Mr. Chairman, it is a pleasure to take part in the debate leading up to the negotiations of the WTO.
I listened carefully to all the speeches, particularly to that of the Minister for International Trade. He made the point, fairly emphatically, I thought, that the WTO has been useful in resolving bilateral disputes, disputes such as softwood lumber, one presumes, and changes to the Canadian Wheat Board, disputes that we have with our American neighbours. They have been ongoing disputes for many years.
I would say at the outset that I think there is a fundamental difference in the reaction of our country versus the United States vis-à-vis rulings on trade. For example, if there is a ruling that seems to go against Canada, we tend to comply fairly quickly and change our rules. Whereas it seems to me, and more important, I think, to a lot of Canadians, that when rulings go in the other direction the Americans, the big guys, tend to simply ignore those decisions and continue without making any significant changes.
Parenthetically, I would also observe that I do not think we as a country are very aggressive in challenging those rulings. As I say that I recognize that in the trade agreements between our countries, especially in agricultural products, a lot more of our produce is going to the American market than there is American produce coming this way. There may be a downside to that, but I often think we are far too cautious when it comes to not challenging decisions made by our neighbour to the south and indeed by other countries with which we are involved when there are inconsistencies and when there is material action being taken that is demonstrably unfair and against the rules, so to speak.
I wish to touch on the two areas of the softwood lumber dispute and then turn to agriculture in the few minutes I have available in this take note debate. I think it is fair to say that the dispute over softwood lumber exports to the U.S. threatens to undermine and disrupt Canada's largest single source of export earnings and our largest source of employment. In fact, the lumber trade between Canada and the U.S. constitutes the largest single item of trade between any two countries in the world.
Ten thousand woodworkers, and today in question period we heard 12,000 and maybe 15,000, now have been laid off at least temporarily as a result of the 19.3% duty imposed by the United States in August. There is now an additional 12.3% in dumping that has been added to that.
The ability of the American lumber coalition to harass Canadian exporters and hold to ransom our company workers, governments and communities indicates one of the major weaknesses in the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Again, I have listened about how the WTO has helped resolve bilateral disputes. We have a dandy one going on here. The U.S. has retained the right to unilaterally protect companies that lose market share to Canadian producers, as long as those American producers cry subsidy loudly enough in the hearing range of a large enough group of congressional representatives.
We are concerned about the exports of Canadian raw logs. We want to see more value added in this country and that is not what we are getting. We continue to be the hewers of wood and drawers of water in not doing that value added which would mean so much to our economy and would probably help stabilize our declining dollar.
Let me now turn to the agricultural issue. As Canadians knows and as the Chair knows, we have been bedevilled over the last several years by what has happened to our farm economy. After the GATT Uruguay round there was a bit of an agreement on farm issues for the first time ever in GATT, which was not formalized as such.
When Canadian officials returned from the GATT they said they would eliminate, not phase out, the Crow benefit immediately, and a number of other areas similarly. As a result of the changes, over the past five years our farmers in certain sectors, especially the grains and oilseeds sector, have been tremendously hurt.
The government has taken the position that our pockets are not as deep as the Americans or the Europeans so we have reduced our support payments to Canadian farmers dramatically in contrast to the European Union and the United States in particular.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Washington, D.C. and in New York City on September 11, we are hearing stories that the Americans are concerned about food security being included in that. Last month the house of representatives overwhelmingly approved a major expansion of federal farm supports of some $170 billion over the next 10 years.
The parliamentary secretary to the minister of agriculture has just said that it has not gone through yet. We are aware of that and know this is just a proposal on the floor but we also know it was many times larger than what was originally proposed on the books in the house of representatives. Yes, it is not law but it is of concern. This is an additional $170 billion over what the farmers in that country are already receiving.
The headline in the October issue of the Economist read “Just plant dollars”. It was referring to what it called the loonie solution that the Americans are into. The subtitle read “They grow without the farmer having to do anything”. To put it another way, they farm the mailbox just waiting for the cheque to come in.
These are the concerns that our farmers and our workers in the wood industry and in many other sectors are concerned about.
Yes, we realize we are a very small partner in the North American Free Trade Agreement but it seems to us that there is this notion, as Bruce Johnstone put it in the Regina Leader-Post on Saturday:
--“Blame Canada for everything from low grain prices to the bankruptcy of U.S. forestry companies.
Johnstone went on to say that the reality is that recurring trade actions like the softwood lumber dispute or the recent challenge of the wheat board are just a smokescreen for domestic political wrangling and lobbying by powerful industry groups.
I will conclude by pointing out that there are some significant differences on lumber in that 94% of our timberlands are publicly owned as compared to 42% in the United States.
The Canadian Wheat Board has gone before a tribunal now and Canada has won nine consecutive times. I guess we are now going for the tenth. All I point out is that one of these times we are going to lose on a technicality or something else and then we need to be terribly concerned about the wheat board and its future as well as the other support payments that we need to have for our farmers, especially in western Canada.