International Trade Minister David Emerson said Thursday that threats to vote against softwood lumber legislation show the Opposition parties are anti-American.

"I know that both the NDP and the Liberals are staunchly anti-American in their inner core," Emerson told The Canadian Press in an interview Thursday.

Emerson, a Liberal minister before defecting to the Tories after they won a minority government in January, told CTV Newsnet that he doesn't understand why his former party is playing partisan games.

"If we do not put this agreement in place, we are into a tough lumber market and we can expect that litigation will get more intense, more ugly and we'll be seeing new cases come," he said.

"The potential devastation to the industry and to workers and communities and companies could be massive."

The deal has been endorsed by the premiers of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec -- the three big softwood producing provinces.

Emerson predicted that after the partisan dance is over the Opposition will vote for the agreement.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the Canada-U.S. Softwood Lumber Agreement would be put to a confidence vote.

New Democrats said they're prepared to force an election over the issue and the Liberals appear ready to side with the NDP when the House of Commons returns in the fall.

Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale said he sees nothing on the table that would convince his party to support the agreement.

In an interview with the Toronto Star, Goodale suggested Liberals are prepared to risk triggering a snap election if the Bloc Quebecois also votes against the deal.

"If that's what eventually happens because of this, then I think the party's prepared to grapple with that consequence," he said.

That outcome, however, doesn't appear likely.

A government source told the Star that the Quebec lumber industry has supported the softwood deal overwhelmingly, making it unlikely that the Bloc will vote it down and topple the Conservatives from power.

With Bloc support, the Conservatives would easily defeat the Liberals and NDP.

The Tories hold 125 of the 308 seats in Commons. The Liberals hold 102, the Bloc 50 and the NDP 29.

The deal would see the U.S. pay back about $4 billion US of the $5 billion US in punitive duties paid by Canadian lumber producers.

The Liberals object to the seven-year agreement on several fronts, saying it undermines the North American Free Trade Agreement and fails to return $1 billion US in duties.

Under the deal, to get rid of punitive duties on Canadian lumber Canada would charge a border tax to replace punitive duties on Canadian lumber or combine a quota with a border tax.

The aim is to limit Canadian exports when lumber prices are low and U.S. companies can't easily compete.

Canadian companies would be reimbursed about 80 per cent of $5.3 billion US in duties they paid since May 2002. But about $1 billion US of those duties would go to the U.S. government and American producers.