Softwood Deal: Follow the Money - By Kim Pollock, United Steelworkers, TheTyee.ca
The nearly-defeated US companies get a $500 million reward, half the 22 percent of the duties and tariffs the Americans now get to keep a lovely, Byrd-quality nest egg with which the coalition can kick start a new round of challenges in seven years when this deal dies.
Canadian firms, meanwhile, are saddled with another sodden half a loaf. Prime Minister Stephan Harper crowed al a Brian Mulroney that we got "stable and predictable access to the US market" with "unrestricted access under current market conditions." In fact, it is merely another quota deal, similar in some respects to the horrible Canada-US Softwood Lumber Agreement of 1996 to 2002.