Thompson Rivers University

When a ban is not a ban: The case of BC log exports

November 12, 2015

Dr. Wood research uses an economic trade model to evaluate British Columbia’s (BC) log export restrictions. His research contradicts previous work which indicated that there are efficiency gains from the removal of BC’s log export restrictions. When the assumptions of the previous research are relaxed he finds that the current policy of restricting log exports is potentially more beneficial to BC than a policy allowing unlimited log exports. His closing thoughts on this subject is to indicate that from a global perspective such a policy is not beneficial but it is from a BC standpoint. When moving from a policy of restricting log exports to free trade, there is a loss to log producers in BC which is captured by consumers in foreign countries. According to Dr. Wood “this raises the potential for Canada and BC to use the removal of their log export restrictions as a bargaining chip to obtain equivalent concessions in trade negotiations with Japan and China.” His research was published recently in the peer review journal Economics Bulletin,

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