Analysis Of The Softwood Lumber Dispute

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Recommended: Regional free trade agreements

The Softwood Lumber Dispute “In August 1987, after fifteen months of negotiations Canada and the U.S concluded another round of talks, and finally agreed on a free trade agreement. It was then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and President Ronald Reagan who had launched the trade initiative at their convivial 1985 and their main focus was lowering trade and tariff barriers. This was cast as a path to increased prosperity for both nations. This is also known as the Ottawa summit. However the negotiating was not easy. Substantive differences did not prove amenable to quick resolution. The Canadian Prime Minister was however in for a disappointment as he had placed a considerable amount of stakes on this deal and hated to see it finished off. The Canadian negotiators were in for a difficult deal that was how to move the bargain forward without losing their side off the deal. By September, the Canadian government was preparing a strategy for resolving the talks-one way or another. Failing that, the Canadian cabinet would have to determine how and when to acknowledge the breakdown in the negotiations. This case is designed to encourage discussion of both the Canadian and US negotiating postures and of how each nation's assessment of the other helped to define its negotiating stance. Another case, US-Canada Free Trade Negotiations I (C16-87-785.0), involves US preparations for the negotiations, with specific focus on obtaining congressional approval for the talks” (http://www.ksgcase.harvard.edu/case.htm?PID=862) “Canadian officials had given quite a palpable response to the imposition of duty, which was around 19.3 percent, countervailing tax on imports of Canadian softwood lumber with much tub-thumping and hand wringing. Many traders a... ... middle of paper ... ...an business world at odds with the free trade agreement that was drafted in 1987, with the aim of encouraging better trading through pulling back the different trade barriers that are used in international trade. The softwood lumber dispute is however straining relations between Canada and the Unites states. It has put the 1987 agreement into the background and dashed any hopes of better trading relations between the two countries. Canada is a major supplier of softwood and the united state is a major market, which it is at risk of losing. Therefore the achievement of Canadian objectives remains elusive at best. Bibliography US-Canada Free Trade Negotiations (II): The Canadian Dilemma, http://www.ksgcase.harvard.edu/case.htm?PID=862 Keith Jones, (7 September 2001) “Lumber dispute strains Canada-US relations, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/sep2001/lumb-s07.shtml

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