U.S. to comply with NAFTA order to cut lumber duties

[MaineDem]

The Commerce Department said Tuesday it will comply with a NAFTA panel's order to drastically cut U.S. duties on imports of Canadian softwood lumber. U.S. officials said they disagree with the rationale behind the ruling, but respect its authority.

The decision, announced late Tuesday, means the United States will reduce the punitive duties, which average about 16 percent, to less than 1 percent. Separate antidumping tariffs averaging about 4 percent will not be affected.

Despite its action, the Commerce Department said it retains its right to appeal the NAFTA ruling, which it considers unfair.

A but more at http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/business/stories/051123briefcase.shtml

[Kagemusha]

1. Wow. Just... wow. With scowls and gnashing of teeth...

...They actually DO SOMETHING finally, in light of having lost at every legal proceeding involved since the beginning here.

Wow.

[whosinpower]

2. They still owe us

a few billion dollars - we canucks want our money back.

A news reporter asked Rice if she brought a cheque with her when she came up.......hehehe - she said she doesn't travel with that kind of money on her.

[Grey]

3. That's not how it works.......

"Tariffs will continue to be collected while the motion is pending, he said." Read the whole article.

[sarcasmo]

13. Welcome to D/U grey.

[underpants]

4. They aren't doing it it is court ordered

and they are goig to fight that too

[Roland99]

7. What's the latest on Canada shipping the lumber to Asia?

[applegrove]

12. Oh - the houses in China are not so much built out of wood. But

I am sure there will be a prefab house market some day. If not already. They'll be lots of places to sell. We just need to go out and concentrate on that more. One thing you can trust - the markets around the world will grow. And forests are renewable and hopefully the old growth areas left have some protection.

[Roland99]

17. Hmm...an entrepreneurial type could make his own hay in China.

With the right connections.

[applegrove]

19. That's why they ignore human rights & Tibet around the Globe!

I once thought that China growing would have to result in Freedom for Tibet - that the Chinese couldn't keep on. People in the know told me different. Said the Chinese were exceedinly crafty when it came to Tibet. They would never let human rights issues get in their way or slow them down.

I hope they are wrong and me right. But I am not in the know. All I can do is guess.

[bemildred]

5. Stall stall stall.

And lie lie lie.
:puke:

[applegrove]

6. The head of the NY Stock exchange just re-opened the seal pup

cull issue. Threatened to put a ban on Canadian Seafood if the feds don't stop the hunt. Seeing as how so much of the maritimes are fishing communities and slightly conservative at times.. I think they are wedging the Maritimes again.

I fail to see the happiness in softwood lumber issue being fixed if they just go out and find another issue to make life hard for the Liberals. I am happy for the people in the lumber industry - but will this American bullshit ever end?

And why is there not a human method of culling seals? Hell the US kills animals all day long like any industrialized country.

[anotherdrew]

8. so they should go to "factory seal farms" ?

How about people just do without seal skin? Ban it I say.

a more humaine method would have been good a long long time ago. too late now, ban it. who needs it? Just pay the killers to not kill the seals, what would that cost? not much

[Clutch Cargo]

9. Amen

Ban it. The seal skin industry caters to the whims of stylish, wealthy fat cats who can afford a couple grand to look "beautiful" wearing the carcass of a dead animal. Other than that, there is no purpose to killing baby seals.

[applegrove]

11. I agree. Ban all the sale of baby seal fur (I thought that had happened?).

But there has to be a cull and so you kill the mothers the only time they are on land (ice) and then you let the babies starve? Or do you humanely kill the whole family? Cause seals don't go to shore and wait to be killed unless there are pups about. And even then the mothers hide. If they are not in shock and barking in emotional pain at the bludgeoning of their babies in front of them.

Please - someone - give me a solution? How do you humanely kill the seals?

[CHIMO]

14. Well

Um. Maybe you should look to those who are experts in the field. Lethal injection? Or something like that.

Of course one needs to give them a bad name first. Like scumbags or some such thing.

Maybe if one could show how they are terrorists in some fashion it might help. Make them anti-something might be the best way to start.

[applegrove]

15. Oh - the point is they have to be culled. That fish industry is gone caput

and people all over the world cull (sometimes they call it hunting and issue licenses) when the environment you are managing cannot support a growing population of one animal. We have messed up the environment so much that it is not in balance and every country on the planet culls some animal.

I for one would love them to cull purple lu-strife because I am biased to-wards the lives of animals over plants. But that is not reality. Actually they may be already culling that plant in the places it has gone wild and overtaken local plants.

I don't think the guy in the stock exchange who issued the warning said anything was wrong with culling. He'd have to work on his own country first to undo all fish & wildlife management plans throughout the US. Though neocons seem to like to rip out government departments that get in their way - i don't think they have plans for plants and animals going wild in the USA. Quite the opposite.

[CHIMO]

16. OK

You asked for help. I thought that I could help.

But obviously cull and kill don't mean the same thing.

A plant has life but we don't cull plants. Keep on culling.

[applegrove]

18. No - I don't keep on culling - but all our governments do. I don't see

the point of culling mustangs if they are not a nuisance. But I'm not going to tell people how to manage their own resources if that is in fact what they are doing. I agree that there has to be a human way - perhaps they could use and epipen or insulin injector.

I was afraid you were getting into the whole idea of executions when you said lethal injections.

That is a grand idea. I hope the government gets on it right away. Cause really - those people in the maritimes don't need any more hard times than they already face at times.

Thanks.

[applegrove]

10. They kill the seals partly as a cull. Because they are trying to rebuild

the fish stocks. Trust me - they'd much rather go fishing and catch 10,000 random fish of all ages and let each and every one of them sufforcate on their boat the same way every other fisherman does it. The cod & the baby to teenage lobsters are the only ones that go back in to the water. And the fish they don't have a license for - if they get to them in time.

The fur comes in because those people are poor, poor, poor. I wish there could be a human way to do it.

[TrogL]

20. Hell froze over again

Martin's been talking tough lately. I'm surprised it actually worked for once.

[applegrove]

21. More likely they don't want him to have the ire of Canadians on

his side during the election. The decision will be appealed - around spring! That would be my guess.