Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this, but I want to be quite clear. The Government of Canada has been working very hard on this file and for a very long time. If we let the softwood lumber agreement die last March it was not that we had not foreseen its end. It was that after narrow consultations with industry from all over the country, narrow consultations with the provinces and the advice of opposition parties there was a consensus of not renewing that agreement, of letting it die precisely to see what American producers would then do.
We have been bitterly disappointed with the attitude of the American producers. We have been extremely disappointed that the Bush administration has listened narrowly to the U.S. producers' protectionist demands and has given them everything they have been asking for. We find the 19.3% tariff absolutely indecent. We have found, of course, that in regard to the inclusion of re-manufacturers, these shops trying to enter value into the softwood lumber, their inclusion in this litigation is wrong. We also find it amazing that they found the critical conditions to put that countervailing duty retroactive.
We have been saying these things loud and clear. I was in Washington on September 10 and met with both trade representative Zoellick and secretary of commerce Evans. We made our position very clear: we do want free trade and we do not believe that we have been subsidizing our softwood lumber industry.
We reminded them that in 1994 we had a similar dispute. Panel after panel and court decision after court decision, the softwood lumber producers lost their case. A billion dollars in taxes that had been collected by the Americans was given back to the Canadian producers. We won in 1994.
We intend to work very hard. Saying that we have not done a thing is just so wrong. The member for Vancouver Island North himself has quoted all the successful things we have done, precisely because of the very hard work and leadership that our team Canada, non-partisan, above parties, from all provinces, the east and west of the country, has been able to do in the United States. A team of members of the House and Senators obtained great success in Washington. We obtained a letter from a hundred congressmen, both senators and representatives of the house, who wrote to President Bush siding with Canada. That has never been seen before.
We have, and the member has quoted it, support from the consumers, from the coalition for affordable homes in the United States and the Home Depot people. We have it because we have been doing our work, providing the leadership that is necessary, promoting our cause in Washington and across the United States. We had gone through legal action to the WTO before the actual cases that the Americans have put as pre-emptive strikes in order to gain some enlightenment from the WTO and to gain some time. We had gone there months before the end of the softwood lumber agreement, precisely in order to gain some time.
What we have been doing is with respect to an extraordinary team Canada that has been really working hard on this front. I am very pleased that the industry from British Columbia and Quebec and the provincial governments are participating very well and very strongly in the discussions in which we are involved. Yes, we are pursuing the WTO and we will pursue every legal venue that we can to challenge the American allegations. This is our duty, this is our right and we will win. We know it will take some time and that is where I fail to understand where the Alliance is on that.
The Alliance says the only thing they want me as minister to negotiate is free trade. This is precisely what we want, this is precisely what we are engaged in and this is precisely why we are having all these legal challenges. At the same time Alliance members say it is urgent because people are losing their employment, so they want us do something other than the legal challenges. That is what I think the position of the Alliance is although it was pretty vague and I am not sure I understood.
We are having sets of parallel discussions, some that just finished at 2.30 today. For three days we have been meeting in Washington. Provincial governments are there. Our international trade experts are there. It is the third such three day meeting we have had and we are finding common ground, comparing forestry management practices on both sides, finding common ground to make sure that we can have a better dialogue and hopefully find an alternative to litigation. However, that has to be done on solid grounds. That has to be done on grounds that will help our industry.
A member suggested an export tax. He says Americans want to slash the 19% tax and asks why do we not do so. It would be as bad for our industry whether I do it or the Americans do it. We want to access the American market at the level where we should be accessing it. We won in 1994. They had to give back $1 billion in tax they had collected. Since then all the provinces have increased their stumpage fees. Therefore, how could we win in 1994, then increase the stumpage fees and not win this time? It is so clear. The Americans know very well that their case is a bad one and that they will lose before the WTO.
In order to gain time, because we know that for many enterprises and many businesses time is of the essence, and unfortunately legal courses and challenges take time, we have set up these discussions with the Americans. I want the thank the provincial governments for participating so well in them. We are really making progress on that front.
The Prime Minister has raised it with President Bush and we are pursuing every venue possible to find more allies in the United States. I do believe that our team Canada approach has provided the right and the best possible eventual outcome for us. However, it is not the time to cave in. It is not the time to move to any quick fix that some U.S. senators might be trying to push us into because they realize that they have a bad case. I ask members to please let us resist their request for a quick fix, thus harming ourselves, rather than having them harm us for a while but losing eventually.
With respect to softwood lumber, enormous progress has been made in the past five, six or eight years. We have built Team Canada, in which Quebec's industry works closely B.C.'s industry and provincial governments have had long discussions to compare forestry practices.
We know that we do not subsidize our wood. We won in 1994, and since then we have increased our stumpage fees in Quebec and elsewhere. If we won in 1994, and increased our stumpage fees since, how could we lose our case this time? Except that, as we know, time is of the essence, and the courts often take time to decide.
At the moment, we are making considerable progress in our discussions. I think we could eventually open a dialogue with the Americans on a basis much more constructive and solid than the previous U.S. bias with respect to the situation in the Canadian softwood industry.