Is negotiating a softwood lumber deal that gets Canada back five billion (instead of the six billion owed) good or bad? Well if you believed (as I do) that the Americans would never have paid us, regardless of how many court cases won or who was in the White House, then it is a good deal. If you think that we'd have gotten our money eventually, then losing one billion is a bad thing.
Generally speaking, I have little confidence that we will see a plug nickel of that money - agreement or not.
There are several aspects of this agreement, and the Canadian Federal Government's implementation that rub me completely the wrong way.
1) Essentially, we have handed over $1 billion dollars which the Americans can use any way they want - and no doubt a sizable chunk is going into the industry warchest in the states to legislate/litigate/lobby for early termination of the deal, and further tariffs as soon as the deal expires. Why are Canadians paying their adversaries?
2) $450 Million going into a slush fund under White House control. This is little more than a political donation to the current US Republicans in my view, and it is being done on the backs of Canadian industry and Canadian taxpayers.
3) While the US government's obligation to repay is tied down by a system that requires them to go through each duty cheque levied, calculating accrued interest on it and then carving out the percentage agreed to, and cutting a refund cheque for that amount. A process that the US government claims will take years. Meanwhile, Harper is in such a rush to 'implement' this godawful farce, he's paying the monies out through Canadian taxpayers. So a cheque for nearly $1 billion dollars goes south of the border before the United States has one plug nickel refunded to Canada.
In essence, given the current US Government's respect for international agreements (nearly non-existent), Canadian taxpayers are shouldering the burden (not once, but twice - first in the consequences of those tariffs, and second today by bearing the cost of this agreement directly without a scrap of assurance that the US government is in fact meeting its obligations).
Basically, the more that we learn about this agreement and its implementation, it seems to me that the whole thing is a charade that ultimately hangs Canadian interests out to dry.
(But then again, I have seen little evidence that the current US government has negotiated in good faith on much of anything).
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