Softwood Talk, Talk, Talk

The used-car salesperson's technique of talking up a lemon does not change the fact that Canada is the big loser in its recent softwood deal with the U.S.

On Larry King Live on the evening of his birthday, president George Bush stressed that "When history looks back, I'd rather be judged as solving problems and being correct, rather than being popular."

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who met with Bush on George's birthday, appears to have a different agenda. Harper and his supporting cast prefer to avoid addressing difficult challenges such as softwood exports. Their highest priority is to be politically correct.

Instead of taking a firmer position on Canadian softwood lumber exports to America, Harper took softwood off the table so that he and president Bush could be free to discuss Ottawa's concerns about looming border restrictions to be placed on travelers entering the U.S. from Canada and a range of other issues from the environment to the upcoming G-8 summit in Moscow. Both leaders briefly expressed relief at the recently signed softwood deal that appears to end an irritant to trade relations between the two countries.

But it's not over. As we point out in our article Canada's Trade Follies, many Canadian provinces and lumber companies are flat-out rejecting the deal.

Sure Canada's Trade Minister David Emerson would beg to differ.

Emerson, who initialed the softwood agreement on July 1, points to the fact that Canada's largest lumber exporter (Canfor Corp) announced that it can live with the new softwood accord.

However, Vancouver-based Canfor Corp carefully chose its words; "can live with" does not translate into a Canadian trade victory. It's somewhat like a used-car salesperson quipping "This baby can really get you to where you want to go!"

Besides, David Emerson used to be the Chief Executive Officer of Canfor and no doubt still exerts significant influence on what the forestry giant has to say.

Being politically correct often does not translate to being correct.

Unfortunately, world trade relations are complex and it sometimes takes years for the full damages of a trade deal to be assessed.

And just like when you buy that "lemon" of a vehicle, the used-car spiels won't mean much when Canadians have to pay the price for a poorly negotiated agreement that will probably lower profits and therefore cost Canadian jobs.