, eh?" Yeah, so true: me too. The reappearance of this kind of unilateralism is a bad, bad sign.

To: frankw1900 who wrote (12020)	11/29/2001 10:16:48 PM
From: teevee	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

frank, The lumber thing is odd because it seems to be a bit of "free enterprise policy making" ..... I voted in favour of Mulroney's free trade platform in the hopes it would protect us from US swamp water politicians..... I am a big believer in free enterprise and free trade. The Canadian government should find out how much the market will bear for the price of gas. Also, if the Canadian government doesn't act to put an initial US$5.00/mcf tariff on natural gas exports, Canada is at risk of American energy producers crying foul that subsidized Canadian natural gas is depressing the price of natural gas in America. With such a tariff in place, then the Canadian government could review the situation every few months and increase the export tariff by an additional 12% to 30% until exports diminished. Something should be done before Canadians are accused of dumping cheap natural gas into the US market:-))