WTO panel finds duties on Canadian softwood unfair

   A World Trade Organization dispute panel found that U.S. antidumping duties on softwood lumber from Canada violate WTO rules and recommends that the U.S. bring its AD measure into conformity with obligations under the WTO’s Antidumping Agreement.
   The conclusions of the panel report, released Tuesday, state that the U.S. violated the WTO AD Agreement by aggregating differences in export prices across unrelated categories, i.e. purchasers, regions and time periods, to identify “a single pattern of export prices,” which actually differed significantly among different purchasers, regions and time periods.
   The U.S. is collecting AD duties on Canadian softwood of 7.28 percent, after the Commerce Department and U.S. International Trade Commission in 2017 found that softwood lumber from Canada is being dumped in the U.S. market.
   The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didn’t respond to a question about whether it would appeal the ruling.
   Another case, examining U.S. countervailing duties on softwood lumber from Canada, remains pending, and there’s been no word on when the WTO Dispute Settlement Body will issue a ruling in that case, a WTO spokesperson told American Shipper in an email. Dispute panelists were appointed for the case in July.