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Canada’s International trading Minister criticized us The Ministry of Commerce almost doubled the tax corkcalling the move unfair and unjustified.
minister Mary Wu It said the United States had significantly increased tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber from 8.05% to 14.54%.
“The U.S.’s unwarranted and unfair tariffs on softwood lumber unreasonably harm the interests of consumers and producers on both sides of the border,” Wu said in the release.
It’s the latest in a bilateral tug-of-war over a move that Ottawa says is hampering efforts to improve housing costs and supply.
The increase in the so-called “all other” combined tariff rate was strongly opposed by the British Columbia government and industry.
“We’ve said it from the beginning and we’ll say it again: The only solution is to end unfair softwood lumber tariffs,” Bruce Ralston, British Columbia’s forestry minister, said at a news conference.
Under the Tariff Act, the U.S. Department of Commerce is responsible for determining whether goods are sold at less than fair value or benefit from subsidies provided by a foreign government.
Canada’s timber-producing provinces impose so-called logging fees on timber harvested from Crown lands. U.S. producers, forced to pay market prices, argue that amounts to an unfair subsidy.
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Canadian lumber producers have paid more than $9 billion in tariffs, which will be temporarily held until the dispute is resolved.
The British Columbia Lumber Trade Council said the price increases come at an ill-timed time and exacerbate an already tense situation.
“Increased U.S. tariffs on British Columbia lumber products will exacerbate the dire situation facing British Columbia producers and will impact manufacturing operations, jobs and communities across the province,” said BC President Kurt Niquidet in a news release.
Andy Lillie, president of the British Columbia Independent Lumber Processors Association, said the softwood lumber dispute unfairly hurt small, family-owned businesses “who have been innocent bystanders in a long-running dispute between American landowners and international timber companies.”
The association, whose members buy lumber or logs on the open market like U.S. companies, called on Ottawa to negotiate a solution, according to a news release.
In a report on lumber tariffs, CIBC analysts said it was unlikely that Ottawa or the Biden administration would pursue the issue as a trade dispute because it was not the main cause of job losses in the industry in Canada. The report said the job losses were related to weak lumber demand and limited fiber resources in British Columbia.
Canada is taking the litigation route to challenge those rates through the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement Dispute Panel.
Ottawa has previously successfully argued at a World Trade Organization dispute panel that its logging fee system is not a subsidy, and last year a NAFTA dispute panel found that the way the U.S. calculates tariffs is inconsistent with federal law.
The tariff rate in the fifth tariff administrative review released by the U.S. Department of Commerce on Tuesday is slightly higher than the initial ruling rate of 13.86% announced in February.
The new rates are likely to last until mid-August 2025, when the sixth administrative review rates will be implemented.
The move was praised by U.S. industry groups such as the American Lumber Federation, which said Canada’s moves were exacerbating the market’s downward cycle.
“The United States does not need unfair trade imports of Canadian lumber to meet current housing construction needs,” Andrew Miller, president of the alliance, said in a news release.
Wu said it is in the best interest of both Canada and the United States to find a lasting solution to the dispute.
“We will always fight in the best interests of Canadians and continue to use every avenue available to vigorously defend the workers, businesses and communities that rely on softwood lumber for their livelihoods,” she said.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
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