From Senators to the President: Solve the lumber problem or else

We use key events associated in the two decade-long U.S.–Canada softwood lumber trade dispute to present the dynamic relationship between U.S. Congress and the Administration in the formation of international trade policy. We find that the executive branch of the U.S. government responded quickly to several letters from a group of U.S. Senators demanding a solution to the “lumber problem.” A roll call analysis is used to identify factors influencing Senators’ willingness to sign these letters and pressure the President on behalf of the U.S. lumber industry. The results show that the economic importance of the lumber industry in a Senator’s home state is positively correlated with signatory on these letters and that the presence of a large housing industry in a state makes a Senator less likely to sign these letters. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2005U.S.–Canada softwood lumber dispute, lumber industry, special interest theory, public choice, logrolling,

Iodine transfer polymerization (ITP) of vinylidene fluoride (VDF). Influence of the defect of VDF chaining on the control of ITP

Iodine transfer polymerization (ITP) of vinylidene fluoride (VDF) in the presence of two chain transfer agents (CTA, such as C6F13I and HC2F4CH2I) is presented. Various experimental conditions in terms of the nature of the radical initiators, time, temperature and initial [initiator]0/[VDF]0 and [CTA] 0/[VDF]0 molar ratios influenced the yield of the reaction, the obtained average degree of polymerization in number, DP̄n, of PVDF - I, the defect of VDF-chaining, and the CX 2I functionality (where X = H or F). The microstructures of these produced PVDF - I oligomers were characterized by 1H and 19F NMR spectroscopy which enabled one to assess the DP̄n values and to quantify the head-to-head or tail-to-tail defects of VDF-chainings. A low amount of defect of chaining in PVDF - I when C6F13I was used in contrast to a higher content from HC2F4CH2I. These PVDF - Is exhibited a favored -CH2CF2I functionality from the former CTA which was not observed in the latter one. A good agreement between the targeted and the obtained DP̄n values was noted for ITP of VDF in the presence of C6F13I (representative of normal addition) whereas that carried out from HC2F4CH2I (representative of inverse addition) led to experimental DP̄n values higher than the targeted ones in all cases. A low conversion of HC2F 4CH2I was observed in contrast to that of C 6F13I, which shows a better efficiency as the transfer agent