Deal Ended Long-Standing Lumber War

On top of the costs, there was a huge pot of money, $5.3 billion US in duties, being held by the United States. In the spring of 2006, a growing number of politicians and corporate leaders were beginning to accept the fact that a tax on Canadian products -- even though the North American Free Trade Agreement and America's own courts find there is no cause for it -- was a way to heal the festering trade wound and repatriate most of that $5.3 billion. In the U.S., battle fatigue was also evident. "[Word] trickled down even to my level that [U.S. President George W. Bush] was quite keen . . . to resolve the dispute in a way that was equitable to both sides and to move on," U.S. State Department official Elizabeth Whitaker told The Vancouver Sun in October. So on a Friday afternoon in March, when B.C. Forests Minister Rich Coleman was driving along the Coquihalla Highway, and his phone beeped, displaying the number of Michael Wilson, Canada's freshly appointed ambassador to the U.S., he suspected a breakthrough had been achieved. "They are serious about talking," Wilson said of the Bush administration. http://tinyurl.com/yyephq [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on January 4, 2007]

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