Expansion of Economic Globalization

Gross Domestic Product- The annual total of goods and services value that a county makes.
World Trade Organization- The only international organization that works with global rules of trade. They try to improve trading relations between countries by trying to convince countries to remove tariffs and trade barriers. They organize negotiations and meetings to settle disputes.

Tariff- a tax placed on foreign goods. The government uses them to help encourage the buying of domestic products by making the foreign ones more expensive.
Subsidy-financial aid that the government gives to help keep a business running.
Group of Eight- The group contains eight major industrial democracy countries that used to be the G7 until Russia joined in 1998 making it the G8. They discuss economic and foreign policies when they meet at annual summits. Together these countries hold 50% of the vote at the world bank and the IMF and have considerable influence at WTO.
La Francophone- an international organization that is concerned with promoting and protecting the culture of French speaking people as well as enhancing the economic development of countries that contain French speaking people.
Transnational Corporations- companies that are expanded to foreign countries to make a larger and more diverse group of buyers.

The Canada-US Softwood Lumber Dispute
Canada had been subsidizing the Canadian lumber industry which allows them to sell it to the Americans for cheaper than what American industries can afford to sell it. This influences Americans to buy Canadian lumber hurting the American lumber industry. Canada was approaching to gain 35% of the US market and that was when ,2001, the US put a tariff on all softwood lumber from Canada.
British Columbia was hit the hardest by the new tariff and even though the NAFTA was supporting Canada the US decided to wait for the WTO’s ruling. During August 2005 the WTO supported the US in that their companies were suffering because Canada unfairly subsidizes.
Canadian and US decided to meet in April 2006 to make a new agreement. The conditions were that the US would lift the tariff and refund 80% of the money collected from it in the past four years. Canada would not exceed having 34% of the US market by collecting a tax from companies who went over the limit. In addition the US lumber industry would keep $1billion in duties form Canada’s companies from 2002.
What if the US was to have tariffs on all the products and supplies that we sell in to the Americans? Many people would lose their jobs. As many of our companies are partnered with those in America we would lose many of our main industries. Prices of goods in Canada would rise making it hard not only to work in Canada but to live in it to.