Mr. Speaker, it is not a question of the arguments being weak. It is a matter of the Americans not listening or not being prepared to listen.
If we look at the free trade agreement, the Liberal Party has stood traditionally for free trade. I think history will judge whether the free trade agreement and the NAFTA were the right deals, but if we look at the volume of our exports to the United States, it has increased enormously under the NAFTA. In fact our exports of softwood lumber and other forest products have increased under the NAFTA.
I will not stand in the House and suggest that everything is perfect under NAFTA. There are some issues we need to examine, such as the fact that we have become so dependent on the U.S. market. Perhaps we should be looking to diversify to outside the United States.
In terms of the results of the free trade agreement, it has generally worked very well. More needs to be done but the results have generally been positive for Canada. The problem is that the Americans have become totally irrational and have become bullies on certain trade disputes, and certainly softwood lumber is one of them.