Joint Version Of Softwood Deal Expected By End Of June: USTR

A final draft could also take several more weeks of negotiations. Norton said the two governments exchanged drafts of the proposed deal last Friday. The Canadian lumber industry told the Commons international trade committee this week they were dismayed at the wording of the U.S. draft, which seems more restrictive than the Canadian version and also convicts Canadian exporters of dumping unfairly subsidized lumber onto the American market. B.C. will not settle for a bad deal, the province's Premier Gordon Campbell told his party at an annual fundraising dinner Thursday night. "We are going to say clearly and unequivocally, this: These are our forests we are going to operate them. "We are going to compete and this is a deal that is going to be good for British Columbia, as well as Canada, or it's not going to be a deal." http://money.canoe.ca/News/Other/2006/01/11/pf-1389599.html [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on June 5, 2006]

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