Some time ago I was asked to do a piece for a US cable show on NAFTA.

It was worse than cramming for an exam I’d never taken a class for. I’ve never read so much in my life or asked so many questions.

Eventually I got the piece together and came to the personal conclusion free trade agreements were good things for all involved.

But they are dependent on all parties playing fair, and when it comes to trade, that isn’t going to happen. Thats why there are courts, and rulings, as is the case with the softwood lumber dispute between Canada and the US.

I was talking to someone recently who worked in the lumber business. He told me that this ongoing problem adds one thousand dollars to the cost of every new US home. I didn’t pursue the figures on his statement.

Looking at the Wiki entry I’m glad Canadian politicans are speaking up.
It’s not like US presidents, US ambassadors to Canada, the Canadian ambassadors to the US and all the people involved in the Trade departments haven’t pursued this vigerously.We’ve gone through a generation of resource based workers and owners since the dispute began, and now we’re coming to the end of another generation since NAFTA was signed.

And the time for diplomacy is over. There have been several rulings in Canada’s favour. But the lumber lobby in the US is not going to budge.

The tough talk comes in the wake of the U.S. announcing it plans to ignore a NAFTA panel which found that Canadian lumber exports aren’t a threat to American producers. It’s not the first time Canada has won a trade dispute involving the Americans and seen it ignored.

“We’re going to have to step up the retaliation, in my view. We have the authority under our rules to retaliate with tariffs on American products into Canada,” Emerson said.

“The idea is a wake-up call. The idea is to create pressure in the U.S. without creating too much damage at home, but these disputes are never risk-free.”

Finance Minister Ralph Goodale agreed.

“That ruling ought to be implemented, and it should be done PDQ (pretty damn quick),” Goodale said. “We want to make sure that whatever option we pursue is effective in making our point … without at the same time shooting ourselves in the foot.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew was also agitated over the Americans thumbing their nose, once again, at Canada.

This Star editorial suggests going the route of using the WTO.
If that is a possiblity that needs exploring, great.

There is a simple way out, without bluster or insults. Canada does not have to give up ownership of its forests, its industries and its institutions.

With a simple letter to the U.S., under FTA Article 2106, NAFTA Article 2205, Canada can, with six months notice, withdraw from these agreements without penalty and without conditions.

Our trading relations with the U.S. will then automatically revert back to the GATT/WTO framework of international law, which will enable us to both maintain our institutions and trade profitably with the U.S.

All of the intolerable NAFTA rights U.S. companies now have over Canada — to sue the Canadian government, to overturn Canadian laws, to control our exports and energy prices — would disappear. Canada would regain its status as a sovereign nation.

Chasing the dream of a “special relationship” and some kind of shortcut to “secure access” to the U.S. market is a dangerous delusion which has cost Canada dearly.

Superpowers do not have friends or “special relationships,” they have interests and they pursue them. Canada must learn to do the same.

If US consumers understood what this dispute is costing them I suspect it would be settled rather quickly. Meantime, I have no problem with the federal cabinet meeting and discussing retaliatory tariffs that might take a few years to implement. Once consumers understand that industry lobby groups aren’t always working in their best interests and speak up, government will act in it’s best interest and honour it’s agreements and it’s voters, not the lobbiests.

As for the tough talk? Alberta oil won’t be used as a leveraging tool (don’t tell Pat Robertson how much Alberta oil goes to the US, Ralph Klein might wind up on his hit list) that tough talk gets media attention in the US.