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Lumber Coalition Files Petition Against Canadian Imports Petition will likely bring Canadians back to negotiations on lapsed Softwood Lumber Agreement, o cials say
ABY MOLLY PRIDDY OF THE BEACON
MONTH AFTER A 10-YEAR trade agreement on lumber from Canada expired, a coalition of
U.S. lumber producers has led a trade complaint over those imports from our northern neighbor.
The U.S. Lumber Coalition led the petition with the federal Commerce Department and International Trade Commission on Nov. 25, seeking duties imposed on Canadian softwood lumber that the coalition says is dumped into the U.S. market.
The term “dumping” in this case refers to lumber sold at less than market value, and the coalition says duties would o set the harm that these imports have caused mills in the U.S. and the communities dependent on those mills.
Zoltan van Heyningen, spokesperson for the U.S. Lumber Coalition, said in an interview with the Beacon that the peti- tion for relief was a necessary step to get the Canadians back to the negotiation table to hammer out a new U.S.-Canada Softwood Lumber Trade Agreement.
Under the 2006 bilateral deal, which ended decades of disputes over the issue, Canadian producers agreed to a quota on imports to the U.S. or to pay taxes on the goods shipped here. The deal expired in October 2015, and no trade complaints could be led within a one-year window.
Now that the window has come and gone, van Heyningen said the petition was necessary because Canada hasn’t stepped up on the negotiations.
“Where we are today and the fact that we ended up ling cases is a direct result of Canada at-out failing to engage in this process,” van Heyningen said. “It’s
F.H Stoltze Land and Lumber Co. in Columbia Falls. BEACON FILE PHOTO
that U.S. lumber businesses, especially those in Northwest Montana, have been harmed by the Canadian imports. But a di erence in systems doesn’t necessarily mean someone is in the wrong, he said. It comes to bear when logs from the two systems are sold in the same market.
“The Softwood Lumber Agreement is a mechanism to level the playing eld,” Roady said.
Montana’s congressional delegation worked in a bipartisan push for negoti- ations with Canada to come to fruition, with Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines and Rep. Ryan Zinke meeting with Cana- dian Ambassador Gary Doer in October to urge a new agreement.
The coalition ling a trade case did not surprise Tester, who said it was “timely” and very important for the whole wood-products industry.
“The petition submitted should push the Canadians to go to work to get an agreement,” Tester said in an inter- view last week. “Now it’s time to get an agreement.”
Despite claims that Canadian compa- nies have purchased into American com- panies, thus creating a less-united front when it comes to the agreement, Tester said from his perspective in Washington D.C., the timber and lumber industry is largely in lockstep seeking an agreement.
Van Heyningen said the same.
“It’s been one of many Canadian talking points,” he said. “The irony is it’s the exact reverse.”
Tester said he’s been in talks with the Canadian ambassador about the trade agreement, and that the Canadians said they have been hesitant to come to the table to support quotas for reasons that Tester thinks “are somewhat excuses
a compromise agreement. But we need something that works. Canada simply wanted something that only works for them.”
For its part, Canada has defended itself, with a spokesperson for Trade Minister Chrystia Freedia telling the Wall Street Journal that the “protectionist climate in the U.S.” complicates matters.
Essentially, the issue comes down to both countries having two very di erent systems of lumber harvest. Canada’s pro- vincial governments own the vast major- ity of timberlands and provide trees to Canadian producers for an administered fee. That fee can run far below the market value of timber, van Heyningen noted.
In the U.S., where timberlands are typically privately held, the market determines price through public sales.
According to the U.S. Lumber Coali- tion, after the expiration of the Softwood Lumber Agreement, Canadian imports increased from 29.5 percent of total con- sumption in the U.S. in the third quarter of 2015 to 33.1 percent in the fourth quarter of the same year. Canadian imports in the rst eight months of 2016 were 33 percent higher than over the same period in 2015.
“Nobody likes to have to le a trade case. But it was really the only way we could bring the Canadians to the nego- tiating table,” said Chuck Roady, gen- eral manager at F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber in Columbia Falls and director of the Montana Wood Products Associa- tion. “There’s not much to bring them to the table, so we had to le a trade case to show them we mean business.”
Roady said there “isn’t a question”
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DECEMBER 7, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM