Mr. Speaker, the government continues to assure Canadians that negotiating a new softwood lumber agreement with the U.S. is a priority, yet just a few months ago the U.S. trade representative, Katherine Tai, was quoted in Reuters as saying, “In order to have an agreement and in order to have a negotiation, you need to have a partner. And thus far, the Canadians have not expressed interest in engaging.” Now the U.S. has announced that it will go ahead with doubling the softwood lumber duties on Canadian producers.
Why will the government not come to the table and just get the deal done?