Green groups take aim at Canada - US lumber talks
Copyright 2001 Reuters
November 15, 2001
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - As Canadian lumber industry representatives met this week with a U.S. envoy to try to work out a solution to the softwood trade dispute, environmentalists complained their concerns over Canada's logging practices have been ignored.
Green groups in both countries had hoped to use the trade fight to win tighter controls on Canadian logging, but have been largely pushed to the sidelines as officials battle over strictly financial issues such as subsidies.
"As trade bureaucrats work hand in glove with the timber lobbyists, those promoting more sustainable use of Canada's publicly owned forests are being asked to wait outside," said Sierra Club of Canada executive director Elizabeth May.
Efforts to end the dispute, which flared anew in March with the end of the five-year U.S.-Canada softwood accord, have picked up steam in recent weeks, and U.S. trade envoy Marc Racicot is reported as saying he would like it resolved by the end of the year.
Canada exports about C$10 billion ($6.4 billion) in softwood timber, such as spruce and pine, to the United States each year for use in construction, supplying about 30 percent of the U.S. market.
Environmentalists have complained that Canadian timber firms do excessive environmental damage with clear-cut logging, destroying habitat needed for endangered wildlife and waterways needed by fish for breeding.
The green groups have expressed support for complaints by some U.S. lumber producers that Canadian sawmills are indirectly subsidized by environmental laws that are less stringent than those in the United States.
In the letter to Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew, a coalition of Canadian groups complained they have had even less input in the talks than their counterparts in the United States - who have also complained about a lack of access.
Trade officials have been focused on resolving U.S. complaints about the system Canadian provinces use to determine their cutting charges, but environmentalists say any settlement should deal with broader concerns.
"If the governments of the United States and Canada do not actively seek to protect transboundary wildlife such as the grizzly bear, woodland caribou or bull trout, any deal on softwood lumber will ultimately fail," U.S.-based Defenders of Wildlife said in a statement on Monday.
Canadian lumber producers deny Canada's environmental rules are less stringent than those in the United States and have accused the environmentalists of exploiting a trade fight that has already led to thousands of layoffs.