Canfor Big Winner On Softwood Deal: One Man's Opinion
By Ben Meisner
One would be surprised if Canfor Boss,Jim Shepherd, did not support the Softwood lumber deal. His company stands to win on both sides of the issue.
Here is how it works.
$500,000,000 , or 20% of the tariffs collected, will remain south of the border. One half of that money will stay with government, the remaining 50% will be handed over to those in the US lumber coalition. Through its purchase of New South, Canfor, becomes one of the benefactors.
So Canfor will win on both sides of the 49th.
Now looking at the deal at face value, its has its good points, we go from a 30% share of the US market to 34%. That in itself is a win for us. This section of the agreement will allow us to continue to ramp up our beetle kill timber without a major flogging with tariffs.
We have been winning the war in the courts time and time again; the problem has been however that with each win comes a new game that the Americans introduce as a means of circumventing the decision.
Who wins is not the issue and as Premier Gordon Campbell pointed out last week, you can never get a deal in which all the parties agree that they have what they want.
What is still needed however, is a look at the actual deal that is before both governments. It is fine to say what is included in the agreement, but are you about to be told what the down side of the deal is? Never.
I’m Meisner and that is one man’s Opinion.
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Posted by: diplomat on August 2 2006 2:25 PM
At the end of the day it comes down to how fast you want to knock down the trees and sell the lumber to the good old USA. Do you want to do it as fast as possible, or do you want to stretch it out over a longer period of time. Its also a question of profits. A good deal for Canadian Forest Companys means more money in their pockets, but not necessarily any new jobs.
The bottom line is, if these so-called Canadian Companys are not happy with the Millions of dollars in profits they make each year, then they should get out of the business.
I and a number of other people in this town have listened to the Lumber Companys complain about profits since at least 1960 and it never seems to stop. However they all seem to stay in business, or sell out for huge profits.