U.S. Commerce department calculates Canadian softwood lumber subsidy at 13 percent

U.S. Commerce department calculates Canadian softwood lumber subsidy at 13 percent    In response to a North American Free Trade Agreement dispute panel, the U.S. Commerce Department has calculated that Canadian softwood lumber producers are subsized at a rate of 13.23 percent.
   The calculation is below the rate that the Commerce Department generated in May 2002 which placed the subsidy rate at 18.8 percent.
   For now, however, the Commerce Department will continue to collect cash deposits of 27.2 percent at the border on Canadian softwood lumber.
   A Washington-based U.S. lumber lobby said the Commerce Department’s newest calculation still proves that Canadian provinces heavily subsidize their softwood lumber industries, and in turn foster the dumping of these products on the U.S. market.
   “It is unfair to U.S. workers, U.S. lumber producers, U.S. landowners and Canadian taxpayers,” said Rusty Wood, chairman of the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports. “It ought to stop.”
   The coalition believes that Commerce Department’s subsidy rate for Canada’s softwood lumber trade will increase as it considers additional data in its ongoing administrative review.