I am no enonomist but...just a minute. If I can be a citizen journalist and a amateur radio station maybe I can be a citizen economist. Sure I can. The internet makes me whatever I dream I can be.

So with that new self-...what is the opposite of self-deprecation?...it is good to see that the US has finally slashed the softwood duties that have crippled the Canadian lumber industry. The Globe and Mail reports:

A routine accounting review has persuaded the United States to do what years of legal challenges and fiery rhetoric could not — dramatically lower the punishing duties on Canadian softwood lumber.In a decision that will save Canadian lumber companies roughly $600-million a year, the U.S. Commerce Department said yesterday it was nearly halving its 20-per-cent duty. And unlike the seemingly endless litany of legal rulings dating to 2002, those savings will be enjoyed within days, or as soon as the new rate is published in the official U.S. Federal Register.

Note that it is not the Canadian lumber companies that will save this but the US customers that pay the duty to get the wood. If there were no customers there would be no transaction upon which the duty would apply. I have had some involvement in the buying of stuff over the last few years and construction materials - especially steel - have gone through the roof what with Iraq's reconstruction and China's expansion. Supply is being seriously strained by demand thus raising prices dramatically. Classic economics which allow the suppliers to expand capacity. But a punative and artificial duty meant to keep lumber out hurts the customer as much as the supplier and does so the most when, as in the post-Katrina marketplace, when the demand is not an option, when people need lumber to rebuild homes.

Good to see the duty dropped. Expect a bump in Canadian forestry stock prices not to mention Mr. Martin raise this victory in some border milltowns during the remaining weeks of the election.