During a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in Quesnel, Canada, the BC Premier, Christy Clark, spoke about the need for a new softwood lumber trade agreement with the US.
Clark stated that the lack of a new trade deal will seriously affect the 50% Canada’s softwood exports to the US. The SLA between the two countries expired on October 12, 2015, giving the two countries a one-year standstill period to negotiate a new agreement.
Once the standstill period expires, the US lumber industry will have to ask the US Dept. of Commerce to investigate Canadian lumber imports and possibly impose anti-dumping and countervailing duties, according to MyPrinceGeorgeNow.
The 100 days period to reach an agreement, which had been previously set during the March meeting between US President Barack Obama and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is now drawing to a close, on the 29th of June 2016.
Moreover, not even the meeting in Ottawa on the 26th of May between Canada’s and US officials didn’t seem to be closer to reaching an agreement.
As Clark explained, BC isn’t ready to accept quotas being imposed once with a new deal, because the jobs in the province will be seriously affected. She added that she had been urging the government in Canada to negotiate the deal before the US election cycle which will start in September.
As reported by Reuters, the hardest part of reaching a new agreement is that the domestic producers are split over the best strategy.
Susan Yurkovich, BC Lumber Trade Council Chief Executive, stated that she believed in a new agreement to meet both ends and provide certainty for both countries.
