[4Canada]

<strong>Written By:</strong> 4Canada
<strong>Date:</strong> 2005-08-15 21:16:46
<a href="/article/211646745-us-quotslapquot-infuriates-canada">Article Link</a>

Federal and provincial officials accused the United States of reneging on the 11-year-old North American free-trade agreement, with Ottawa renewing threats to slap billions of dollars of sanctions on American goods if Washington doesn't recant.

One senior Canadian government official called the U.S. dismissal of the NAFTA ruling a "slap in the face."

Another top-ranked federal official said Ottawa is prepared to retaliate if the United States repudiates NAFTA. "Those rules cannot be flouted and they cannot be ignored," the official said. "If [the United States] . . . can't see fit to recognize the rule of law, to honour the agreement that it, itself, established, and to work toward a deal that is fair to all, they should not expect this federal government to take that sitting down."

<a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050812/PREMIERS12/TPNational/?query=us+tariffs+softwood+lumber">http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050812/PREMIERS12/TPNational/?query=us+tariffs+softwood+lumber</a>




[Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on August 16, 2005]

[whelan costen]

'Slap slap slap' does anyone get it? We have been slapped repeatedly especially on softwood lumber, but nobody in Ottawa seems to get it. As the money rolls out of this country, and the trade deals continue to be signed be are left with politicians eager with a pen to sell us down the river, but none that seem capable of really 'standing on guard' for us!

FTA, NAFTA, and now we are heading for CAFTA, the WTO has no teeth, unless the u.S. wants it too. Abrogate today! Anyone who stands up for Canada, is automatically called an anti-american, which is ridiculous. We need some guts in Canadian politics, but we also need some brains. Think BSE!

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If I stand for my country today...will my country be here to stand for me tomorrow?

[Guest]

Trade should be by shorter term bilateral agreements between nations. It should not be based on political or economic ideology. It's time to opt out of the WTO, the IMF and have nothing to do with the world bank. These organizations only serve to promote a failing ideology of corporate capitalism at the expense of the people living in the nations concerned.

[mk]

Bilateral agreements, especially short-term ones, will be worse! All the rules-are-for-the-weak nations (like the current U.S., notice I said "current") will just violate them at will and wait out the expiry.

The principle is not to enter into such agreements with rules-are-for-the-weak nations without a clause that sunsets the agreement if one party chooses not to abide. Canadian negotiators were so hell bent on lining their own pockets, and the U.S. congress so (in hindsight, probably rightly) jealous of giving up domestic jurisdiction, that they didn't protect even their own long-term interests. Happens all the time when a small business negotiates an agreement with a big business.

[N Say]

it's about bloody time our politicians started talking about turning off the tap; haven't we been saying that for a couple years now? didn't mel hurtig write that in the vanishing country? i think it's a fine idea; even my gramps who likes terence corcoran says it's a great idea. he says those agreements aren't worth the paper they're written on since the americans are bound to do whatever they want anyway.

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"George Bush has declared the war on terrorism to be the cause of his generation. The cause of Canadian sovereignty will be ours." - John Godfrey, MP for Don Va