Summary of New York Times article by Joseph Nocera:
Memo to the United States of America regarding Canada
1.Softwood lumber
Unfortunately for our side, the North American Free Trade Agreement arbitrators have consistently ruled in Canada’s favor. After the latest – and supposedly final – such ruling a few weeks ago, the United States trade representative, Rob Portman, announced that the United States would ignore it and refuse to refund $5 billion in tariffs [imposed on Canadian softwood lumber by the US] it has collected in the last five years. (The American position is that the ruling is pre-empted by a parallel proceeding at the World Trade Organization.)
THE stance has made our friendly neighbors to the north a lot less friendly – in fact, the country is absolutely up in arms. Canada’s trade minister even walked out of softwood lumber negotiations recently, to the universal applause of his countrymen. “What is there to talk about?” asked Senator Pat Carney, a former trade minister who now represents British Columbia. “We won. The Americans won’t abide by the rule of law.” That pretty much sums up the sentiment of the entire country.
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Note the softwood lumber problem dates back to the beginning of the Bush administration. Canada could retaliate by blocking the sale of Terasen, a natural gas pipeline to a Texas company.
- Two Canadian banks, CIBC, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and TD Toronto Dominion were involved in the Enron scandal and are forced to repay billions of dollars. They are forced to pay much larger amounts than US banks who were involved in the scandal.
- Canada’s airline, Air Canada is in the money again after declaring bankcruptcy. The author recommends this solution for Delta.
- Canada’s tar sands will yield amounts of oil second only to the Saudis. Mr. Cheney will be visiting them soon.
Mr. Camarta told me that Vice President Dick Cheney would visit the oil sands next month. Memo to Mr. Cheney: Can you settle the softwood lumber dispute while you’re there? With all that oil, do we really want Canada mad at us?
- The author doesn’t mention a more important resource that America literally thirsts for and that is WATER.
Canada has 20% of the world’s fresh water supply and so far it restricts bulk exports.
It has been said that water will be “the oil of the 21st century,” or “liquid gold,” and that it will cause wars between nations. Whatever happens with regard to global water, and the environmental, economic and political fallout, Canada will be a major player. Talks have intensified during the past few years on whether Canada should take advantage of its bountiful supply of water by selling it for profit – like gas, oil and timber. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/water/
