U.S. to cut Canadian lumber duties
By Purchasing Staff -- Purchasing, 11/28/2005 7:00:00 AM
The Commerce Department will comply with a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) trade panel ruling that the U.S. cut duties on imports of Canadian softwood lumber from an average 16% to less than 1%.
Canadian lumber prices won’t fall right away because of delaying motions "seeking clarifications," admits John Sullivan, general counsel for Commerce. The U.S. will cut the punitive duties but will continue to collect them while the motion is pending, he says, and that has Canada—and lumber buyers—less than thrilled. Canada's Minister of International Trade Jim Peterson has demanded that the NAFTA trade panel order the U.S. to return "duties improperly collected" since the Bush administration imposed the tariffs in 2002. The trade brouhaha stems from the fact that most U.S. timber is harvested from private land at market prices, while, in Canada, the government owns 90% of timberlands.
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