‘Getting Tough’ and ‘Getting Smart’: Politics of the North American — Japan Wood-Products Trade

Abstract

The authors compare the Canadian and the US approaches to developing exports in the wood-products sector. They focus specifically on exports of sawn lumber and added-value wood products from the Pacific Northwest region (PNW), comprising the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC), and the US states of Washington and Oregon. Conceptually, a ‘get tough—get smart’ dichotomy for evaluating export-stimulation policies is outlined and elaborated on in the context of the PNW wood-products trade with Japan. The authors show that Canada and BC favored predominantly ‘get-smart’ strategies in the wood-products trade with Japan whereas the United States and Washington/Oregon preferred mainly ‘get-tough’ strategics. However, the authors conclude by pointing to the need for both styles in order to be successful in the difficult Japanese market. These two approaches are not mutually exclusive and both generate external economy effects that cannot be limited to one national or regional territory. Nevertheless, the ‘get-tough-get-smart’ continuum is an effective starting point for classifying US and Canadian positions, respectively, and for raising policy and research questions about their relative roles and the underlying bargaining and learning processes which are involved.