The USA faction has now gone to the court with the argument that the dispute resolution board is unconstitutional and they could very well win.
President Bush cannot stop this process unless the lumber lobby agrees.
If the dispute resolution is brought down all of NAFTA could tumble with it.
IIRC, Canada walked away from the last negotiation with only one issue unresolved and that issue is log auctions, especially in BC where the Min of Forests has people believing that only they can possibly manage ( or mismanage in many cases ) the forest and a log auction will take much of the processing out of the province.
Hopefully Canada will sit down quickly and this will be resolved to everyones benefit but I fear it may be too late for that.
I think there are many people in both countries that want this to go to the Supreme Court.
Liberals fashioned softwood into a political 2x4 of some clout and there are many BC who relish the fight.
Lots of things have changed, especially the value of the Canadian $ since the last negotiations.
Politicians are obviously reluctant to let softwood go, ever, and just let the loggers and sawmills go to work.