Well, it seems we're giving up on the American market, not that I have any problem with diversifying our trade:
Martin pitches softwood to China
By DANIEL LEBLANC AND PETER KENNEDY
Monday, September 19, 2005 Posted at 1:55 AM EDT
From Monday's Globe and Mail
Prime Minister Paul Martin made a direct pitch to Chinese President Hu Jintao over the weekend to sell more Canadian softwood to China in an effort to lessen Canada's reliance on the contentious U.S. market.
The overture was made amid growing calls for a tougher Canadian response to the lingering softwood trade dispute with the United States, which will see a bump in demand for softwood as a result of the rebuilding effort along the storm-savaged Gulf Coast.
The Conservative Party welcomed the government's efforts to help open the Chinese market to more softwood, saying that Opposition Leader Stephen Harper called last month for that exact approach.
Conservative MP Monte Solberg said that given the dispute with the United States, Canada needs to adopt an “aggressive strategy” to open up the Chinese market.
“It's pretty obvious that if the Americans seem to have gone soft on the whole concept of free trade, we just have to find other markets for our products, and China is going, of course, to be a major market for these products,” he said.
Mr. Martin made his pitch to sell more softwood in China during weekend talks in Vancouver with Mr. Hu, who was finishing a 10-day visit to North America.
There was talk of improving human rights in China during the visit, but also a deep focus on increasing trade with the most populous country in the world.
“We discussed softwood lumber, in terms of the ability for Canada to increase its exports of softwood lumber to China,” Mr. Martin said after the meeting.“We obviously discussed the strategic partnership which the Chinese announced that they wanted to have with us in a wide range of areas, from higher technologies to natural resources.”
Mr. Hu was open to the proposal as he called for increased ties — and trade — between Canada and China in coming years.
“The Chinese government attaches great importance to Asia Pacific regional co-operation,” Mr. Hu told guests at a luncheon. He said he wanted China and Canada to increase commerce “with a view to bringing two-way trade to over $30-billion (U.S.) by 2010.”
Canada sells $9.5-billion (Canadian) worth of goods to China a year, and buys $10.5-billion from the Chinese, according to data from International Trade Canada.
“Both sides agree to upgrade China-Canada relations to a level of strategic partnership. This move meets the needs of our times and the wishes of our two peoples,” Mr. Hu said.
The Americans have refused to comply with a recent NAFTA panel ruling that said there is no basis to impose trade tariffs on Canadian softwood, insisting instead on a negotiated solution to the dispute.
Canada cannot retaliate by slapping tariffs on other U.S. goods, because it has lost a separate case before the World Trade Organization.
Any effort to open the Chinese market further to Canadian lumber will be greeted with cautious optimism by the domestic forestry sector, one industry official said. That's because the forest industry's dependence on the United States market has cost it $5-billion in trade duties in the past five years.
“However, we have to be realistic about how much lumber shipments to China are likely to grow in the next few years,'' said Rick Doman, a timber trader based in Duncan, B.C.China remains a small market for lumber-producing provinces such as British Columbia, which accounts for 54 per cent of all Canadian softwood exports to the United States. Last year, B.C.'s softwood shipments to China accounted for only 5 per cent of the value of lumber that it shipped to the United States.
Efforts to increase the Chinese market are expected to be hampered by cultural differences, including the fact that wood frame homes are considered a fire hazard in China.
But that seems to be the way were headed 8O