softwood lumber, forum shopping, the damn american boyfriend, and canadian cojones

sinister thoughts had a post back in the day about whether we should enter the shark tank that is the washington lobbying game.  i dont know if the law is enough when the usa doesnt seem to give a crap about it.  if theres anything that representing the usa at a model WTO conference at queen's university has taught me, it's that the damn thing has zero enforceability due to the fact people can go court-shopping, (pdf version) receive different verdicts in different courts, and basically abide to whatever they feel best serves their view of the dispute.

im in the states right now, with my american boyfriend.  i am bitching semi-regularly about the softwood lumber ripoff.  his only response, as a politics-obsessed, principled massachusetts democrat who loves neoliberal economic concepts such as free trade, is to flippantly exclaim that until he started dating a canadian, he had no idea what softwood lumber was, ergo, who gives a toss.  he insists $5 billion is nothing in terms of money.  he doesnt care that we are the biggest oil exporter to the united states and that if we grew some gender-neutral cojones, we could use that as a bargaining chip. (canada emulating opec would be cute, eh?)

as americans (or people in general) go, he is incredibly intelligent, suspicious of bushian unilateralism, and very interested in obscurantist academic aspects of international trade and politics. shit, he even had a good blog back in the day (though youll notice it has evidence of the dark ages, when he initially supported the war on iraq before not supporting it - then again, he *is* a flipflopping massachusetts democrat).

so what does this anecdotal evidence amount to?  basically, we have to get this issue on the american radar, because if blue state phd students who view canada somewhat favourably cant even appreciate the injustice of the situation... WHO WILL?

so maybe donolo is onto something and we should do the lobby thing rather than sit here and whine about not getting our money back even though the law is on our side.  a bird in the hand is worth an archaeopetryx in the bush, etc.  if some dork from georgetown can see through the illusion of wto enforceability, why shouldnt the canadian government?

(other lessons of the student wto simulation, such as 'last-minute renting a limo to kingston from ottawa for several people is actually cheaper than several ottawa-kingston bus tickets' and 'cab drivers who do rex murphy impersonations are really quite funny after youve spent the night downing pints at kingston's lovely pubs' are equally significant, but not entirely relevant to current affairs)

Comments

[BZA]

You know Ainge, i'm also sure most of Canada doesn't even care about softwood lumber sometimes. Right now the foresty industry is in a crisis everywhere, mills are shutting down in Newfieland as well as Kenora, Ont. Nobody is doing nothing.

If it doesn't affect Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, or the oil $$$ sands. Frankly, nobody seems to give a damn.

[Greg]

Political intervention sounds like a good idea, but I keep asking myself how I would have felt if the Bush Administration had sent money to Charles McVety during the SSM debate.

[Declan]

I'm with Greg in that I'm not sure I like the idea of trying to get involved in U.S. lobbying.

I think if were to target a few key U.S. sectors with retaliatory sanctions (preferably agricultural because they are the biggest and most powerful whiners) then we could get those industries to do our lobbying for us.

I imagine if the California wine industry or the Floria orange industry start feeling a little pain, they'll make a few phone calls.

Still, the whole lumber dispute is a bit mystifying to me. Given the situations in the Middle East, Central Asia and Venezuela, why would the U.S. go out of its way to antogonize the only significant oil supplier it is still on good terms with - all over some piddly (to the U.S.) lumber duties.

[ainge]

going after california wine and florida oranges kind of hurts canadian consumers a bit.

the us already does lobbying in canada. branch plants and multinationals are at it every single day. i dont know that this would be much different.

the us antagonizes us cos they know they can. all the drug policing theyve been doing in canada under the auspices of the patriot act (go look for dealers and potheads in your own effing country, damn you) has been pretty much endorsed by irwin cotler through his refusal to grow said gender-neutral cojones and stand up for canadian law and a canadian citizen (regardless of his creepy political views).

we sit there and take it like a bunch of pansies.

slapping tariffs might get us into wto/nafta trouble (which is kind of like getting in trouble from my senile religion teacher in high school - lots of noise, but no real enforceability since these things have short memories).

also, greg, americans send money and support to anti-ssm/abortion activists fairly often.

i just dont see why canada isnt going on the offensive, here.

[Greg]

ainge, it's true "Americans" do send money, but that's different from their government sending money.

Don't get me wrong, I want to make the Americans howl. Tax oil and gas, slap a dumping fee on all water sent north into Manitoba, pour California wine into Victoria harbour!

[ainge]

touche, greg, but i think american political influence of any type is equally toxic, though the civil society/corporate interference doesnt have the same pull on the martin/manley types than orders from washington.

regarding the wine suggestion, its not like brazils little dump the canadian whisky stunt did much besides amuse us :)

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