VANCOUVER (CP) — International Trade Minister David Emerson is dismissing concerns from a Washington trade lawyer that the proposed softwood lumber deal with the United States undermines the North American Free Trade Agreement.
In an opinion brief for the Montreal-based Free Trade Lumber Council and other lumber industry clients, Elliott Feldman concluded among other things the deal effectively kills Chapter 19 of NAFTA, the dispute-resolution mechanism Canada used to strike down punitive U.S. lumber duties.
"The deal does not recognize or acknowledge a single litigated outcome from the last four years," Feldman writes.
It also allows to stand a U.S. interpretation that NAFTA panel rulings were prospective — that is duties collected before they were declared invalid would not have to be returned.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&pubid=968163964505&cid=1147470611703&col=968705899037&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/NewsNAFTA is dead but nobody sees it yet. Just wait for the downturn then it will become really tough.
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