House Committee on Agriculture Chairman Bob Goodlatte issued the following statement today regarding a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement panel that rejected Canada’s challenges to a determination by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) that U.S. lumber producers are threatened with material injury by imports of dumped and subsidized softwood lumber from Canada:
“The decision by the WTO panel confirms the basic facts behind American concerns about Canadian softwood lumber imports. Our industry, which functions in a completely open market, is threatened by subsidized timber markets run almost entirely by the Canadian provinces. The softwood lumber dumped in the U.S. has cost thousands of U.S. jobs and has hurt timber markets for American family forest landowners.
Although this round of litigation has gone in our favor, it's clear that this dispute will only be settled at the negotiating table. Arguments over this issue in WTO and NAFTA forums have labored on for the better part of two decades. Clearly the time to fight is over and the time to negotiate is now.
I appreciate Ambassador Portman's efforts in this dispute, and I urge him to consider this as an opportunity to get the Canadians back to the table. Everyone will benefit from a negotiated solution that ensures that North American lumber prices are determined by the market, not provincial politicians."
http://democrats-agriculture.house.gov
Source: House Committee on Agriculture
