A recent ruling from a NAFTA dispute panel found some aspects of the way the U.S. department of commerce calculates duties on Canadian softwood lumber is inconsistent with U.S. law.
That decision is being greeted as a win for the industry by federal export minister Mary Ng.
“I am pleased with the panel report,” Ng said in an interview. “It confirmed what we’ve known for quite some time that the U.S. duties on softwood lumber are both unjustified and unwarranted.”
The department of commerce has been given a year to review how it is calculating anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood lumber.
New Brunswick mills have been subject to anti-dumping duties levied on softwood lumber since 2017, when the department of commerce found that the amount of lumber harvested from Crown land distorted the price for private wood. That decision cited a 2008 auditor general report that said the province’s wood market was “not truly an open market.”
In a statement, the New Brunswick government said it’s always been confident that duties shouldn’t apply to the industry but the issue ultimately needs to be solved through negotiation.
“In the past, neutral third-party tribunals have repeatedly found U.S. claims to be without merit, and the government of New Brunswick firmly believes this will ultimately again be the case, and given that the legal processes are lengthy, that the governments of Canada and the U.S. should get back to the negotiating table to settle this dispute once and for all,” said spokesperson Johanne Leblanc in an emailed statement.
Right now, most mills in the province are charged duties of about 11 per cent.
Ng is hopeful that the review of those duties ordered by a NAFTA dispute panel will bring an end to anti-dumping duties soon and says the federal government will continue to look for a negotiated settlement.
“That is what provides predictability to the industry, so I will continue to do that work,” she said.
“At every opportunity I, whether it’s me, or the prime minister, we’ve raised this with the Americans so we’re going to continue to do that work.”
New Brunswick’s forestry industry contributes about $1.5 billion annually to the provincial economy and provides around 24,000 jobs.