The Softwood Lumber War enveloped politicians and business leaders on both sides of the U.S. 0150Canadian border for more than twenty years, straining the historically close economic and political relations between the two countries. This book is a detailed evaluation of how the conflict began and how it was sustained for such a long period of time. It considers the implications of the 2006 agreement between the nations and the broader lessons that might be learned about international trade conflicts.

The early 1980s was a difficult time for U.S. lumber producers. Finding their domestic market share in decline, they requested restrictions on Canadian lumber imports. Alleging that the Canadian producers were being subsidized, U.S. lumber eventually secured a 15 percent export tax on Canadian lumber in 1986. A long series of trade battles followed against a background of shortages in the U.S. timber supply, changing international markets, and the establishment of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization.

Canada and the United States are the world's largest trading partners, but, as Zhang demonstrates, it is a relationship in which domestic pressure groups, different institutional structures within each government, and differences in the relative economic power of each country remain extremely important determinants of foreign policy. The fact that the softwood lumber dispute has taken so long to resolve — and the prospect that the 2006 agreement has the potential to be undone by continuing litigation and trade friction — raises important questions about international relations in a world that is supposedly moving toward free trade.

In the early 1980s, the US lumber industry faced a declining domestic market. In 1986 the industry secured a 15 percent export tax on Canadian lumber, claiming that the Canadian producers were subsidized by their government. Following this decision was over twenty years of trade battles and litigation, with only a 2006 agreement settling the issue; however, continued litigation and friction may still undo that settlement. Zhang (forest economics and policy, Auburn U.) shows how this series of disagreements affected the international market and the North American Free Trade Agreement, and that domestic pressure groups, institutional structures within governments, and differences in the relative economic power of each country remain important determinants of foreign policy between the US and Canada. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)