The U.S. Department of Commerce announced Monday that it will impose tariffs on imported Canadian softwood lumber.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said Canadian lumber companies were being unfairly subsidized, forcing the U.S. to react. Canada called that accusation “baseless and unfounded” and said the tariff would cost jobs and raise the cost of building and renovating homes in the U.S.
The tariffs are the latest development in the Trump administration’s effort to rewrite trade agreements it says are unfair. Idaho’s wood products industry has complained for years about unfair Canadian competition, and Gov. Butch Otter has called on the federal government to enforce the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.
Otter’s press office did not immediately return a message seeking comment Monday night.
The tariffs will range from 3 percent to 24 percent, depending on the company.
Imports of Canadian softwood lumber were worth an estimated $5.7 billion last year, the Commerce Department said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents will begin collecting cash deposits based on the preliminary tariff rates rates, subject to a final Commerce order in September. Some companies will be required to make retroactive cash payments. If Commerce changes its mind about the value of the subsidies or if the International Trade Commission determines the United States was not harmed, no order will be issued, the department said.
“It has been a bad week for U.S.-Canada trade relations,” Ross said. “Last Monday, it became apparent that Canada intends to effectively cut off the last dairy products being exported from the United States. Today, in a different matter, the Department of Commerce determined a need to impose countervailing duties of roughly one billion dollars on Canadian softwood lumber exports to us. This is not our idea of a properly functioning free-trade agreement.”
The Idaho Forest Products Commission has complained that NAFTA allows Canadian lumber companies to sidestep U.S. law, a system commission Director Betty Munis says is unconstitutional.
Source: Idaho Statesman
