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Eric Martel, President and CEO of Bombardier
Hard Numbers: Bombardier blasts Ottawa, Freight flows fall, Canada-Taiwan trade pact framed, Titanic racket rocks Kiwis
4: Total cross-border freight shipments between the US and Canada fell 4% in annual terms in August 2023, according to newly released data. The drop was part of a broader slowdown in North American trade — freight flows between the US, Mexico, and Canada fell 1.7% over the same time period.
70: Canada and Taiwan have hashed out a free trade and investment pact that they hope to have in place in the coming months. Taiwan hopes the agreement, which comprises more than 70 provisions, will help its bid to join the CPTPP, a major transpacific trade grouping that Canada will chair in 2024. The Canada-Taiwan pact is sure to strain already-fraught Canada-China ties, as Beijing does not recognize the sovereignty of Taiwan.
10: If ever you doubt the reach of Canada’s soft power, know that there’s a place in the world where people mount 10 emergency sirens on their cars for the purpose of blaring songs by French-Canadian superstar Celine Dion louder than other cars fitted with sirens for the same purpose. This occurs regularly at 2 a.m. (yes, A.M.) in the town of Porirua, New Zealand. Local residents and officials have tried to stop these “siren battles,” but like Dion’s heart, they go on.
Logs and lumber are stored at one of the Freres Lumber facilities in Lyons, Oregon,
Canada challenges US softwood duties
Canada has filed for a judicial review of last month's US Commerce Department decision to extend import duties on Canadian softwood lumber tariffs, a nearly 8% fee charged by the US government on imports from Canadian sawmills.
American home builders import about $8 billion worth of Canadian lumber a year. But American lumber producers resent what they see as unfair competition from Canada – they say Ottawa unfairly subsidizes the lumber sector because much of the land is owned by the Canadian government, which charges stumpage fees to lumber producers. In turn, the US producers, most of whom produce on private land, have convinced Washington to impose the duties (and have done so for decades).
The two sides remain at a standoff: Trade Minister Mary Ng said the American duties are “unfair, unjust, and illegal,” while the U.S. Trade Representative's office called for Canada to “address the underlying issues related to subsidization and fair competition.”
The two countries reached an agreement on the matter in 2006, but it expired in 2015, after which the Americans imposed duties that Canada has been challenging ever since – and Canada’s softwood producers reportedly paid more than $8 billion in lumber duties to the U.S. between 2017 and 2022.
Canadian industry leaders urged Trudeau’s government to make a deal with Joe Biden when he traveled to Ottawa in March, but the Canadian side signaled before the meeting that no deal was expected. Since Biden needs to wrangle votes on Capitol Hill from politicians whose constituents are threatened by the Canadian competition, his hands will likely remain tied.