Canada Must Learn To Speak The Only Language The U.S. Understands

With a bitch slap heard from coast to coast, the United States has given it to us good with their refusal to acknowledge a recent decision (.PDF, Adobe Acrobat Reader required) by the NAFTA Extraordinary Challenge Committee (ECC) concerning the long-running softwood lumber dispute between our two nations. The ECC, a top-level NAFTA panel, unanimously agreed that Canada has not been violating the international trade agreement by subsidizing lumber producers. The U.S. now owes us a whopping $5.5 billion plus interest in collected duties. In the place of a large novelty cheque, however, the U.S. has decided to offer us a quick punch to the gut. Classic playground bully.

With this brash and complete dismissal of a key NAFTA dispute resolution mechanism, the U.S. has put the future of free trade in the Americas in jeopardy. Any international agreement is only as strong as the commitment of the parties involved. As things now stand, NAFTA is effectively neutered. Worse than that, the treaty has become a mechanism for a country drunk on its own delusions of empire to take advantage of what it sees as a quiet and vulnerable friend.

There’s only one course of action open to us if we’re to protect ourselves from this diplomatic date rape. It’s time for an ultimatum. The U.S. must turn over the entire $5.5 billion or see its largest trading partner withdraw from NAFTA all together. In other words, it’s time to scream ‘rape’.

I know such a response seems extreme, even dangerous, but it's the only language the current U.S. administration understands. The threat of severely restricted access to our enormous stores of oil and gas and to our $200 billion market for American goods will cause an otherwise out of control administration to sober up and take notice. Canada is now the largest supplier of oil to the U.S., ahead of Saudi Arabia. The cost of access to such an abundant natural resource is sincerity, trust and respect. If Canadians feel they are being taken advantage of then the taps turn off. That’s a message any energy-loving American can understand.

P.S. It’s been exactly four weeks since my last post. My absence is the result of a mid-summer change in priorities -– a shift towards family, friends and full-time work. Still, the itch to write has been a constant companion this past month and I’ve finally decided to sit down and scratch it. I hope to write regularly, but will only do so only when inclination and free time coincide.