International Trade committee  If you believe in “happily ever after”, then I think we're okay, but there's kind of like the optimistic and pessimistic scenarios. The optimistic scenario is that we have nine years of peace and we have steady prices. I think the U.S. builders assume that we're going to pay a hi

International Trade committee  Certainly. When you have $500 million in cash going to the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, which represents about 53% of the American producers, it gives me lots of pause. I remember surfing the web around the time of the agreement and reading one quote that was saying, ye

International Trade committee  Thank you for having me. Good afternoon. My name is Barry Rutenberg. I'm president of Barry Rutenberg Homes, a home building business in Gainesville, Florida. I currently sit on the executive committee and the board of directors for NAHB, the National Association of Home Builde

International Trade committee  I'm afraid that it could be true. We had people comment today that softwood lumber has been treated a little differently. Indeed, the cement agreement with Mexico that concluded a month or two beforehand did have exit ramps and a conclusion at the end of three years. I think

International Trade committee  In the SLA we had quarterly quotas, and you knew ahead of time what they would be. This one, as I understand it, will have monthly quotas, and you won't know until afterwards. That can't do anything, I would assume, but increase volatility in the market price. Everybody here has

International Trade committee  The random lengths composite index, which by the way also includes the price of U.S. producers.... It's just not Canada. Canada will be hitching their wagon, so to speak; they will be dependent upon the price the Americans sell for. If the Americans go lower, then Canada will hav

International Trade committee  Yes, if I understand the question correctly, it's can we have free trade in softwood lumber like we have in other sectors? It's a very interesting question. I think it's possible. I thought Canada was getting very close in the legal system. I know that the United States governme

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Barry Rutenberg. I'm a home builder in Gainesville, Florida, and a member of the executive board of the National Association of Home Builders of the United States--which we'll call NAHB. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before the com