The commercial protections that private parties thought they had received are not there at all. If that view should prevail, it's the end of NAFTA.
NAFTA has been Canada's insulation against absorption by the United States. It places us, at least in one forum, on equal footing, commanding respect. This government aggressively is giving it away. What will it get us? Will we get a break on the use of passports at the border? Will it get us a better seat at the table when the United States decides whether it will shoot down missiles headed for Toronto instead of missiles headed for Chicago? Will the United States withdraw from Iraq because of our criticism?
The forest industries are being sacrificed on the altar of foreign policy, with no apparent benefit for Canada. The bravado with which the Canadian industry is being told to take this deal or leave it, and Parliament is being told to endorse it or be blamed for early elections, confirms that the deal is political, not commercial, and that the government's agenda is not focused on the softwood lumber industry at all. We only wish that, in negotiating an agreement that we all had hoped would help our industry, the government had stood up for Canada in facing the Americans instead of standing down to the Americans, with us on the altar.
Thank you.