Canadian Council of Chief Executives Condemns Latest Decision in Softwood Lumber Dispute

December 15, 2004

Comments by Thomas d’Aquino, President and Chief Executive of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives(CCCE) and a leading private-sector architect of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement, following yesterday’s decision by the United States Department of Commerce to maintain trade duties on Canadian softwood lumber at rates higher than specified in a preliminary ruling last summer:

“This latest decision in the long-running softwood lumber dispute is both exasperating and deeply disappointing. For more than two decades, a narrow sector of the United States economy has fought relentlessly to restrict imports of Canadian softwood lumber. Time and again, Canadian producers have won favourable rulings under the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization – and yet the United States has persistently chosen to disregard these decisions. To compound matters, the Department of Commerce keeps changing the rules, just as it did yesterday by imposing a revised duty rate based on a formula previously ruled illegal under both the NAFTA and the WTO.

“As champions of free trade and open markets, we are confident that this appalling decision eventually will be overturned. But in the meantime, it is not just Canadian lumber producers who are paying the price. The imposition of unwarranted and unfair duties on softwood lumber shipments to the United States directly undermines the competitiveness of North America as a whole, at a time when our countries should be working together more closely to enhance North American security and prosperity.”