WASHINGTON-
Canada’s worldwide commerce secretary says the US seems to be transferring ahead with “unjustified” tariffs on softwood imports.
Mary Ng says the US anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Canadian softwood are little greater than a tax on American customers.
A sequence of paperwork filed at the moment by the US Division of Commerce, simply the most recent in a sequence of critiques of the dispute, present anti-dumping and countervailing duties should not going away.
The newest mixed tariff charges – that are provisional and can solely come into impact after a ultimate evaluation anticipated this summer season – vary from 7.29 p.c to 9.38 p.c.
Ng mentioned the findings of the evaluation had been disappointing for forest staff, companies and communities on either side of the Canada-US border.
She says Canada will use all avenues to combat the tariffs, together with litigation beneath NAFTA and its successor, the US-Mexico-Canada settlement, in addition to on the World Commerce Group.
“With these preliminary outcomes, the US Division of Commerce has indicated its intention to keep up its unwarranted tariffs on Canadian softwood imports,” Ng mentioned in a press release Tuesday.
“Canada stays poised and prepared to search out options that may enable a return to a predictable cross-border softwood commerce. We’re assured that a negotiated answer to this long-standing downside is in one of the best pursuits of each our nations.”
The US needs Canada to cope with the provincial stumpage price scheme that American producers have lengthy complained provides producers north of the border an unfair benefit — the core subject in a dispute that has raged for many years.
However Ottawa insists such a basic change in the way in which a key Crown useful resource is managed isn’t on the desk.
Timber-producing provinces impose stumpage charges on timber harvested on Crown lands – a system that’s an unfair subsidy to US producers who’re pressured to pay market charges.
This report from The Canadian Press was first revealed on January 24, 2023.
