[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 45 (Friday, March 30, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H1350]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


    STOP THE TIDE OF SUBSIDIZED CANADIAN LUMBER FROM FLOODING SOUTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, this weekend is notable in that Sunday is 
April Fool's Day, and the Government of Canada, the Province of British 
Columbia in particular, is about to play a very sick April Fool's joke 
on the American people and particularly those in rural communities in 
the western United States.
  On Saturday night at midnight, the U.S.-Canadian Softwood Lumber 
Agreement expires, and nothing has been put in its place to stop a tide 
of subsidized Canadian lumber from flooding south beginning on April 
Fool's Day.
  Since the administration of Ronald Reagan, Presidents have recognized 
and strongly fought against the unfair competition of the wholly 
subsidized Canadian lumber and sawmill industry. This administration 
must act strongly to perpetuate those controls and protections against 
unfair competition.
  Mr. Speaker, in Canada the Crown owns 95 percent of the timber; and 
in Canada the Crown gives away that precious resource. They have a 
bizarre bidding process. Well, it is not a bidding process; they just 
contract with companies, no bidding process, and then they say we will 
look at the logs on the first truck you bring out and we will grade 
them and set a price. So the companies go in and find the rattiest 
trees and bring out a truckload of ratty trees, and the government 
scalers look at them and say we are going to charge you $10 for that 
truckload. Then the lumbermen go back in and gather up precious old 
growth and other priceless timber, and they begin trucking it out. They 
pay virtually nothing for the resource. They observe no environmental 
constraints; there are no riparian protections. They are devastating 
their salmon and our salmon by these harvest practices, and now they 
want to take those subsidies and supplant our much more responsible 
industry here in the United States.
  Mr. Speaker, they are sounding pretty tough, too. Here is Gordon 
Wilson, minister of forests from British Columbia: ``Why should we turn 
the energy tap on going south at the same time we cannot export our 
lumber to the biggest market we have?'' He is talking about cutting off 
natural gas supplies to the western United States which is already 
staggering under extortion-
ately high natural gas prices. One Canadian timber executive said the 
United States better ``learn to speak Arabic and read by candlelight.'' 
Pretty tough words.
  Mr. Speaker, I would hope that the Bush administration could be 
tougher in their response. If we retaliate against Canada for bringing 
in these subsidized lumber imports, the Canadians will fold in a 
second. Nationally they are running a huge trade surplus with the 
United States. They cannot afford irresponsible actions or words like 
this on the part of one province to undermine their trade relationship 
with the United States.
  Mr. Speaker, I am asking and I have asked the Bush administration, 
along with a large number of Members of the House and Senate, to 
continue restrictions on the import of subsidized Canadian lumber. Just 
a 5 percent increase in this subsidized, unfairly produced, 
irresponsibly environmentally produced lumber coming across our border 
will cost 8,000 jobs in the Pacific Northwest. Just a 5 percent 
increase. And they have got it piled up because part of their sweet 
deals with these companies, they not only give the timber away, they 
require them to harvest it whether or not there is a market. So they 
have piles and piles of processed lumber waiting to come south from 
Canada.
  Mr. Speaker, it is not free and fair trade by any measure of the 
imagination. Now, there are some special interests in the U.S. who 
would like to wipe out our lumber and sawmill industry and get that 
cheaper Canadian lumber. They have taken a shortsighted view. After the 
U.S. industry is gone, the Canadians will probably jack up the price. 
They will probably still give it away to their companies; but they will 
jack up the price, just like they have done to us on natural gas.
  Mr. Speaker, I would ask the home builders and others who are pushing 
the Bush administration to back off. It is not in the long-term 
interest of the United States to not have a healthy and robust industry 
in this country, and it is also going to cost some customers because 
those customers will not be buying houses, they will be abandoning 
houses when those communities close down.
  Mr. Speaker, let us not let a bunch of hardliners in British Columbia 
play an April Fool's joke on the American people in the Bush 
administration. Let us retaliate against unfair trade practices and 
continue the restrictions that have been in place, that were first put 
in place under the Reagan administration, continued under the first 
Bush administration, continued under the Clinton administration, and 
they must be continued under the Bush administration. Nothing has 
changed. They are still competing unfairly, and they are still going to 
destroy American communities and jobs if the administration does not 
act.

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