So the Americans are greatly overestimating their potential losses if the measure proposed today were found to be illegal by the WTO and were maintained by Canada, or if it were to become a cultural protection measure under NAFTA, which would entitle the United States to impose compensatory measures if Canada decided to maintain it after such a decision.

We did not say that the 15 per cent made no sense, that the government should review its budget or that there is a mistake; we recommended keeping the 15 per cent, but that other alternative compensatory measures be taken.

That being said, the Bloc Québécois thinks that this sellout agreement should be accompanied by compensatory measures: improved employment insurance; a support program for older workers; assistance for the industry; an economic diversification program for communities that are dependent on the forest; a special tax status for the 128,000 owners of woodlots in Quebec; the improvement of funding for Canada’s Model Forest Program, run by Forestry Canada; special tax treatment for the $4.3 billion in countervailing duties; the acceleration of equipment amortization; and a program to stimulate innovation within the forest industry and ...[+++]improvement of productivity.

There is also a compensatory measure, however, that should be targeted better, particularly for households.

* the international environment: it will be necessary to analyse the possibilities and questions connected with ongoing economic integration within the geographical areas in which the outermost regions are located; the Commission is inclined to have an analysis carried out of the impact on the outermost regions of the new ACP-EU Partnership Agreement, in order to draw up any appropriate compensatory measures for producers in those regions.

Some compensatory measures should be the result of such an audit.