A North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) panel has upheld the latest U.S. lumber industry trade complaint against Canadian softwood lumber. In a May 22 ruling, the NAFTA panel reviewed the U.S. International Trade Commission’s determination of injury to the U.S. lumber trade from Canadian lumber.
The ITC initially found the U.S. industry was materially injured by the Canadian softwood lumber industry in a 5-0 remand determination in December 2019. The ruling from the ITC supported the position that subsidies to the lumber industry provided by the Canadian government and “dumping” of lumber products in the U.S. market causes real harm to U.S. producers and the U.S. lumber industry. The ruling from the NAFTA panel affirms and upholds the ITC’s remand determination.
British Columbia Council of Forest Industries president Susan Yurkovich, who also leads the B.C. Lumber Trade Council, said the “unsupportable decision” doesn’t change Canada’s position. Canadian parties still have pending World Trade Organization and NAFTA challenges to the Department of Commerce’s underlying countervailing duty and anti-dumping duty determinations that are still unresolved, according to Yurkovich.
In a preliminary finding in February, the U.S. Commerce Department determined the current countervailing and anti-dumping penalties should be reduced by half, but this ruling isn’t expected to be finalized until later in the summer.
