OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will persist with its efforts to negotiate a new softwood lumber deal with the United States despite a second round of import tariffs slapped on Canadian wood by the United States this week.
Late June 26, the U.S. Department of Commerce ruled Canadian softwood producers were dumping lumber into the United States at prices lower than market value in Canada and added another 6.87 percent in import duties to most Canadian softwood.
The decision, which is a preliminary figure awaiting final determination later this year, brings the average import duty to 26.75 percent when added to the countervailing duties the United States imposed at the end of April. Washington maintains that Canadian wood is unfairly subsidized.
Canada intends to challenge the duties in court or through international trade tribunals but can’t until the final determinations are made.
The current duties would cost Canadian producers an estimated $1.7 billion a year.
Trudeau says Canada has repeatedly emerged triumphant each time the U.S.-Canada softwood dispute lands in the courts, and expects the same outcome again.
