Posted on 06/03/2004 8:26:21 PM PDT by RansomOttawa
CTV.ca News Staff
Canada's softwood lumber industry will see U.S. duties on its products cut by half starting in January, B.C.'s forests minister says.
Mike de Jong characterized the ruling as preliminary at this point, but said it pointed in the right direction.
The duty is currently 27 per cent. That would be reduced to 13 per cent, he said.
A federal official said the final determination won't come until December.
The U.S. Commerce Dept. is being required to acknowledge its initial numbers for calculating duties were not correct, de Jong said.
But duties have gone down in the past only to go up again, and de Jong said that's why he wants a long-term deal with the U.S. based on free trade principles.
The punitive duties are imposed because the U.S. claims Canada subsidizes its industry through cheap stumpage fees, leading to Canada selling lumber in the U.S. at unfairly low prices.
Stumpage is the money collected by provincial governments from companies in exchange for cutting rights.
In the U.S., such stumpage fees are determined by auctioning off cutting rights.
B.C., whose provincial economy depends heavily on the forest industry, has previously announced it will move to a more market-based system for charging stumpage fees.
About $2 billion in duties have been collected by the U.S. in the past two years.
Canada has been fighting the duties through the World Trade Organization and the NAFTA dispute resolution panel. It has also been trying to reach a negotiated settlement with the U.S. government.
In a late April ruling, the NAFTA panel ruled the U.S. had suffered no trade injury.
Great news seeing as I am gonna consume 125k in lumber over the next 12 months...or my client is...
Great news...
Bad news for the poor state of Arkansas - one of the MAIN products here is pine - softwood.
Arkansas is now the highest tax rate per income - lowest or next to lowest in income, in education, in health, in everything.
They need to lower the import taxes on steel and autos instead? After all, those auto workers make $50+/hour vs the avg here of $12-/hr Lowering the tariff will definitely lower the wages here.
The above sentence is < sarcasm > (barely to be honest)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.