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

To: TimF who wrote (161387)	5/4/2005 2:17:48 PM
From: marcos	Respond to of 281500

Call it what you will, free trade it ain't, its obvious hypocrisy colours your current administration with a deep shade of vomit, as it picks the pockets of hundreds of thousands of US consumers - ' More Than 45 Bi-Partisan Members of Congress Call on Bush To End Harmful Canadian Lumber Duties, Honor NAFTA, WTO - Illegally imposed duties cited as harmful to consumers, first time homebuyers - U.S. must import nearly a third of its lumber to meet housing market needs WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 20) – More than 45 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including six members of the Ways and Means Committee, sent a letter yesterday to President George W. Bush urging an end to the current trade war with Canada over softwood lumber imports. Punitive duties of more than 20 percent have been imposed on such imports, amounting to nearly $4 billion in escrowed funds and interest over the past three years. (See list of signatories below.) House Republican Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), House Appropriations Sub-Committee Chairman Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), and House Ways and Means Committee Member Richard Neal (D-Mass.), asked their colleagues to join them in sending the letter to urge the Administration to end the duties that continue to harm consumers, specifically first-time homeowners. Based on U.S. Census information, more than 300,000 families are priced out of the housing market because the duties raise the cost of mortgages beyond their means. “We appreciate the call to action made by these Members of Congress who share our concerns about the unfair impact of the duties on consumers, while U.S. special interests destabilize the lumber market for their own gain,” said Susan Petniunas, spokesperson for the American Consumers for Affordable Homes (ACAH), an alliance that has been fighting for free trade and open lumber sales between the two countries. The Administration continues to turn a deaf ear on consumers and first-time homeowners in favor of lumber companies like International Paper, Potlatch, Plum Creek, Sierra Pacific, and Temple Inland, southern lumber producers, members of the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, an organization that has caused trade turmoil on this issue for lumber consumers for nearly 20 years, she noted. The letter to Bush says that: “Essential to a strong housing market is the U.S. construction industry’s access to a reliable supply of softwood lumber because sufficient quantities and appropriate substitutes do not exist in the U.S. for the type of lumber manufactured in Canada .” Homebuilders must import about a third of all of the lumber needed for the domestic housing market. “The issue is also clouded by statements by the U.S. that it will not comply with NAFTA and return collected duties, favoring distributing them to the companies that asked the government to impose them through the so-called Byrd Amendment,” Petniunas said. The Byrd Amendment has been found in violation of NAFTA and the WTO, and recently the European Union and Canada announced that they would impose penalties on U.S. products beginning May 1, in retaliation for not repealing the measure ...' acah.org .