softwood lumber?

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softwood lumber?

August 19, 2005, 02:38:32 PM

Is anyone surprised that the American government has decided to IGNORE a NAFTA ruling stating that they are WRONG in their assertion that Canadian Softwood lumber is unfairly subsidized? Not me.

As usual they just say "we don't need to play by the rules, we'll just make our own rules". Once again the US gov't can't admit defeat. The world is watching.

Canada produces more oil than it consumes, so I say let's cut 'em off and see if that dumb f##k in the white house (you know, the one we burned in the war of 1812

) attacks an "ally" over oil. I feel sorry for the majority of Americans who dissapprove of Dubya but have to have the world think they are all just like him.

Buck Fush
:canada:

Re: softwood lumber?

Reply #1 – August 19, 2005, 02:47:48 PM

Is anyone surprised that the American government has decided to IGNORE a NAFTA ruling stating that they are WRONG in their assertion that Canadian Softwood lumber is unfairly subsidized?

hmmm??? can't be surprised by what I don't know about, what is softwood lumber and why are they being subsidised.

Re: softwood lumber?

Reply #2 – August 19, 2005, 03:10:52 PM

Softwood lumber is what your house is made out of (spruce, pine, etc) and they're not being subsidized. That's the whole point of the NAFTA ruling - the USA claims that the Canadian government unfairly subsidized softwood lumber so it can supposedly be sold cheaper than American softwood, so they imposed a hefty duty on Canadian softwwod, contrary to the original Canada-US free trade agreement as well as the NAFTA. The NAFTA panel as well as the WTO rejected the USA's claims and ordered the tarriffs be lifted immediately and that the money collected be returned to the Canadian producers. USA decided that the NAFTA agreement they signed doesn't apply to them and ignored the ruling, thus breaking several international trade laws. A lot of Canadians are rather pissed off as a result.

Much like the mad cow controversy. So far there have been two mad cow cases found in Canada and two in USA, but the rancher's lobby insists that Canadian beef is unsafe (without any scientific reasons whatsoever, they just claim it because they want Canadian competition eliminated). It's a powerful enough lobby that it has won a court case (but has lost several) and can influence the US government into doing its bidding regardless of what the courts and laws say. Once again, a bunch of Canadians are pissed off at the USA's flouting the authority of not only international laws, but its own laws as well.

The pissed off Canadians blame GWB because they think that the sanctions are a result of Canada not blindly jumping into the war in Iraq. While I find it hard to comprehend that the US government could resort to such lowly actions, especially given that the Canadian government's refusal to go to war has long been justified, it's hard to argue against the evidence, especially given the US's resorting to ignoring international laws (both with the war and with the illegal duties/tarriffs).

Re: softwood lumber?

Reply #3 – August 19, 2005, 03:31:41 PM

yah. thats my government, everyone else has to do what we say, but we dont have to do what we said we would. hippocratic to the core.

Re: softwood lumber?

Reply #4 – August 19, 2005, 03:39:43 PM

I can't say I've ever been a fan of NAFTA (yeah, that's a severe understatement). But NAFTA has always been a door that only opens one way. Yet another reason to hate the conservatives. Thanks Mulrooney.

Some of us get a little too worked up about it though, and completely ignore diplomacy. :rolleyes:

I do think we should stop selling so much oil to the US though. There's no reason I should have to pay more for a resource that comes from the earth beneath my own feet than those we as a nation sell it to. Seriously, it's something like %80 of US oil comes from Canada, yet we pay more for it then they do. Anyone else see how ****ed up that is? That would be like us getting American cars for less than Americans. Or a fisherman paying more for a fish than shoppers at the local supermarket who buy the fish he caught earlier that morning.

How exactly is NAFTA helping anyone but the obvious one?

Re: softwood lumber?

Reply #5 – August 19, 2005, 03:54:59 PM

i have a cottage up north of sudbury here in ont. and you all ways see logging truck full of wood and man the size of the lumber is pittyfull i mean usally theres no log bigger than 10 inches theres not too many origanl groth woods anywhere

Z

Re: softwood lumber?

Reply #6 – August 19, 2005, 04:52:24 PM

Quote from: hundred_dollar_5.0_t-bird

i have a cottage up north of sudbury here in ont. and you all ways see logging truck full of wood and man the size of the lumber is pittyfull i mean usally theres no log bigger than 10 inches theres not too many origanl groth woods anywhere

Z

Maybe not in Sudbury. There's still a shiznitload in Alberta, BC, and even little ol' Scotia. :D They may have been cutting for pulp, or newsprint, also, so they don't really need to harvest the big stuff. (my daddy was/is a lumberjack :p )

Re: softwood lumber?

Reply #7 – August 19, 2005, 04:57:42 PM

Quote from: oldraven

(my daddy was/is a lumberjack :p )

Is he OK? :p

(edit: didn't take long)

Re: softwood lumber?

Reply #8 – August 19, 2005, 05:00:28 PM

Does he work all night and sleep all day?

They've been harvesting assloads of wood by my cottage too - the clearcuts are hundreds of acres, and they take everything from the tall old growth stuff to the little saplings. Hardwood, softwood, it all goes. They sell the hardwood for firewood. The big softwood stuff goes to lumber, the little to pulp. The poplar gets left on the sides of the road in enormous piles to rot. It's a shame, because it may not be the best firewood, but it does burn. Poor people could make good use of it, but it's illegal to take any even though it's just gonna rot.

They do have good reason to be cutting so much around my cottage, though. Hurricane Juan left millions of trees on the ground in tangled messes and they've got to get them before they rot (it'll be two years since the hurricane in September). They are so tangled that selective cutting is impossible. Clearcut is the only way to go, or we'll end up with forest fires as it all dries out.

Here, for example, is what the woods looked like behind my cottage: