WTO affirms U.S. action against Canadian lumber imports

WTO affirms U.S. action against Canadian lumber imports    A World Trade Organization dispute settlement panel Tuesday rejected a Canadian challenge to a U.S. action that Canadian lumber is threatening to injure the U.S. lumber industry.
   The panel found that the United States did not break the WTO rules when the U.S. International Trade Commission determined that the U.S. lumber industry is threatened with injury due to subsidized Canadian lumber being dumped on the domestic market.
   “Today’s findings confirm that U.S. duties on Canadian lumber to counter the threat of material injury to the U.S. industry were properly imposed under international trade rules,” said U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman in a statement.
   The WTO panel’s decision is based on a Feb. 14 Canadian challenge to the ITC’s determination. Canada’s principal argument was that the ITC’s threat of injury determination was not supported by evidence and analysis. The WTO panel rejected that argument in its entirety.
   Portman warned that both the United States and Canada should not use litigation to solve this trade dispute. “Instead we believe that it is in the interest of both the United States and Canada to reach a permanent solution to the long-standing differences over softwood lumber,” he said.