International Trade Law News

The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) today reaffirmed its affirmative threat determinations in the partial remand of the ITC's antidumping and countervailing duty investigations of imports of softwood lumber from Canada. By a vote of 5-0, the ITC found on remand that an industry in the United States is threatened with material injury by reason of imports of softwood lumber from Canada that the U.S. Department of Commerce determined are subsidized and sold in the United States at less than fair value.

This remand was required by a NAFTA Binational Panel decision in September 2003 that held that the ITC failed to prove that Canadian timber pricing practices had hurt or materially threatened U.S. producers. The NAFTA panel found that the ITC not only failed to follow its own regulations, but that the agency ignored evidence on whether U.S. lumber producers were threatened by Canadian imports.

This ruling comes less than two weeks after the U.S. and Canada negotiated a framework deal to end the trade dispute. However, many major Canadian lumber companies have opposed the deal, which would limit Canadian exports to the United States and refund approximately one-half of the $1.8 billion in antidumping and countervailing duties the Canadian industry has paid so far.