Madam Speaker, it is with both great satisfaction and great disappointment that I take part in this debate. We will recall that, just a few weeks ago, President Bush came to Ottawa to meet with the Prime Minister of Canada. He gave us the assurance that the border would be reopening in early March. At the time, we all wanted to believe it would. I warned against rejoicing too fast, because a similar announcement had been made once before, but then a mad cow, a Canadian cow, was discovered in the U.S. That had delayed things. Once again, a portion of the U.S. cattle industry was able to take advantage of the discovery of another mad cow, this time in Canada, to pursue their protectionist approach, which, in a few areas of the U.S economy, is unfortunately the trademark of producers.
We are talking about agriculture, but we could also talk about softwood lumber. We could talk about live hog and the dairy industry as well. Even though, earlier this year, there was hope that the border would reopen, intensive lobbying of all U.S. representatives and public opinion should have continued to explain that there are no public health reasons to ban cattle exports from Canada and Quebec to the U.S.
I think that we have taken a somewhat careless and wait-and-see attitude in relying only on the word of the U.S. president. I am convinced of the sincerity of the U.S. president on this issue, because, shortly after the injunction was obtained in Montana, President Bush announced that he would be supporting Canada's position, that is for the U.S. border to be reopened to cattle from Canada and Quebec.
Convincing the U.S. president is not good enough, however. Once again, we are getting proof of that. We can think of the cattle issue. In this respect, we have heard all through the evening very important testimonies from members like my hon. colleague from Montcalm. But we have to realize that the same is true for softwood lumber.
We are told in this connection that the Americans are going to respect the decisions by the WTO and special NAFTA panels. Unfortunately, after six positive decisions, in favour of the Canadian position, the Americans are still withholding the $4 billion-plus in countervailing duties illegally collected in connection with Canadian and Quebec softwood lumber exports.
The other example I can give is the Byrd amendment. Canada was right in its WTO challenge with the other countries of the Americans' decision to include in their trade legislation the provision that results—and I will remind you of this here because we are still in the process of putting in place the retaliatory rights to get the Americans to comply with the WTO decisions—in its being illegal for the Americans to levy countervailing duties and antidumping duties on foreign exports in a trade dispute and to hand them over to the industries lodging the complaint.
Obviously, something like the Byrd amendment acts as an incentive to file complaints and to create trade disputes. Consequently, softwood lumber, like the matter of exporting Quebec and Canadian cattle to the Untied States, is part of a context in which it seems, from the American point of view, that they will experience a great deal of difficulty in fulfilling their obligations toward Canada in relation to the decisions reached by the international institutions, or in the case of NAFTA bilateral institutions—in fact trilateral, since Mexico is included—or complying with treaties I would imagine were signed in good faith.
Given this context, after the visit by President Bush, the Prime Minister ought to have taken the bull by the horns—pardon the play on words—and continued his crusade in the U.S. in order to ensure that the President's commitments are respected.
This calls into question the government's approach to trade disputes with the United States. All too often, I get the feeling that the current government, the Minister of International Trade and the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food are afraid that if Canada asserts its rights at mutually established institutions, such as NAFTA and the World Trade Organization, it will antagonize the Americans even more. That is not how it works.
We know that the United States is a huge country that has a very diverse economy, particularly in terms of the production of goods, services and agricultural products. Often, we will have to face well-organized lobby groups, but they are limited, however, within the industry.
For example, with regard to softwood lumber, the entire softwood lumber or construction industry is not opposed to the return of the free trade of softwood lumber. In fact, here, we have allies in the U.S., just as we do with regard to Canadian and Quebec cattle, starting with the American president. I could name a number of other allies, particularly in terms of live hog, for which there was a preliminary announcement about countervailing duties.
A large part of the American industry realizes that it goes against its own interest for this lobby, representing one section of the American hog industry, just as in the softwood lumber and cattle industries, to want to use dilatory measures simply to protect their market from exports or, in this case, from Canadian imports.
This is the context, I believe, in which Canada must now raise its voice in terms of its overall approach to Canada-U.S. relations. In fact, we have gotten nowhere by not asserting our rights or by adopting a low-profile strategy and maintaining informal relations. I remember the Minister of Foreign Affairs, when he was Minister for International Trade, saying to let him do his job and to be patient, since he knew what he was doing. Two or three years later and the conflict has yet to be resolved. The border has been closed to Canadian cattle for the past 18 months.
In my opinion, Canada and the Liberal government has to stop taking a wait-and-see attitude and has to let all our trading partners know that the Americans are not honouring their international obligations towards Canada. There are a number of ways to do this.
The meeting the Prime Minister of Canada will have with his counterparts, President Bush and President Fox, will provide an opportunity to make a point. It is not enough to tell the U.S. president that we would really like the U.S. border to be reopened to Canadian cattle and the softwood lumber dispute to be resolved.
On the pork issue, we are looking at a preliminary notice of countervailing duties. I hope this will not go any further. It has been unsuccessful in recent years. Unlike us, the Americans have a plan. It is important to understand that, in reference to the cattle, softwood lumber and pork industries, I am talking about industries relying on protectionism to protect their markets. Informal negotiations or discussions such as those we were involved in are not enough for them.
The time has come for Canada to let the U.S. president know that we want to have a very serious discussion on preventing industries like the lumber, cattle, pork or steel industry from using dilatory tactics to avoid complying with decisions rendered under the rules we have mutually agreed on.
On March 23, the Prime Minister of Canada will have a very big responsibility. I will conclude by saying that I was amazed to learn today—I will check it out tomorrow—that this meeting whose purpose was originally to discuss improvements to NAFTA will not have that particular item on the agenda.This would mean taking not only a wait-and-see attitude, but also an absolutely irresponsible one.