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Baloney. For one thing, the tariff was overturned in every international trade court that issued a ruling on the dispute. The U.S. ended up paying most of the tariff back to Canada, and in exchange the Canadian government changed the way they charged lumber producers for cutting timber on public lands (this was the basis of the U.S. tariff). More importantly ... One of the important things that happened as a result of that tariff was that Canadian lumber producers began buying mills here in the U.S. -- to give themselves some flexibility to deal with these trade disputes in the future. Canadian lumber companies owned 2 mills in the U.S. in the early 2000s, and own more than 40 right now. Like I said ... protecting a domestic industry that is too outdated or lazy to compete on its own isn't going to change the basic laws of economics.

The details you provided have given you away. You are clearly a consultant and free trade professional. Perhaps you work on K St as a lobbyist. Who pays you to post on Free Republic?

Does free Republic let professional lobbyist post here? Do they pay FR for the privilege? What average citizen knows that much about Canadian lumber tariffs and it's detailed history?

I am fine with it as long as we get full disclosure.

The details you provided have given you away. You are clearly a consultant and free trade professional.

So your defense here is that you are ignorant of the facts, and that anyone who isn't must be a party to the subject at hand? There's a winning strategy. If you aren't ignorant (like you), you're a shill.

So anyone who knew the facts of the Treyvon Martin case must have been a cop? Anyone who knows about Hillary Clinton's email lies must work in the State Dept.? Anyone who can explain the FBI vs Apple case works for one or the other?

Quite frankly, I can't imagine anyone who would be a more desirable opponent for a free-trade advocate to have than you are. You make even the good arguments for tariffs seem stupid...

1. I am a consultant, but I am not a paid lobbyist. I am an engineer by trade.

2. I happened to be doing business in places in western Canada that were facing serious challenges as a result of the U.S. softwood lumber tariff in the early 2000s -- so I made it my business to educate myself on the issue. You might want to try that yourself every once in a while.

Does free Republic let professional lobbyist post here? Do they pay FR for the privilege? What average citizen knows that much about Canadian lumber tariffs and it's detailed history?

This has to rank up there with the most ridiculous statements I've ever seen on FreeRepublic. Someone happens to know more about a subject matter than you do, so you assume that he's a K Street lobbyist and inform the moderators about this? LMAO.