The BC Lumber Trade Council is happy with the new Trade Agreement with the U.S. and Mexico.
President Susan Yurkovich says she is particularly pleased that it preserves the dispute resolution mechanism previously contained in Chapter 19 of NAFTA.
She says Chapter 10 of the new agreement maintains, for Canada and the U.S. only, a binational panel review mechanism for reviewing anti-dumping and countervailing duty determinations by either country.
Yurkovich says having a robust and fair dispute resolution mechanism is absolutely critical to maintaining a rules-based trading system and providing an avenue for Canada and Canadian companies to appeal unwarranted duties.
While achieving a renewed trade agreement is a major step forward, the ongoing softwood lumber remains unresolved.
Yurkovich says “the duties imposed by the U.S. Department of Commerce on Canadian softwood lumber are punitive and unfair, and are driven by the U.S. lumber lobby solely for the purpose of constraining imports of high-quality Canadian lumber to drive up prices for their own benefit.”
She says finding a resolution to the softwood lumber dispute remains a top priority.
B.C. is the largest Canadian exporter of softwood lumber to the U.S., making up about half of Canada’s total lumber exports.
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