Harsh lesson
Yours truly has just returned from the Big Sky country of Montana, where I read in the Missoulian newspaper that Uncle Sam's efforts to "level the playing field" with the Canadians has "backfired."
For decades, the newspaper writes in an editorial, U.S. lumber producers leaned on the federal government for protection from Canadian competition. So last May, Uncle Sam imposed tariffs averaging 27 percent on softwood lumber imported from Canada. (This was supposed to have made Canadian lumber 27 percent more expensive to buy in this country.)
"However, the tariffs produced the exact opposite effect. Canadian sawmills and their workers agreed to contract concessions, mills added shifts and many mills are sawing lumber from cheaper, beetle-killed timber," the editorial states.
"At one [Canadian] mill, workers eke out an extra half-hour of production per shift by staggering their coffee breaks . And guess what? Canadian mills are churning out more lumber than before. Profits are up and employment has increased.
"Meanwhile, the Canadians' surge of production has driven U.S. lumber prices to new lows, leaving many U.S. sawmills in worse shape than they were before the government came to their aid."