IMPORT INDUSTRY OBJECTS TO HIGHER CANADIAN SOFTWOOD LUMBER DUTIES

IMPORT INDUSTRY OBJECTS TO HIGHER CANADIAN SOFTWOOD LUMBER DUTIES    A decision by the U.S. Commerce Department to impose a 12.58-percent antidumping duty on Canadian softwood lumber has infuriated import lobbying groups.
   “The president continues to talk about how important trade is to the U.S. economy and how we need to knock down walls abroad, and yet the Commerce Department has decided to erect a wall against softwood lumber from our closest trading partner,” said Robert J. Verdisco, president of the International Mass Retail Association, based in Arlington, Va.
   The 12.58-percent antidumping duty was set in the Commerce Department’s preliminary determination on Oct. 31. When added to the 19.3-percent countervailing duty imposed on Commerce in August, the U.S. government has effectively imposed a 31.88-percent total sales tax on lumber needed to build homes and other wood-based products, IMRA said.
   Importers also question how a handful of U.S. lumber companies were able to push the administration for a new duty on Canadian softwood lumber. Fierce lobbying from importers and domestic producers started after the Softwood Lumber Agreement between the United States and Canada expired on March 31.
   “There’s no way that dumping could have occurred under these circumstances,” Verdisco said. “To us these cases look like pressure tactics designed to force a negotiated settlement that will, once again, focus on controlling the price of lumber instead of dealing with the underlying dispute.”
   “U.S. lumber producers cannot provide sufficient quantities of softwood lumber to satisfy their needs, and contrary to what some have said, the product that the domestic producers grow — southern yellow pine — is not comparable to spruce pine fir from Canada,' Verdisco added. 'Import restraints and taxes, whether imposed via trade remedies or via negotiations, will limit customer choice and ultimately affect retail sales.”