US slaps another tax on Canadian lumber but is it really helping US timber – PB/TK
U.S. slaps dumping duties on Canadian wood, Ottawa vows to fight – By Eric Beech and David Lawder / June 26 2017
Escalating a trade dispute with Canada in the run-up to talks on renegotiating NAFTA, the U.S. Commerce Department on Monday imposed preliminary anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood lumber of up to 7.72 percent.
When combined with preliminary anti-subsidy duties issued in April, the new measures will bring total duties on Canadian lumber to between 17.41 percent and 30.88 percent.
The announcement, which was largely expected, prompted an angry reaction from the Canadian government against what it called unfair and punitive duties.
“We will vigorously defend Canada’s softwood lumber industry, including through litigation,” the government said in a statement.
The bilateral dispute is the fifth over lumber in less than 40 years.
U.S. producers asked the Commerce Department last November to investigate what they viewed as unfair subsidies to Canadian competitors, many of whom procure their timber from government lands at cheaper rates.
U.S. lumber producers generally cut timber grown on private land. Canada, which denies it subsidizes producers, said earlier this month it would give C$867 million ($654 million) in aid to the domestic industry.
Continue to reuters.com article: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-canada-trade-lumber-idUSKBN19H2F8
