Mr. Chair, that is a good question. The free trade agreement is essential. Prior to that, we had to automatically go before the U.S. courts. It will not be any easier now. The American courts are a sort of quagmire we will not get out of easily. It will take a long time before we win. NAFTA was supposed to replace that.
We realize today that the Americans do not feel obliged to respect NAFTA rulings. They are even challenging the constitutionality of NAFTA in the courts. Fortunately , the U.S. government will be forced to take a stand and join forces with the Canadian government to defend the constitutionality of NAFTA. I think that agreement is a good thing for Canada, for the United States, and for Mexico.
In light of the present situation, what is harmful to this agreement is that the Americans are not true to their word. This again shows us that agreements like NAFTA have to have decision-making mechanisms that are as clear as possible. As well, those in a position to negotiate must have solidly based arguments available to them.
As for the fact that the government is continuing to argue before the tribunals because the Americans have failed to hold up their end of the bargain, perhaps we lack the means to do otherwise. However, we are also playing the Americans' game by doing so, if we fail to grant our industry the loan guarantees it needs to survive this crisis. I believe that this is the main flaw in the government's position. The government has not given our industry the ability to survive this crisis.
For the past two, three or four years, the Americans have repeated the same message: we can wait; we will appeal every case we can; we may even dispute the constitutionality of NAFTA; that way, time will be on our side again and again; and Canadian companies will be on their last legs or taking their last breath. That is the situation we are in.
In conclusion, I want to come back to the letter I received from people at Tembec. They are speaking on behalf of all those suffering in all the regions, and they are calling for the government to adopt emergency measures.
This letter said, “If the Americans do not comply with NAFTA, we can go forward with loan guarantees. We are complying with the WTO and NAFTA, and we are entitled to take such action. We cannot be taxed for not complying with international agreements when our own trade partner does not want respect a ruling by the NAFTA panel”.
As the employee who sent me the letter said, “Without immediate support for forestry companies, even small towns and villages will close. The Canadian government has the responsibility to prevent that from happening”.