OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau affirmed in a radio interview this week that Canada is on the right side of the intermittent softwood lumber dispute with the U.S. “”We know that a big part of restarting our economies and building back better is going to involve construction, which is going to require forestry products,” Trudeau said. “The Americans continue to think that having people pay higher prices than necessary for their lumber is a good thing for the economy. Of course, they’re wrong.” The dispute, which has flared up from time to time over the past 40 years, centres on the Canadian system of stumpage fees paid by foresters to the Crown for harvesting rights.
In the U.S., softwood lumber is harvested on private land. In the eyes of successive U.S. governments, this means that the Canadian industry is unfairly subsidized and that countervailing duties on Canadian softwood lumber are therefore warranted. International tribunals have consistently ruled against such tariffs, however, most recently those imposed in 2017, which were struck down by the World Trade Organization last week.
