Mr. Speaker, the member said “can it”. Of course, the Conservatives gave away the can, as they also gave away the table and the rest of the House in this softwood sellout.
I did want to clarify something that the member said, which was completely and utterly false. It was on the issue of long term stability. Clause 34 says that the United States reserves the right to terminate the agreement without resort to dispute settlement or any other precondition for termination of this agreement. In other words, the U.S. can keep the billion dollars and run, and can terminate the agreement at any time on a simple allegation of non-compliance. There is no stability in this deal, even though we have gone from seven years to 23 months, now to 18 months, where the United States can make a formal announcement. The U.S. also has an opt-out clause at any time. All the Americans have to do is allege non-compliance. We have no recourse to dispute settlement. We have no appeal.
There is a series of questions I would love to ask the member. She made the statement that we eliminate the duties. Is she aware the duties would be higher as of October 1 under this deal than they are currently with the illegal punitive tariffs? Is she aware of that?
She mentioned the fact that the coalition would be taking on Canada if indeed this softwood sellout was not put into effect. We know darn well that the coalition is dry. It has no funds for further legal action, but this softwood sellout gives it half a billion dollars to take on our industry anytime it chooses. It alleges non-compliance and it can come right back at us, so the kick-me kids, the Conservative caucus that just could not get this right, is giving half a billion dollars away to a coalition that would not have been able to launch legal action against us otherwise.
The next question is around the export tax. The way the Conservatives botched this legal bill, the bill itself imposes the export tax on top of the current anti-dumping and countervailing duty imposition. What we have is a double tax. Is the member aware of that?
Finally, is the member aware that the United States kicked the kick-me kids, the Conservative caucus, last week and decided it is going to appeal the Byrd amendment ruling that Canada won last spring? In other words, the Americans take all of their cake away from the softwood sellout and they are coming back for other industries now, basically kicking the Conservatives for their naivety and their poor negotiations. Is the member aware of that?