LUMBER LOBBY ACCUSES CANADA OF DUMPING BUG-INFESTED LUMBER

LUMBER LOBBY ACCUSES CANADA OF DUMPING BUG-INFESTED LUMBER    The Coalition of Fair Lumber Imports has accused the Canadian lumber industry in British Columbia of injuring the U.S. lumber market with low-cost timber killed by insects.
   “The BC government is flooding the market with bug killed timber at a tiny fraction of value, promising reductions in forestry costs without commensurate increases in timber fees, refusing to enforce existing requirements on timber allocation, and encouraging predatory dumping of lumber,” said coalition chairman Rusty Wood in a statement Tuesday. “The result has been collapsing prices.”
   The Washington-based coalition represents hundreds of large and small lumber producers in the United States, accounting for about 75 percent of U.S. lumber production and forest landowners.
   The coalition wants the U.S. government to investigate this recent Canadian lumber export activity and offset any unfair trade with increased import duties.
   “We have acknowledged that an interim measure might be necessary until reforms can be completed and that any measure must deal effectively with the current flood of unfair trade, but the coalition has not sought a quota system such as that proposed by British Columbia in 1996,” Wood said. “We remain open to new ideas and look forward to a return to negotiations.”