International Trade committee  Yes, sir, I do.

International Trade committee  Thank you for the invitation to appear here today. My name is Duncan Davies. I am the president and CEO of Interfor Corporation, one of the largest lumber companies in the world, based in Vancouver. I am also co-chair of the B.C. Lumber Trade Council and co-chair of the Canadian

International Trade committee  From an industry structure standpoint, I don't think the fact that a number of Canadian companies, including mine, have invested in the U.S. is really a pertinent issue with respect to the structure of the SLA. We believe, both in British Columbia and nationally, that the struc

International Trade committee  Yes. They can. Under the old agreement, a province could choose I think twice during the term of the last agreement. A province that chose one option was able to switch to the other option. That's not a bad arrangement, from our standpoint, because it allows provinces to adjust

International Trade committee  There are a couple of points. First of all, the history of the softwood lumber dispute shows clearly that this matter is never resolved unless the president and the prime minister both take a direct interest in finding a solution. Minister Freeland and Prime Minister Trudeau have

International Trade committee  I would like to see free trade too. I just don't think it is a possibility, because this is U.S. trade laws at work here, and the U.S. authorities are utilizing their trade laws to protect their market. Our assessment of the situation is that free trade per se is not an option. I

International Trade committee  Trade litigation, which is what happens in the absence of a deal, is a very blunt instrument designed to weaken one side of a negotiation, whereas a negotiated treaty has the ability to protect certain interests that can't be protected during litigation. It affects the B.C. indus

International Trade committee  I'll pass on the fibre issue; that's a constant matter. I'm not sure it's directly related to the SLA. With regard to the third issue, dispute resolution, there are ways for us to accelerate the pace of it. It's a long, cumbersome, and very expensive process. There are ways to

International Trade committee  We haven't seen the specifics of the U.S. proposal at this point. They have not tabled what would be called “the key feature”, which would be a market share arrangement. That aside, the fundamental difference from what existed under the 2006 SLA, in which there was a choice bet

International Trade committee  I don't think the changes in the structure of the industry—which have been really on the margin, as opposed to fundamental, including investments by Canadian companies in the U.S.—change what we would think would be an appropriate agreement in any way, shape, or form.

International Trade committee  It's built into the way business is conducted, but it's the elephant in the room as it pertains to trade agreements. When markets are weak and the Canadian dollar is weak, it results in a change in the location of the cost curve of Canadian producers, and if you look at all the

International Trade committee  Two-thirds.

International Trade committee  Yes.

International Trade committee  Not necessarily.

International Trade committee  It would be a negative pertaining to our Canadian operations.