Thank you, Mr. Eyking.
The Byrd Amendment dies on, I think, November 1, 2007. If we enter into this agreement, it takes us right into the period in which the Byrd Amendment no longer applies. We've also won a court case, which I believe will be appealed by the Americans, on whether the Byrd Amendment should have applied to Canada in the first place. So we're winning there; the Byrd Amendment is history.
In terms of the 18% of the deposits that will not come back to Canadian producers, you have half of that being spent for good initiatives such as Katrina, low-income housing, and initiatives to help and support the industry. You have $50 million for a fund for a Canada-U.S. industry committee to develop the competitiveness of Canadian lumber and to promote lumber as an eco-friendly, vital building material against concrete and steel and plastics. You have opportunities to strengthen the competitiveness of the industry in both Canada and the United States--and I stress both Canada and the United States. Those determinations will be jointly made; they will not be unilaterally made. So we are basically out of the woods on the Byrd Amendment, and we are going to be party to making decisions on the other half of that money.
Remember, it's a negotiated settlement; you're asking the American industry and the Americans to give up something that they have. We have a greater return of deposits than we ever contemplated in the past; you will know that from your time with Minister Peterson. There was a time in Canada--I was there--when we were considering accepting a 15% export tax and giving up 50% of the duties.
Litigation has brought us to the point in the cycle where we are now. The risk we have--and I want to restate this once more--is that if we blow this opportunity for a very positive negotiated solution, I believe we're back into a litigation cycle, at the front end of the cycle, and that's where all hell breaks loose. To have that in a period of weakening markets would be devastating for the forest industry in Canada, and it's not something I could possibly accept, personally. The responsibility for that is not something I can accept.