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BC Lumber Trade Council: Lowered US softwood duties still ‘disappointing’

Susan Yurkovich, president of the BC Lumber Trade Council, made the following statement in response to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s (DOC) issuance of new countervailing (CVD) and antidumping (AD) rates on Canadian softwood lumber. The new combined CVD/AD “All Others” rate will be 8.99 per cent. The decision is the outcome of the DOC’s first Administrative Review and largely reaffirms its preliminary duty rates issued on Feb. 3, 2020:

“While the reduction in duty rates from this first Administrative Review is a step in the right direction, the fact that we’re still paying duties on our lumber products sold to the U.S. market is both frustrating and disappointing. As we have consistently said, and as has been proven in previous rounds of litigation, the Canadian industry is not subsidized, and this trade action levelled by U.S. producers is completely without merit.

The North American lumber market is served by both American and Canadian producers. This has been important as, for many years, U.S. demand has outpaced domestically produced supply. Today, lumber demand is strong as families across the U.S. are looking to repair and remodel their homes, and others are driving demand for new home construction. That’s why it is so unfortunate that the ongoing actions of the U.S. industry resulting in these unwarranted tariffs are placing an added cost burden on consumers.

Our strong hope is that the U.S. industry will end this decades-long litigation and instead work with us to further grow demand for the low-carbon wood products the world wants. Until then, we will continue to vigorously defend our industry against these baseless allegations.”

B.C. is the largest Canadian exporter of softwood lumber to the U.S. The B.C. forest industry is a major contributor to the provincial economy and supports approximately 100,000 direct and indirect jobs in the province. The BC Lumber Trade Council is the voice on trade matters for companies in B.C. representing the majority of lumber production in the province.