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Regretably, the big news across Canada
at the moment is not that the Bush-lackey Neocon Prime Minister
Stephen Harper says that the USraeli Ziocon Lebanon atrocity
was "measured" and "reasonable."
The BIG NEWS is that Harper's
Conservative government will will now proceed with legislation
to implement an extremely controversial "sellout" Softwood
Lumber agreement with the US.
Why should this be of interest
to Americans and Bush-haters everywhere?
Washington International Trade
Lawyer, Elliot Feldman claims that the deal, negotiated by Bush
and his Canadian lackey, "Steve" (as Bush calls him)
Harper, will see $450 million funnelled straight past Congress
and the US treasury, and will go instead, directly to the Bush
Whitehouse.
Feldman has extensive experience
in the North American Free Trade Agreement. His practice concentrates
on all forms of trade remedies affecting the movement of goods
and services across international borders. He advises foreign
governments, American and foreign corporations on matters of
trade policy and litigates international trade disputes in all
relevant forums in the United States.
On August 21st, Feldman told
an Ottawa meeting of the Standing Committee on International
Trade, that Canada was not only shafted when Harper caved to
the US interests while hammering out this deal, but that the
government of Canada is making a gift of $450 million to be spent
by the president.
Feldman said:
"...This is in my view
an historic, unprecedented, astounding intrusion into American
politics. We searched all the way back to the Revolution and
found nothing like it in American history. And the question that
I came this morning to put is, "Will the Parliament of Canada
accept responsibility for possibly tipping the balance in American
politics in preserving the control of Congress by the president's
party?" This softwood lumber agreement is an historic moment
in part because of that proposition, and it's up to this Parliament
to decide whether it will accept the responsibility. That responsibility
cannot be shifted and, indeed, that money inevitably will go
to shore up the electoral aspirations of the Republican party
through the president -- it's not going to be touched by Congress
-- it's going through an escrow fund. And these are questions
that could impact American politics for generations and impact
relations between Canada and the United States for generations
to come. And that is entirely in the hands of this Parliament..."
Although Canada has won virtually
every legal action taken out against the U.S. under NAFTA and
the WTO, the Bush government has stonewalled and disregarded
every single ruling. The new Harper/Bush Softwood Lumber deal
has been vociferously blasted all across Canada, and opposition
parties, business analysts and even trans-national logging companies
are all outraged. Although the logging-lackey Neocon Premier
of British Columbia, Gordon Campbell (a convicted criminal who
was busted for drunk-driving in Maui in January 2003, ~while
Premier) was the first to capitulate and endorse the deal, even
amongst the logging corps there's been a vitual consensus that
this was an exceedingly stupid deal.
This from Bruce Campbell on
Rabble.ca:
"...As part of the settlement,
the Canadian government handed over $1 billion of the duties
collected from Canadian companies - $500 million to the U.S.
companies, and $450 million to the Bush Administration. This
was the American price for giving Canada at least two years of
lumber peace. In addition, the Americans secured tough restrictions
on Canadian access to their market and got enhanced control over
Canadian forest policies. The U.S. industry's cut of this money
covers their legal fees and replenishes their war chest for the
next round of the lumber dispute. The Bush White House cut (to
use for aid projects as it sees fit) is nothing less than a huge
slush fund for the upcoming Congressional elections - an unprecedented
campaign gift from the Harper government to the Republican re-election
bid, paid for by the Canadian lumber industry..."
Washington will return $4-billion
of the more than $5-billion in punitive duties that it has collected
from logging companies over the past four years, and that money
will go to the giant trans-national and American logging corporations
such as Weyerhaeuser for example, which are out there, destroying
Canada's forests. Canadian taxpayers will get zilch, and so too
apparently, will Americans.
Of the remaining $1 billion,
$500 million will go to the U.S. logging companies who paradoxically,
quite rightly charged that Canada grossly subsidizes its logging
industry, and will pay the massive legal bills they accumulated.
The remainder is for undisclosed "meritorious" projects
in the U.S. - New Orleans? - read Halliburton, and a fund for
developing the industry on both sides of the border. With Bush
handing out the disbursements, we can be certain as to exactly
who's going to get the cash.
It should be of great interest
and concern to all that Canada could well have become the primary
financier of Republican election campaigns in the upcoming November
elections
Here's a chronology of events
in the long-running softwood lumber dispute between Canada and
the United States from Canoe.ca:
1982: The U.S. lumber industry
lobby first petitioned against Canadian softwood lumber imports
under U.S. countervailing duty law, alleging Canadian forest
management practices unnfairly subsidize Canadian producers.
1983: After a full investigation,
the U.S. Commerce Department concludes that Canadian stumpage
policy does not confer countervailable subsidy.
1986: The Coalition for Fair
Lumber Imports again seeks countervailing duties.
Oct. 16, 1986: Commerce Department
determines that Canadian stumpage systems confer a subsidy averaging
15 per cent to lumber producers.
Dec. 30, 1986: Canada and U.S.
strike a five-year deal to resolve the dispute, with Canada agreeing
to collect a 15 per cent charge on exports of lumber from Canada,
while provincial governments implemented so-called "replacement
measures" that would replace the export charge over time.
Jan. 1 1989: The Canada-U.S.
Free Trade Agreement comes into force, including new binding
dispute settlement mechanisms which provide bi-national panel
review of countervailing duty and anti-dumping determinations
by domestic trade authorities.
May 28, 1992: U.S. Commerce
Department issues final affirmative determination on subsidization,
finding that forest management programs in British Columbia,
Alberta, Ontario and Quebec and the log export controls imposed
by B.C. conferred countervailable subsidies.
July 15, 1992: Commerce Department
imposes final countervailing duties of 6.51 per cent on lumber
imports from all provinces except the Atlantic Provinces.
August 1992: Canada appeals
decisions to binational panels under the free trade deal.
July 6, 1994: After numerous
reviews and appeals, the Department of Commerce revokes the countervailing
duty order.
May 29, 1996: Canada and the
United States finalize agreement on softwood lumber covering
the five-year period to March 31, 2001, which limited duty-free
shipments of lumber to the United States to 14.7 billion board
feet a year. Shipments after that could be shipped but were subject
to increasingly prohibitive tariff rates. Exports from Atlantic
Canada were unrestricted.
April 2, 2001: The Coalition
for Fair Lumber Imports files countervailing and anti-dumping
duty petitions with the United States government, alleging a
subsidy rate of 39.9 per cent.
May 3, 2002: Canada requests
WTO consultations with the United States concerning the U.S.
Final Determination of Subsidy.
May 23, 2003: Canada releases
counterproposal as the basis for discussions with the United
States.
2003-2004: The dispute goes
through various administrative reviews, NAFTA challenges and
the WTO.
Aug. 10, 2005: An extraordinary
challenge panel, convened under the North American Free Trade
Agreement, dismisses U.S. claims that Canada's softwood exports
are subsidized. Ottawa claims victory, Washington says it will
ignore the ruling.
Aug. 11, 2005: British Columbia
premier Gordon Campbell, whose province is Canada's largest lumber
producer, tells new U.S. ambassador David Wilkins at a premiers
meeting in Banff, Alta., that he expects the United States to
accept the ruling.
Aug. 16: Federal officials
say Canadian government is suspending softwood lumber talks with
the United States to protest its refusal to heed the panel's
ruling, which Canada argues was the final avenue of appeal under
NAFTA.
Aug. 23: At a brief media scrum,
Prime Minister Paul Martin castigates the United States for its
lumber protectionism and its decision to ignore the panel's ruling.
Aug. 29: World Trade Organization
rules the United States complied with international law. Washington
calls WTO ruling a vindication and Ottawa calls a setback, saying
NAFTA ruling takes precedent.
Dec: 12, 2005: The U.S. Commerce
Department publishes the final results in the second administrative
reviews of the anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders on
softwood lumber from Canada for 2003 and 2004, determining a
final, countrywide countervailing duty rate of 8.7 per cent and
anti-dumping duty rate of 2.11 per cent.
April 26. 2006: Canada and
U.S. hammer out a framework deal that would cap Canada's share
of the U.S. lumber market, impose a border tax and return 78
per cent of the $5 billion in punitive duties collected by U.S.
Customs since May 2002.
Aug. 9: Trade Minister David
Emerson gives Canadian lumber producers a deadline of Aug. 21
to support the negotiated deal.
Aug. 22: Prime Minister Stephen
Harper announces the Conservative government will bring in legislation
next month to implement the softwood deal with the U.S. after
getting support from a majority of lumber companies in all regions.
Ingmar Lee is a Canadian writer currently living
in Pondicherry, India. He can be reached at ingmarz@gmail.com
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