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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (3416)	3/26/2002 4:27:43 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Bush proves no friend on lumber trade Canada's lumber industry got whacked yesterday with an outrageous 29 per cent duty on its softwood exports to the U.S. The decision by the U.S. Commerce Department to impose these devastating penalties came despite a call from every quarter for a negotiated settlement to the seemingly endless Canada-U.S. lumber dispute. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew favoured a deal. More importantly, so did Canadian lumber producers, who were prepared to live with a reasonable export tax as the price of access to their biggest market. In the U.S., President George W. Bush, his trade representative, his Secretary of Commerce and the U.S. coalition of lumber producers, which launched the case against our industry, all said they wanted a deal. But the Americans were duplicitous. They sent the Commerce Department into 11th hour talks with a cocked gun pointed at Canada's lumber industry. Make a deal, they said, or face the deadline, only hours away, for the Commerce Department to impose its own penalties on Canada's softwood. Taking a totally inflexible stand dictated by U.S. producers, their message to our negotiators was: agree to punitive duties or we will simply impose them on you. They left Pettigrew with no real choice but to walk away from the phoney talks. Realizing there was nothing to gain by participating in this U.S. charade, Pettigrew decided it would be better for Canada to take its lumps now, and continue the battle under World Trade Organization and North American Free Trade Agreement rules, which the U.S. cannot bend in the same way it twists its own rules. But real, bilateral negotiations leading to a fair settlement would still be preferable because appeals to NAFTA and WTO panels will take considerable time - months or possibly even years. In the interim, Canadian companies and their workers will suffer hardship under the new U.S. duties. A victory for Canada a year or two down the road could well be pyrrhic, leaving an industry that's been hollowed out. But is it possible to get meaningful negotiations off the ground? Pettigrew's only chance is to make common cause with Americans who believe the administration has sacrificed the interests of builders, lumber retailers and new homebuyers to the narrow interests of the politically influential U.S. lumber producers. That's how Representative Jim Kolbe, an Arizona Republican, sees it. "It's a classic example," he says, "of how special interests always outweigh the larger interests." Kolbe is not alone. More than 100 members of Congress share his view, as do homebuilders, consumer groups and retailers such as Home Depot. This should encourage Chrétien and Pettigrew to press Canada's case directly with the American people with a persistent lobbying campaign. Bush is fond of saying Canada and the U.S. are friends. But friends don't treat each other this way. thestar.com