I need someone to explain something to me.

Didn't we go through this long, arduous, heart wringing session about a North American Free Trade Agreement about 15 years ago? Wasn't the whole point of the agreement, and the vicious lobbying on both sides of it, to arrive at an contract about who could assign fees, and to what commodity? The ultimate goal of the project being, a transaction that was province to province, or state to state, was to be the same as one that crossed the international border between Canada and the United States?

So what the HELL is the deal with the US imposing duties on things, such as softwood lumber? And why do we have to entertain the notion of countervailing trade penalties, to other US commodities, as retaliation? Wasn't the damn deal that was so fracturous when it was negotiated, supposed to prevent this exact thing from happening?

I boils down to this. The Americans are wrong. They've been told they are wrong, on numerous occasions, every time this has reached a global tribunal. What's the point of negotiating things with the Americans, if they have no interest in living up to the agreement when it doesn't cut their way?