Also on the agenda is America's dispute with Canada over softwood lumber, and the status of Mexican workers in America.

ECONOMIST: A worldly spin from George Bush

Japan's continuing malaise, the United States' recession and the impact of American duties against softwood imports have all hammered British Columbia.

ECONOMIST: A wild gallop to the right causes consternation

The answer is not to promote boycotts of tropical timber or insist, as the Forest Stewardship Council does, that the same forest management rules apply to planted softwood as rainforests.

ECONOMIST: Letters

Tourism here is down, and thousands of jobs got axed when the U.S. slapped tariffs on exports of softwood and then banned Canadian beef after an outbreak of mad cow disease.

FORBES: Inside Dope