I'm back in the business pages in some papers today with:
Months before Canada's steel industry found itself at the centre of a brewing trade war with the United States, it was pressing the federal government to either put up trade barriers to protect it from what it called unfair Chinese imports or somehow exempt it from pending environmental regulations.
Canwest News Service has learned that Canada's steel companies, which collectively employ about 150,000 people, have been aggressively lobbying politicians, including Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Environment Minister Jim Prentice, and senior government officials for months.
The industry's dilemma underlines one of the thorniest issues that policymakers in Canada and other developed nations must face: How to live up to environmental commitments in the face of an economic downturn.
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A briefing note prepared for Mr. Flaherty last spring said the Canadian Steel Producers Association is pushing the government to put up trade barriers that would limit or restrict the amount of steel being imported into Canada from countries like China, so that “that the domestic steel industry is not put at a competitive disadvantage,” the note said.
You can read the rest here …