U.S. LUMBER INDUSTRY CHALLENGING THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF NAFTA DISPUTE SETTLEMENT SYSTEM

COALITION FOR FAIR LUMBER IMPORTS ^ | September 13, 2005 | COALITION FOR FAIR LUMBER IMPORTS

[hedgetrimmer]

WASHINGTON, DC—Steve Swanson, Chairman of the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, announced today that the U.S. lumber industry is challenging the constitutionality of a dispute settlement system under the North American Free Trade Agreement, commonly referred to as Chapter 19. The Chapter 19 system allows bi-national panels of individuals to make binding decisions about application of U.S. law to U.S. unfair trade findings contrary to due process and other constitutional requirements.

“The Constitution does not permit these panels to be the final arbiter of whether U.S. law provides for relief from unfair subsidies and dumping for U.S. producers and workers,” said Swanson. “The challenge is against the Chapter 19 dispute mechanism, not the NAFTA as a whole.”

United States courts ordinarily decide appeals of findings that imports are subsidized or dumped. NAFTA Chapter 19 made findings regarding Canadian and Mexican imports appealable only to panels of individuals, some of whom are not U.S. citizens and none of whom is accountable within the U.S. government. Nothing like Chapter 19 has been included in other trade agreements, including DR-CAFTA.

When the Congress first considered Chapter 19 in 1988, the U.S. Justice Department warned that the Chapter 19 system would be unconstitutional. The U.S. government has repeatedly found that Canadian lumber imports are subsidized and dumped and threaten injury to the U.S. lumber industry. The World Trade Organization has approved these findings, and countervailing (anti-subsidy) and antidumping duties have been imposed on Canadian lumber imports since 2002. But a NAFTA dispute panel has exceeded its authority by directing the U.S. International Trade Commission to reverse a finding that unfair imports threaten the U.S. lumber industry. The U.S. government requested that one panelist be removed because of a conflict of interest, but he stayed on the panel.

“As NAFTA panels threaten to subvert application of the trade laws to unfair lumber imports, we must enforce our constitutional right to due process and accountable decision-making,” explained Swanson. “If Canadian lumber subsidies and dumping are not fully addressed, the unfair imports will result in scores of sawmill closures, cause thousands of job losses, and undermine millions of family timberland owners.” Swanson concluded, “All that the U.S. industry has ever requested is an end to Canadian lumber subsidies and dumping through open and competitive timber and log markets. The U.S. industry vigorously supports the U.S. government’s pursuit of free trade principles and a negotiated settlement based on reasonable Canadian commitments to timber policy reform. Until then, we will defend our rights to relief under U.S. law.”

The Coalition’s filing of this case comports with statutory requirements that it be initiated within 30 days of the end of a Chapter 19 proceeding.

[hedgetrimmer]

NAFTA panels make binding decisions about application of domestic U.S. law. Again, their opinions have the force of U.S. law, like a court order. The panels are accountable to no one within the U.S. constitutional system of government. This is unprecedented and unconstitutional.

[EagleUSA]

We knew what "free trade" agreements like NAFTA/CAFTA would do to our soverignty --- here is just the beginning of what it is doing to it exactly....

[EagleUSA]

...And you can thank El Jefe President Jorge for pushing hard for soveringty-busting "agreements" like this. Un-freakin' believable. Foreign governments controlling U.S. law...

[Always Right]

The World Trade Organization has approved these findings, and countervailing (anti-subsidy) and antidumping duties have been imposed on Canadian lumber imports since 2002. But a NAFTA dispute panel has exceeded its authority by directing the U.S. International Trade Commission to reverse a finding that unfair imports threaten the U.S. lumber industry.

What a tangled web multiple international trade treaties pose. In order to impose duties it must pass the muster of both WTO and NAFTA courts.

[raybbr]

Duties to offset unfair Canadian lumber practices do not cause housing price increases

• While the national average new single-family house price rose by roughly 40 percent between the first quarter of 2000 and the second quarter of 2005,1 lumber prices during the second quarter of 2005 were only about 1.6 percent higher than they had been during the first quarter of 2000.2

• Lumber costs account for roughly 2.5% of average house prices, a figure that has been falling in recent decades. In 1993, lumber costs accounted for approximately 4.25% of house prices.

Isn't this contrary to what free-traders tell us? Any time we get dumped on it's okay but heaven forbid we should look out for America and Americans first.

[hedgetrimmer]

Foreign governments controlling U.S. law...

Believe me, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

[hedgetrimmer]

Here' more:

EXPERTS CONSISTENTLY FIND NAFTA CHAPTER 19 UNCONSTITUTIONAL

Department of Justice
"If such decisions were binding, they clearly would involve the exercise of 'significant authority pursuant to the laws of the United States,' and, thus, would transform the members of the panels and committees into 'officers of the United States' who must be appointed in the manner prescribed by the appointments clause of the Constitution.... [P]anels and committees (and, of course, the determinations they issued) would, thus, be rendered unconstitutional."


Testimony of Assistant Attorney General John O. McGinnis, Hearings before the Senate Committee on Judiciary, 100th Cong., 2nd Sess, 79 (1988).

“We firmly believe that language absolutely requiring the President to implement panel and committee decisions would be unconstitutional. . . . our testimony stresses that the Justice Department would oppose a provision that contained constitutionally deficient mandatory language,with the ‘authorizing’ language we favor inserted as a ‘fall-back’ in the event the mandatory formulation were held unconstitutional.”

Letter from Thomas M. Boyd, Acting Assistant Attorney General, to Peter W. Rodino, Jr., Chairman, Committee of the Judiciary, House of Representatives, May 24, 1988.

[houeto]

Believe me, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

I believe.

[hedgetrimmer]

A look at the constitutionality NAFTA:

“[M]y proposition is that the United States-Canada dispute resolution provisions permit persons who are not officers of the United States, and who are not appointed under the Appointments Clause, to overrule federal officials who are officers of the United States … on the grounds that the officials did not follow United States law…. Not only does that scheme violate principles of representative government and democracy, but it also violates the Appointments Clause.”

Alan Morrison, Public Citizen, Appointments Clause Problems in the Dispute Resolution Provisions of the United States-Canada FTA, 49 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1299-1300 (1992).

[cripplecreek]

It's no wonder the nations to our north and south feel so comfortable telling our government to "tell your people to STFU and do as they're told".

[DoughtyOne]

NAFTA, CAFTA-DR...

Such a deal! A deal we should take a pass on.

[hedgetrimmer]

You may be interested in this.

[Ben Ficklin]

Ah yes, the infamous Dirty Byrd Amendment

[ConservativeMind]

If it is true that this circumvents our legal system, then I have no problems with it being declared unconstitutional.

However, if another country wants to give us tons of money under any guise and without obligation for our own use, I have no problems with it.

If Japan wanted to give every American a car for free, our government should have no capacity to stop it to protect union (or other) jobs.

[JoeFromSidney]

Isn't this contrary to what free-traders tell us? Any time we get dumped on it's okay but heaven forbid we should look out for America and Americans first.

But aren't home-buyers American? And aren't there more American home-buyers than Americans in the lumber industry? How does keeping out low-cost lumber constitute looking out for Americans first?

[G.Mason]

"You may be interested in this."

How do you believe we can get OUR country back, short of armed rebellion? And why are we acting like this began to occur in our lifetime? The internet?

This isn't about NAFTA, WTO, CAFTA, our borders, the murdering of unborn children, Johnny Has Two Daddys, Janey Has Two Mommy's, Socialism, Communism, government welfare, traitors like John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, John Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, etal., the United Nations, Muslims, the NEA, government largess, a corrupt and deviant, self serving Congress.

This is about every last one of the above and much more.

That dripping sound has become deafening.

[cope85]

nafta http://www.amerikanexpose.com/othlinks.html#NAF

[cope85]

The World Trade Organization has approved these findings, and countervailing (anti-subsidy) and antidumping duties have been imposed on Canadian lumber imports since 2002

[swampfox98]

America is no longer a soverign nation, thanks to George Bush. His policy of open borders, bring millions of Mexicans in this country for us to take care of plus these horrible treaties he and Bill Clinton and Rush Limbaugh supported are going to be the death of this country. But that is the way they want it. The death of the middle class and the birth of a slave nation for the Republicans.