International Trade committee  Mr. Julian, your question to me is whether I have concerns about a deal that would have us one day face Lumber V, start from scratch, and have to go through all this litigation, which we've paid $100 million for, again. The answer is yes, that does pose problems, and I can add

International Trade committee  Talked about--that's fine. I'd like to see a letter, and so would members of the industry.

International Trade committee  With great respect, that may be so, but presidents who have to make decisions with large numbers of employees at stake, great investments at stake, would like to know more than that that seems to be behind the agreement anyway. They would like to have some clear assurance of what

International Trade committee  As I've said, I think it's a reasonable choice by a company that can weather the storm for another couple of years--

International Trade committee  I agree, and it's a reasonable choice for them not to want to, but in the absence of the assurances that I am talking about in my paper, there will not be the 95% approval that the Government of Canada has said it wants before going forward. In order to get that approval and in

International Trade committee  Just as they've been available to us now, so far in the litigation, and they've worked very well. We've won near unanimous good judgments from them. People can argue this on both sides, and I am not arguing for the one or the other. I am actually advancing proposals designed to

International Trade committee  I did say that, but I didn't know it was in February 2006. I thought it was a bit earlier, but never mind. Whenever I said it, I think I was right. But with respect, I did not say that the litigation had failed. I said that any system, no matter how well designed, could be made t

International Trade committee  I'm proud of myself enough to say that I could have made it better, but yes, I have always said there ought to be a dispute resolution mechanism in the settlement. There is one there; I'm very glad. In some ways, it looks unwieldy to me, but I'm very glad it's there and I'm sure

International Trade committee  I'd like to make a comment on the termination clause. I think we have three aspects here that really make this a separate case from these other agreements that you're mentioning. I think it's only fair to say that in those other ones, those deals weren't bought with my billion do

International Trade committee  It is the case, for instance, of anti-circumvention provisions. The definition of “circumvention” is so vague that it is almost impossible to change in any way the forestry policy of a province. It even requires the province to ask the permission of the Americans to adopt a chang

International Trade committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Crête, because you give me the opportunity to add some more details. There are essentially three problems. The proposal I am making today deals only with two of them. I shall not deal with the fact that quotas will probably be administrated on a monthly

International Trade committee  Canada's market share is 34%. Quebec, for instance, would have its share of that 34%. However, this is rather tenuous. In practice, as the quota will be administrated on a monthly rather than a yearly basis, this 34% share will diminish month after month. It is a problem but let

International Trade committee  As I said in the document I gave you, Mr. Crête, I think that we do. We could obtain from the United States the assurance that the Government of Canada could allow a carry-back or carry-forward over three months instead of one month without it being considered a circumvention. It

International Trade committee  I am convinced that people of good faith should be able to do so in the next coming days. With all the respect I have for the Government of Canada, one of the problems is that the US industry and US government are not talking to anyone because Ottawa is sending them the message t

International Trade committee  There's no doubt that even though a seasonality is built into annex 5's calculation of what the monthly quota will be, the volatility of the market, clients' changing demands at the border, and returns of stock will make the tracking and management of quota extremely difficult an