ABSTRACT
At the beginning of this book, I introduced six puzzles surrounding the U.S.–Canada forest products trade. First, why is there free trade for most goods and services between the two countries but not for softwood lumber? Second, why are the results of the newsprint tariff battle and the softwood lumber dispute so different, even though both products are made of wood? Third, why in the past 20-plus years has each country at times given up trade arrangements that were beneficial to the country as a whole? Fourth, why have politicians and leaders of an industry that is somewhat integrated across the border been unable to break the deadlock for so long? Fifth, why does the U.S. lumber industry continue to seek administrative trade protection in countervailing duties while the total number of countervailing duty cases has declined? Finally, why have the NAFTA and WTO trade dispute settlement mechanisms not worked for softwood lumber?
