Emerson flip flop

What happened to the David Emerson who said just before the last election:

People think that just because softwood lumber is a relatively small percentage of NAFTA trade, that somehow we should ignore this, but you can’t. The reality is, NAFTA covers many many sectors, and if NAFTA‘s decisions and the dispute resolution mechanism is not respected in lumber, it won’t be respected in other sectors. David Emerson, October 2005 – then Liberal Industry Minister

Details of the deal show quite clearly that the government is prepared to ignore the long-standing positions of Canada and industry that all punative tarrifs applied by the US are illegal.

Canada has won NAFTA victory after NAFTA victory after NAFTA victory. A chronology of NAFTA, World Trade Organization and US Court of International Trade challenges is available on the International Trade Canada website.

Last summer I praised then Liberal Minister of Industry David Emerson for his comments on the issue:

And Industry Minister David Emerson continued to warn that Canada can’t afford to back down in the dispute. Emerson said Sunday it’s time to take a stand, even if that means risking a trade war. More >

But details of the deal, and its predecessor – a substantially similar agreement which Emerson had a hand in scuttling during the last election – were not known to me or the Canadian public then, or during the election.

Someone ought to call for a public inquiry into this issue and soon.