We demand a plastic shrubbery! / 35

Woods, Weir narrowly make cut / 8
SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 2005

Blast rocks small town / 14

Father and son, Douglas-style / 25

80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 57 CENTS A DAY)

Canada poised for softwood retaliation
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen st ff a Canada could be granted the authority to enact a second wave of softwood-related trade sanctions against the United States as soon as the end of September, depending on how the U.S. responds to the latest World Trade Organization verdict. On Aug. 1, slightly more than a week before the North American Free Trade extraordinary challenge panel dismissed Washington's claims that Canada's softwood exports are subsidized, a WTO compliance panel found U.S. countervailing duties on Canadian softwood exports are illegal. Unless the U.S. files an appeal, the panel's report will be adopted by Sept. 30, opening the way for Canada to slap up to $200 million worth of retaliatory duties against U.S. imports. However, if Washington appeals the decision, it may take up to an additional three months for the WTO appellate body to issue a report. Some U.S. products are already taking a hit. Since early May, Canada has imposed a 15-per-cent surtax, adding up to $14 million a year, on U.S. live swine, cigarettes, oysters and some fish in response to the U.S.'s controversial Byrd Amendment. The WTO granted the European Union, Japan and five other countries the same authority. In their complaints to the WTO, the governments said the law enables the U.S. to punish exporters twice -- first by imposing a duty and then by giving the money collected to the exporter's rivals. U.S. makers of steel, ball bearings, honey and candles have been the main beneficiaries of the Byrd Amendment, but Canadian lumber exporters have paid almost $5 billion in duties, now held in trust by U.S. Customs, since they were imposed in May 2002. Given the amount of trade between the two countries -- $10 billion of softwood lumber is exported to the U.S. each year -- $214 million in sanctions may not sound like much. But Canada still has a much larger card to play -- Ottawa has also filed for authority to claw back via retaliatory sanctions the duties U.S. Customs is holding. A WTO compliance panel is scheduled to issue a report on that line of attack in September, and sanctions could be imposed as early as December, although that would be delayed to next April if the U.S. appeals the decision. As of May, more than $1 billion had been paid out by forest companies with operations in the Northern Interior since the start of softwood trade fight. Canfor alone has $652 million US on deposit, and wants it back. In all, it adds up to a three-wave assault Ottawa hopes will give Canada some practical clout to back up its position that the U.S. is targeting softwood lumber unfairly. But the U.S. has been less than co-operative. In August 2004, the WTO ordered the U.S. to revise its method of calculating a dumping rate. The Americans responded in April 2005 by boosting the rate by more than three per cent -- to 11.54 per cent -- rather than lowering it as the WTO intended.

Campbell urges Martin to get tough on U.S.
BANFF, Alta. (CP) -- Premier Gordon Campbell has told Prime Minister Paul Martin to push back against the United States in the softwood lumber dispute -- and that could include threatening to withhold resources. "I think Canada has to be very firm and remind the Americans of our mutual benefit from trade," Campbell said Friday after speaking with Martin on Thursday night. "My message to the prime minister is to take this to the highest level and point this out," Campbell said as provincial and territorial leaders wrapped up three days of meetings. Campbell said Martin has agreed to speak with U.S. President George W. Bush and try to get back $5 billion in penalties illegally collected by Washington in countervail and antidumping duties. Campbell was frustrated after a fruitless meeting with U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins on Thursday. Wilkins told the premiers the United States does not accept Wednesday's ruling from a North American Free Trade panel which unanimously ruled in Canada's favour. Campbell said it's time the Americans were reminded that they rely on Canada for energy. "We reminded the ambassador that the United States is not the only jurisdiction that wants our energy resources," said Campbell. "We have enormous opportunities across the AsiaPacific in China, India." But Alberta Premier Ralph Klein said he has no interest in holding back energy to force the Americans to deal with the softwood dispute. "If we start to use measures that are deemed to be vindictive, that only creates vindictiveness on the other side and it starts to escalate," said Klein. Several premiers, including Campbell, whose province is most impacted by the ongoing trade war, have expressed frustration over the stalemate.

Citizen photo by Brent Braaten

NEED FOR SPEED -- Amanda Hatch, 11, and Jade Watts, 6, ride the Sizzler at the Shooting Star Midway at the PGX. The fair continues today and Sunday. For more on the sights and sounds of the PGX, see page 13.

High : 25 Low : 10 page 2

Wildlife Rescue cares for baby wildcat Meteors to
woman, who had woken up last She seems quite happy to run around by ALW Y N N E GWILT weekend to find the lynx sitting on the living room, letting out a squeaky Citizen sta ff roar every once in a while. Soft-pawed and glossy-eyed, a lynx her doorstep. Morey said the lynx is a little on the "For her to know that to go to peokitten wanders around a Hart Highland home, spending most of her time ple is alright shows something is thin side, as the eight- to 10-week-old trying to shake off the animal should actually still be suckling from her feeling of unfamiliar carmother. pet from her feet. To compensate, Morey The beige baby lynx is feeding her highly nuwas recently brought to tritious -- but highly exNorthern Wildlife Respensive at $30 a can -- cue. Owner and operator Rachel Morey said she kitten milk. "At this point we're bahas never seen or resically stabilizing her ceived a wildcat since and getting her healthy," she took over the shelter said Morey. from her sister-in-law. Morey's next chal"She's incredibly lenge: find a permanent friendly so it leads us here to believe somehome for the feisty feline. body probably found her and attempted to raise "She will be going to a long-term care facility," her," Morey said Friday. "When it didn't work out Citizen photo by Brent Braaten said Morey. "(They) will so well they just let her A lynx kitten at Northern Wildlife Rescue. Rescue owner either be able to revert go, and being left to her Rachel Morey suspects the cat -- who is used to human her back to a wildcat and own devices t he only contact -- was abandoned after a failed attempt to train it. she'll be released or, if not, then she will either thing she would do was stay at t he long-ter m seek human company to wrong," said Morey. "Wildcats go out make her feel better." of t heir way to stay in t he wild. care facility or go to a zoo or a breeding facility." Morey said she went to pick up the They're all very elusive animals." -- see HOME page 3 kitten on Thursday from a Quesnel But this kitten is not shy in the least.

hit night sky
by ALWYNNE GWILT Citizen st ff a The sky fills with meteors tonight for the third night in a row as the Perseid meteor showers continue. The meteors will fall in the northeastern sky near the Perseus constellation for which they're named. Brian Battersby, president of the Prince George Astronomical Society, said although the peak was actually at 10 a.m. Friday, there could still be an average of 60 meteors an hour. According to Battersby, the Earth passes through this particular debris path -- that of the comet SwiftTuttle -- every year, and has done so for a few hundred years. "The comet comes through and leaves a little trail of bread crumbs," said Battersby. "Then the Earth, when it's orbiting around the sun, passes through that little stream and that's why it's at around the same time every year." The comet only orbits near the sun every few hundred years, but each time it passes it leaves the trail behind and the Earth ends up moving through it annually. -- see DARK SKIES page 3

INDEX
Annie's Mailbox . . . . . . . . 16 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Business . . . . . . . . . . . 22-24 City, B.C. . . . . . . . . . . 3, 5, 13 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . 17-21 Comics . . . . . . . . . . 28, 31, 32 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Entertainment . . . . . . . 25-27 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 7 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-11 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 14

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