WASHINGTON, April 24, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
-- The U.S. Department of Commerce today announced a
preliminary determination in response to a petition filed in
November 2016 by the Committee
Overseeing Action for Lumber International Trade Investigations or
Negotiations (COALITION). The
United States government ruling substantiates that
Canada subsidizes softwood lumber
production, distorting the U.S. softwood lumber market to the
detriment of U.S. sawmills, their employees and
communities.
Under U.S. trade laws and its international trade agreements,
the U.S. industry has a right to offsetting duties. The
Department of Commerce found the following rates of subsidization:
Canfor, 20.26 percent; J.D. Irving,
3.02 percent; Resolute, 12.82 percent; Tolko, 19.50 percent; West
Fraser, 24.12 percent; All other producers/exporters, 19.88
percent.
The Department of Commerce is still considering U.S. industry
claims that Canadian lumber is also dumped in the U.S.
market. Dumping duties are added to countervailing duties
imposed to offset subsidies. A preliminary antidumping ruling
is scheduled for June 23, 2017.
"Today's ruling confirms that Canadian lumber mills are
subsidized by their government and benefit from timber pricing
policies and other subsidies which harm U.S. manufacturers and
workers," said Coalition Legal Chair Cameron Krauss, Senior Vice President of Legal
Affairs of family-owned Seneca Sawmill in Eugene, Oregon.
"We appreciate today's actions by the Department of Commerce,
which has examined massive amounts of evidence presented by the
COALITION, the Canadian industry and the Canadian Federal and
provincial governments. The COALITION is hopeful that the
duties imposed by today's decision will begin the process of
creating a level playing field for the future and allow for U.S.
manufacturers to make essential investments and expand the domestic
lumber industry to its natural market and protect and grow the jobs
that are so essential to our workers and our communities," added
Krauss.
The COALITION is an ad hoc association composed of the U.S.
Lumber Coalition, a number of domestic softwood lumber
manufacturers in their individual capacity, timberland owners, and
the Carpenters Industrial Council of the United Brotherhood of
Carpenters and Joiners of America. The petition was supported
by producers accounting for nearly 70 percent of all softwood
lumber produced in the United
States (excluding companies that are related to Canadian
producers).
About the U.S. Lumber Coalition
The U.S.
Lumber Coalition is an alliance of large and small lumber producers
from around the country, joined by hundreds of thousands of their
employees, and tens of thousands of woodland owners. The Coalition
is united in opposition to Canada's unfair lumber‐trade practices,
including the gross under‐ pricing of timber on government‐owned
lands. For more information, please visit the Coalition's website
at www.uslumbercoalition.org.
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-lumber-industry-applauds-commerce-department-finding-of-massive-canadian-subsidies-300444811.html
SOURCE The U.S. Lumber Coalition