[Scott S]

Originally Posted by Venamm

Scott,
You must be related to Mike, what education do you have about Canadian forestry? Simply the USA has run out and either they purchased from Canada or China. we are your neighbor to the north, we do not have a war with you. NAFTA screwed us just as bad if not more, and I do not hear any Canadian crying of lost potatoes hydro electricity. So get over it.

Nope not related to Mike but we do share a common country...

I have been in forestry over 30 years, have visited your country and buy quite a lot of heavy forestry equipment from Canada too.

CANADA IS JEOPARDIZING THE SOFTWOOD LUMBER
AGREEMENT BY FAILING TO ADHERE TO ITS TERMS

For the Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA) to be a lasting alternative to trade
litigation, the parties must ensure full compliance. Unfortunately, the Canadian
government presently is not doing so and is thereby putting the agreement at risk. It
is extremely disappointing that the list of violations is extensive a few months after
the two trading partners entered into to this seven-to-nine year agreement.
Canadian government data indicate that through May 2007 Canada’s under-collection
of required export taxes totals at least US$116 million and provinces’ over-quota
shipments total at least 522 million board feet. As the required tax and quota limits
on shipments are minimally necessary to address Canada’s unfair trade practices, its
SLA violations severely harm the U.S. lumber industry.

• Canada Is Not Collecting Required Surge Mechanism Export Taxes:
Canada is violating SLA surge mechanism requirements. The surge mechanism
requires Canada to impose additional export taxes if British Columbia’s or
Alberta’s exports to the United States exceed 111% of its allocated U.S. market
share in any period. Canada is calculating erroneously high share levels, and as
a result has through June foregone an estimated US$85 million in required export
taxes.

• Canada Is Permitting Shipments Beyond Agreed Quota Levels: As with
the surge limits described above, quotas applicable to Ontario and Quebec
exports are based on allocated shares of the U.S. lumber market. Since Canada
is, as with the surge limits, overstating allocated shares, it is permitting exports
over permitted quota levels. Through June, Quebec and Ontario had exported an
estimated 522 million board feet over their quotas.

• Canada Is Under-Collecting Primary Export Taxes: Canadian government
data indicate that Canada has not been collecting the full 15% primary export tax
on BC and Alberta shipments to the United States or the full 5% tax on Quebec
and Ontario shipments. The Canadian data, on their face, represent a Canadian
government acknowledgement that it collected only around 89% of required
primary tax proceeds and failed to collect approximately US$31 million in
required primary taxes from the time the agreement came into force in October
2006 through April 2007 (the latest month for which data are available).

• Provinces Are Providing Forbidden New Subsidies: Canadian provinces
have announced and begun disbursing new subsidies to lumber producers that
are forbidden under the agreement. Quebec is implementing a plan to provide
hundreds of millions of dollars in grants, subsidized loans and other subsides for,
among other purposes, “business modernization.” Ontario is doing the same.
The SLA expressly forbids these types of new subsidies. They exacerbate and
prolong current, ruinous lumber market conditions by sustaining large segments
of uneconomical Canadian lumber production.
The provinces are making it clear that they will preserve sawmills that would
close in a market system. In May, the largest Canadian lumber producer, Canfor,
announced that it is closing its Mackenzie, British Columbia “super mill.” British
Columbia authorities have announced a plan to reduce Canfor’s costs on the basis
of which the mill will remain open. Alone, the Mackenzie sawmill accounts for
around 2.5% of Canadian softwood lumber shipments to the United States -- an
enormous factor in a commodity market like lumber.

Read more here...

http://www.slma.org/pdf/USTR_canadianarbitration.pdf

Hardly a good neighbor on this issue.

What would you like me to get over?

Scott S