Fascist Oligarchs Attack Cute Cuddly Canadians Message Board

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Strategies & Market Trends : Fascist Oligarchs Attack Cute Cuddly Canadians

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To: Snowshoe who wrote (680)	9/28/2002 8:57:36 PM
From: Snowshoe	Read Replies (2) of 1293

Canada, U.S. Declare Victory After Lumber Ruling story.news.yahoo.com Fri Sep 27, 3:44 PM ET By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - Both Canada and the United States claimed victory after the World Trade Organization ( news - web sites) on Friday delivered a mixed ruling on a complicated dispute between the two neighbors over softwood lumber trade. The final ruling by a WTO panel was almost identical to a preliminary decision released by another panel in late July. The case is one of several Canada has taken to international bodies challenging U.S. countervailing and anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood lumber. In Friday's ruling, the Geneva-based WTO struck down the way the U.S. Commerce Department ( news - web sites) last year calculated temporary countervailing duties by comparing the prices U.S. mills pay for wood with prices paid by Canadian companies. Canadian International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew said the WTO had clearly backed Ottawa's position. "This decision reinforces our position and injects increased optimism in our unified approach," he said, referring to the federal government's desire to fight the U.S. duties in unison with Canada's lumber-producing provinces. But in truth the WTO ruling was just a symbolic victory for Canada, since it referred to temporary countervailing duties which were only imposed for three months last year. Canadian officials have also challenged the permanent U.S. duties on lumber exports and say they expect a WTO ruling next March or April. Washington took heart from another part of Friday's ruling which said Canada had made "financial contributions" to timber sold in the United States, thus supporting U.S. industry claims that Canadian wood exports are subsidized. The U.S. Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports said the WTO panel's decision was "a fundamental victory" for the United States and its lumber industry. "Today's report goes should send a strong and very clear message to Canadian officials. The Canadian government practice of giving its timber to the Canadian lumber industry at prices far below open and competitive market prices is an actionable subsidy," said coalition chairman Rusty Wood." This year the Commerce Department slapped an 18.79 percent countervailing duty and an 8.43 percent anti-dumping duty on exports of Canadian softwood lumber, used in home building and remodeling. Canada ships about $6 billion worth of softwood to the United States each year. But the future of those shipments has been in doubt since the United States found Canadian provinces guilty of unfairly subsidizing wood and Canadian companies of exporting it at below-market prices. Canada says its lumber industry is merely more efficient and is providing wood varieties that are in short supply in the United States. Canadian officials told a briefing that they had no plans to reopen negotiations with Washington over the duties. The U.S. Commerce Department is now proposing that individual Canadian provinces escape the duties if they introduce market-based reforms for producing lumber. The premier of British Columbia, which produces half the Canadian softwood exported to the United States, is set to visit Washington on Monday to explain changes the province plans for the system used to set the price companies pay to harvest trees in provincial forests. Officials said Gordon Campbell would meet with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and at least one U.S. senator as well as holding talks with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney ( news - web sites). (With additional reporting by Julie Vorman in Washington and Allan Dowd in Vancouver)

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