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U.S. Lumber Coalition Demands Canada Ends Its Unfair Subsidies Programs |
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Written by Wire Services
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Tuesday, 17 January 2006 |
The Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports today filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals setting out in detail the ways in which the NAFTA Chapter 19 dispute settlement panel system violates the United States Constitution. The complaint was originally filed with the Court in September, 2005.
In the brief, the Coalition outlines how Chapter 19 has unconstitutionally outsourced the interpretation and application of U.S. law. The Coalition brief demonstrates how U.S. companies are deprived of their due process rights by a system that permits panels which include Canadians appointed by the Canadian government to decide issues under U.S. law affecting U.S. lumber companies.
Coalition Chairman Steve Swanson pointed to a recent NAFTA panel order that has once again "demanded that the United States government abandon enforcing the U.S. trade laws and remove relief against subsidized Canadian lumber." Mr. Swanson added that "it may be great politics in Canada to announce billions of dollars in new taxpayer
funded lumber subsidies and to have NAFTA panels order the United States to stop enforcing its trade laws, but here at home it means real hardship and lost jobs for the working men and women of the U.S. lumber industry and their communities."
Swanson expressed frustration that the NAFTA Chapter 19 dispute settlement system allows Canadian exporters to circumvent U.S. trade laws and stated that "by denying the U.S. industry its constitutional right to due process and judicial review, the NAFTA Chapter 19 system has brought about a situation where Canada can openly announce over U.S. $2.3 billion dollars of additional federal and provincial taxpayer-funded subsidies for its forest products industry, on top of the substantial subsidies already provided, without worrying about Canadian exports being subject to the U.S.
trade laws." He added further that "even non-citizens on U.S. soil have constitutional rights that are protected, yet under NAFTA the constitutional right to due process and judicial review is denied to U.S. citizens."
Constitutional concerns regarding the Chapter 19 dispute panel system have been raised since before the NAFTA was negotiated. Swanson explained that "the U.S. Justice Department concluded that foreigners should not assume the power of U.S. courts or the President of the United States, and that allowing this to occur would clearly be
unconstitutional."
"Never before in the history of the Republic has the U.S. government completely outsourced final decision-making about application of U.S. law to its citizens," Swanson added. "To make matters worse, with NAFTA Chapter 19, the government has outsourced this decision-making to people who are not even U.S. citizens."
Coalition Executive Director Barry Cullen concluded by stating that "the U.S. lumber industry will continue to pursue every alternative to seek the full enforcement of the U.S. trade laws until Canada stops its unfair subsidies programs and begins trading fairly. The Coalition has been willing to see this problem settled by negotiation, but the Canadian government has refused to negotiate." |
