Commerce investigates Canadian lumber imports

The Commerce Department has initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations of certain softwood lumber products imported into the United States from Canada.    The Commerce Department has initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations of certain softwood lumber products imported into the United States from Canada.
   Dumping occurs when a foreign company sells a product in the United States at less than fair market value, while a countervailable subsidy is financial assistance from a foreign government that is contingent on a domestic company’s export performance and use of domestic goods over imported goods.
   The petitioner for the investigation is the Committee Overseeing Action for Lumber International Trade Investigations or Negotiations (COALITION), which is an ad-hoc association whose members include the U.S. Lumber Coalition of Washington, D.C.; Collum’s Lumber Products in South Carolina; Hankins in Mississippi; Weyerhaeuser Co. and Potlatch Corp. of Washington; Rex Lumber Co. in Florida; Sullivan Forestry Consultants in Georgia; Seneca Sawmill Co., Stimson Lumber Co., Swanson Group, Carpenters Industrial Council and Giustina Land and Timber Co. of Oregon; and Sierra Pacific Industries of California.
   The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is expected to make its preliminary injury determinations by Jan. 9, 2017.
   If the ITC determines that there is a reasonable indication that softwood lumber imports from Canada harm U.S. industry, then the investigations will continue and Commerce will be scheduled to make its preliminary countervailing duty determination in February 2017 and its preliminary antidumping determination in May 2017. If the ITC’s preliminary determinations are negative, the investigations will end.
   According to Commerce, imports of softwood lumber from Canada in 2015 were valued at $4.5 billion.