London Free Press | by ALLAN SWIFT | February 1, 2002
International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew says a settlement in the cross-border lumber dispute will be impossible unless "hardline interests" stop believing they can overhaul Canada's forestry management policies.
Pettigrew also accused the Americans yesterday of stalling on talks to settle the lumber fight.
Claiming Canadian lumber from Crown-owned land is unfairly subsidized, the U.S. imposed a preliminary duty of 19.3 per cent last August on Canadian softwood imported into the U.S.
The duty expired under international rules Dec. 15, but by then an anti-dumping duty of 12.6 per cent had also been introduced. That one is still in effect. An official with the Free Trade Lumber Council, the Canadian group lobbying for free trade, estimates Canadian lumber producers have so far had to take provisions on their earnings of about $700 million Cdn to cover the liabilities of those duties.
Pettigrew told a forestry conference the U.S. government should establish its own position based on international free trade agreements "and not necessarily cave in to every demand of the producers in the United States."
"There are some hardline interests in the U.S. who want to continue dealing with this issue as they have in the past," he said.
"If the administration comes back with a proposal that Canadians can work with, then I am confident that we can move forward with a negotiated solution.
"If they come back with the idea that they can change completely the way we manage public forests in Canada, then a negotiated solution will not be possible.
"We will know in the next few days."
Parallel to the bilateral negotiations, Canada has complained to the World Trade Organization the U.S. Commerce Department's subsidy determination is invalid.
The WTO established a panel in December. Feeling the case was being ignored, Pettigrew asked WTO director general Mike Moore last week to appoint the panelists to hear Canada's claims.
Pettigrew said Moore will name the panel today, but its ruling will take six more months.
"I think that the U.S. has resorted to stalling tactics because they know that they do not have a good case," Pettigrew said.
Carl Grenier, executive vice-president of the Free Trade Lumber Council, said after Pettigrew's speech he is still hopeful a negotiated settlement is possible, but so far the American government has not taken much initiative.
"It would be very curious and unprecedented if the U.S. government developed its own position on these things," Grenier said. "The official U.S. position is basically the industry's position."
Even though provincial governments put major changes on the table, the U.S. lumber coalition still professes not to be satisfied, Grenier said.
"I think the reason is that their real agenda is not policy changes in Canada, but its market share in the U.S."London Free Press:
