:: rawblogXport ::

:: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 ::

Ban on raw log exports illegal: experts By JEFF NAGEL
Even before NAFTA was signed nearly 10 years ago, log export restrictions were touchy.
They were technically permitted under the original 1989 Canada-U.S. free trade agreement. But even with that allowance, the U.S. used our log export restrictions as an excuse to slap countervailing duties on B.C. lumber.
It’s easy to understand the motives of those who want to block the flow of logs south.
Critics see raw log exports as a drain of logs and jobs to the U.S. While mills here are crippled and closing, American ones are expanding, fed by B.C. logs.
Fair is fair, the export critics say. If the Americans want to use 27 per cent tariffs to keep our lumber out of the U.S., we should add our own hefty tax to log exports and price raw logs out of existence south of the border.
“It would be the start of trying to control the issue a little bit,” says IWA local 2171 president Darrel Wong.

Harris in fight to keep log exports By JEFF NAGEL
Export logs are increasingly being processed at mills in the northwest U.S.
While government officials say 95 per cent of B.C. logs are milled in the province, opponents say exports have increased to the point where the logs leaving B.C. would have employed 3,700 B.C. workers feeding several sawmills.
Unity B.C. leader Chris Delaney says Canada’s position in the softwood lumber dispute is being undermined by the flow of B.C. logs to feed U.S. mills.
“Every log they ship only delays a resolution to the softwood dispute, and creates unemployment and mill closures,” Delaney said. “Either they haven’t got the guts to call the Americans’ bluff, or they are doing this deliberately to appease their big American supporters like Weyerhaeuser, who want to feed large sawmills in the U.S.”

No decision yet on Grande Cache FMA By Nathan Anderson
'We're very pleased that the provincial government is sticking to their position on raw log exportation,' said Jodoin.
First Alberta death
Jodoin called the Grande Cache closure the province's, 'first casualty in the Softwood Lumber dispute.'
Weyerhaeuser announced Nov. 4 that it will close its Grande Cache operation by Feb. 8, 2004, putting 156 hourly and salaried employees out of work. The closure is expected to remove at last $7.5 million in unionized wages from the community, and affect about 300 direct and indirect jobs.

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