Senate Finance Members Revive Push for US-Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement in Letter to Commerce, USTR

Several Senate Finance Committee members in a July 24 letter (here) to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross reiterated their hopes for concluding a new softwood lumber agreement with Canada that meets domestic industry needs. Six of the seven members signing the letter, led by committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, had also signed onto an October letter to former President Barack Obama calling for his administration to conclude a new deal (see 1610240034).

“We urge you to negotiate a clean quota agreement, holding Canada to its June 2016 commitment to negotiate a new agreement that is ‘designed to maintain Canadian exports at or below an agreed market share’ and resist provisions that undermine a stable and clearly enforceable system,” the senators wrote. The Commerce Department in June announced its preliminary determination to impose antidumping duty cash deposit requirements on softwood lumber from Canada, setting several new exemptions from the scope of softwood lumber duties, including for finished products and lumber produced in Atlantic provinces of Canada (see 1706270035). Commerce in April set countervailing duty cash deposit requirements for softwood imports from Canada (see 1704270022).

The senators also said their committee “must be briefed fully and regularly” on details of the proposals before they are presented to Canada, and that public confidence in any completed agreement can only be obtained through “meaningful engagement” with Congress. Ross and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland are maintaining an "open dialogue" on the issue to explore whether a mutually acceptable deal can be concluded, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Embassy in Washington said in an email. "However, we are not willing to accept just any deal," the spokeswoman said. "It has to be a deal that is in the best interests of the industry. The federal government will continue to work closely with industry, provinces and territories on this file." Commerce and USTR didn’t comment.

U.S. Lumber Coalition spokesman Zoltan van Heyningen in a statement (here) applauded the senators for working toward an "equitable" trade deal to mitigate the damages of subsidized Canadian softwood imports. "The U.S. Lumber Coalition applauds the efforts by members of the Senate Finance Committee to push for a fair trade deal, especially the letter's provision calling for a clean quota agreement to hold Canada to its commitments and maintain a stable, enforceable system," he said.