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Politics : Prime Minister Jean Chretien -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: marcos who wrote (59)	11/18/2002 1:01:22 PM
From: SofaSpud	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 443

...nor MacKenzie King with Göring... I heard once that WLMK met Hitler, probably around 1937, and came away with the opinion that "we'll have no trouble from him." God I love obscurity -- in 70 years no one will be quoting the embarrassingly incorrect drivel that I post. One of the things that nags at me with the softwood lumber issue is the fact that the Yanks don't let go. They are freakin pit bulls on this issue. I started work in Ottawa in '87 as a government finance analyst, and this issue was on the plate then. Yes, the easy answer is that they don't have to be right, they can continue to ignore GATT and now the WTO because in the meantime they continue to disrupt the enemy, and yes Max Baccus is just a grubby politico minding the fences around his seat. Perhaps that's all there it to it, and I'm being naive trying to look further. It wouldn't be the first time. As I understand it, one of the big lobbies behind the U.S. softwood stance are U.S. private wood lot owners. These guys sell trees for what the market will bear, and it's their problem to worry about sustainability etc. If they want to clear cut their stand of trees and liquidate, they can do it, or they can replant or whatever. By contrast in B.C., the government owns the trees, and in return for giving MacBlo or whoever the right to cut them down, they charge stumpage, a fixed flat fee per tree. Further the right to cut down trees comes with an obligation to replant, and the govt. presumably monitors reforestation efforts and outcomes. Because to the Yanks this system isn't transparent, and because there doesn't seem to be any way for market conditions to influence the stumpage fee, they say that B.C. wood is subsidized. How am I doing so far? I'm genuinely trying to learn here.