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`U.S. duty will destroy value-added industry'
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GORDON HOEKSTRA
The Canadian and B.C. governments should push to exempt value-added producers
from any countervailing duties the U.S. slaps on softwood imports, a Prince
George lumber remanufacturer said Monday. A U.S. countervailing duty _ which
the powerful American lumber lobby says it will launch at the end of the five-year
lumber agreement on March 31 _ would destroy the value-added industry in Northern
B.C., said Brink Forest Products president John Brink.
American lumber producers claim Canadian manufacturers are unfairly subsidized
by the province's managed timber pricing systems. Those concerns sparked the
negotiation and signing of the five-year softwood lumber agreement which sets
duty-free shipment caps into the U.S.
But Brink said many value-added companies buy their lumber on the open market,
competing against U.S. value-added producers. As a result, those companies ``should
not be deemed to be subsidized in any manner,'' said Brink, the former president
of the B.C. Value Added Council.
``I don't understand it. Neither the federal nor the provincial government
appear to be doing much about the impending crisis and are either complacent
or in a state of paralysis,'' said Brink. ``Everyone appears to be sitting back
waiting for the axe to fall.''
Neither the Canadian nor B.C. government lumber trade officials could be reached
for comment Monday.
The U.S. presidential election, the delay in determining a winner and the selection
of a new senior U.S. administration had set back lumber trade talks between
the two countries.
Prime Minister Jean Chretien has met with President George W. Bush, putting
forward the idea of setting up special envoys to put in motion high-level talks
on the softwood lumber file.
The Canadian lumber industry has banded together under a cross-country alliance
to fight the impending countervail duty case through American and world trade
organizations.
The U.S. Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports has said it will also be launching
an anti-dumping case against Canada, which would be added to the 30% duty on
lumber it's seeking.
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