lumber

Wednesday April 26, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 26, 2017

Canada pursues possible trade deal with China as softwood lumber dispute with U.S. heats up

December 7, 2005

Exploratory free trade talks are underway this week as Canadian and Chinese officials visit one another’s countries to discuss what a potential agreement might look like.

Chinese officials are gathering at the offices at Global Affairs Canada, while two federal ministers, International Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne and Finance Minister Bill Morneau, are in China.

In Washington on Friday, Morneau said his China trip will focus on furthering relationships with his Chinese counterparts and key industry players, while Champagne works to promote the use of Canadian lumber in home construction.

Minister of Natural Resources Jim Carr will travel to China in June with forestry leaders to further look for new markets.

This broad diplomatic push comes as the U.S. looks set to impose new duties on Canadian softwood.

September 2, 2016

Joel Neuheimer, the senior director of International Trade for the Forest Products Association of Canada, said the last time the softwood industry faced duties from the U.S. — more than a decade ago — the push to find new markets in China paid off.

“If you look back to 2006 versus 2016, from a percentage point of view, we’ve really tripled our exports in forest products to the Chinese marketplace, going from five per cent of our exports to 15 per cent of our exports,” Neuheimer told CBC News.

That initial effort focused primarily on single-family home construction, he said, but looking to the future the effort will need to be expanded to selling lumber for the construction of larger buildings such as schools, libraries and apartment buildings.

“We’re looking at doing even more going forward, again taking into consideration what we’re bracing ourselves for here going forward with the United States and the harmful duties they’re about to impose on our wood products,” Neuheimer said. (Source: CBC News)

The Western Star, Corner Brook, Nfld., April 28, 2017

Wednesday December 7, 2005

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday December 7, 2005

U.S. to cut softwood duties almost in half

Canadian officials are cheering a move by the U.S. Commerce Department to chop softwood lumber duties by almost 50 per cent.The Commerce Department set the new rates on Tuesday, settling on average payments of 10.81 per cent.

That figure is a considerable drop from the current average payment of 20.15 per cent.

“This is a very positive step forward as Canada fights to have the illegal duties reduced to zero,” John Allan, president of the B.C. Lumber Trade Council, told the Canadian Press.

The softwood dispute has been the main trade irritant between Canada and the U.S.

The U.S. believes Canada improperly subsidizes softwood production because most U.S. timber is harvested from private land at market prices, while in Canada the wood is mostly cut on Crown land.

The U.S. government has collected about $5 billion in duties on Canadian softwood exports to the U.S. since the tariffs were introduced in May 2002. (Source: CBC)