Mr. Speaker, I compliment my friend across the way. I know how concerned he is today about what is going on in Washington because he comes from the heart of an area that is so dependent not only on softwood lumber but on other forestry products.
However I wonder if he would consider one element in the comments he just made. I think it is something that we should always remember in the House when we are discussing and talking about this dispute that we have with the United States.
I am absolutely convinced, and I wonder if he is, that most of the members of the house of representatives and of the senate in the United States, who have to go out and get elected, like we do, are sympathetic toward our case?
Where we really come into some difficulty as country is not in dealing with the president, the members of the senate or the members from the house of representatives but in dealing with the department of commerce in the United States. When we get into the area of the interpretation of NAFTA, we fail to realize that it is the department of commerce that has jurisdiction. It is dealing, as our minister has over the last year and done an admirable job, with Mr. Evans, the secretary of the commerce department; Mr. Zoellick, the trade commissioner for the department of commerce; and, most recently, in dealing with the former governor of the state of Montana, a friend and ally of Senator Baucus who was asked by the president to try to bring some conclusion to this very difficult trade dispute.
When my colleague talks about the United States, does he not think he should perhaps couch his remarks? Should he not be talking in more specific terms, at this particular period of time, after one year, about the people in the department of commerce in the United States, the leaders in that area, and not about our friends in the United States generally?