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“INTRODUCTION OF BIPARTISAN SOFTWOOD LUMBER FAIR COMPETITION ACT” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Commerce was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H3126-H3127 on June 13, 2001.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
INTRODUCTION OF BIPARTISAN SOFTWOOD LUMBER FAIR COMPETITION ACT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I would certainly echo the comments of those that preceded me in the well about the contributions of organized labor to all working people in the United States and join them in supporting their efforts. But I come to talk about a specific sector of the economy and specific workers, that is, people who work in the lumber and wood products industry.
Back in the 1980s, the United States Department of Commerce found that Canadian lumber is heavily subsidized.
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The Reagan, Bush I and the Clinton administrations have all found the Canadian lumber is subsidized. Numerous Canadian sources, including the BC Forest Resources Commission, Canadian Private Wood Owners Association, Maritime Lumber Bureau have also found those subsidies. That is not in question.
The subsidies come in three primary forms. The provincial government owns 95 percent of the timberland in Canada and administratively sets the price of timber one-quarter to one-third of its market value.
Agreements allow Canadian mills long-term access to timberland in exchange for cutting to subsidize the timber. No matter what the market conditions are, they are required to harvest and process the lumber, and they lose their licenses if they do not do that.
Finally, they are really back 50 years ago or more in terms of their environmental practices. They regularly violate principles set by the Canadian national government in terms of streamside buffers; drag logs through the streams and destroy precious salmon habitat. The results of that are being reflected in crashing salmon runs off of Canada and Alaska.
In response, in 1996, the United States and Canada negotiated a softwood lumber agreement. Unfortunately, that has expired and negotiations to extend or revise the agreement have not occurred despite the fact that many of us have contacted the current administration and asked them to make this a high priority.
We have seen statistics that say a mere 5 percent increase in lumber imports, subsidized lumber imports, from Canada could cost 8,000 jobs in the Pacific Northwest. So we feel this is of the utmost priority.
I am introducing legislation tomorrow with the gentleman from Georgia
(Mr. Norwood), bipartisan legislation, the Softwood Lumber Fair Competition Act, and I really appreciate the fact that the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood) has joined me as the chief Republican sponsor. It also will have support and introduction of a number of other Democrats and Republicans from various parts of the United States.
If Canada will not do the right thing and come back to the negotiating table and the Bush administration will not take the initiative, then Congress must force the issues through enactment of such measures as the Softwood Lumber Fair Competition Act.
Our legislation is based on the import relief provisions of the Steel Revitalization Act, which has 212 bipartisan cosponsors. The legislation requires that the President take necessary steps by imposing quotas, tariff surcharges, negotiate voluntary export restraint agreements or other measures when softwood lumber imports from Canada exceed the average volume imported monthly during the 24-month period preceding December 1995.
This will help ensure that the U.S. industry and workers are not harmed by unfair dumping of subsidized Canadian lumber.
The job losses and mill closures will accelerate if the United States does not stand up for our working families and demand that Canada trade fairly.
With the sluggish U.S. economy, we simply cannot afford to sacrifice more U.S. jobs and U.S. industries to unfair trade by the Canadians.
The President has repeatedly assured Congress that his administration will vigorously enforce U.S. trade laws. I was pleased with his recent decision to pursue a Section 201 case on steel dumping. Now it is time for the President to do more on softwood lumber issues. It has been nearly 3 months since the agreement expired, and 3 months since a number of us contacted the administration to tell them how urgent it was that they pursue these negotiations. He needs to bring the Canadians back to the negotiating table and work out an agreement which both sides can live with similar to the 1996 agreement.
The choice is clear. Canada needs to come back to the negotiating table with a good faith effort or Congress must take action.
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