Softwood Lumber Top Of Mind At COFI
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Slow and steady. That was the message from the Chair of the Cabinet Committee on Canada – U.S. Relations, Marc Garneau, to delegates at the Council of Forest Industries convention. The matter is currently undergoing a dispute resolution process both with NAFTA and the World Trade Organization.
But, the current price of lumber is at all times highs and that has curbed the urgency by Canadian softwood producers to push the issue, even while they pay an average tariff of 20% on products heading into the U.S.
“We think, this time, we’ve got a situation where demand for lumber in the U.S. is going to continue to grow for a period of time, absent of some kind of financial shock or geopolitical shock,” says Duncan Davies, the President & CEO of Interfor. “We think the market’s going to be strong, which gives us the time to be very structured in our defence.”
However, Garneau says that’s not the point.
“The principle remains that we feel that the tariffs that imposed on softwood lumber by the United States are unfair. We’ve said every single time. We’ve been found to be right and we’re going to continue to say it.”
