Canada

The U.S. and Canada would suspend Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement for the purposes of softwood lumber under a draft legal text of the tentative softwood lumber agreement they announced last month. The 23-page draft was circulated by the Canadian federal government to provincial officials late last week. Sources familiar with the text said it invokes Article 58 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties to suspend NAFTA Chapter 11 for softwood lumber disputes...

U.S. and Canadian officials have begun talks in Washington on a possible settlement to their long-running fight over U.S. countervailing and antidumping duties imposed on softwood lumber, according to informed sources. Some Canadian industry representatives are expected to travel to Washington later this week to consult on the on-going talks, which so far have just involved government officials, they said. Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab and USTR General Counsel James Mendenhall are representing the U.S., with Canadian Ambassador to...

Canadian Trade Minister James Peterson in an interview with Inside U.S. Trade has refused to rule out that Canada would return to lumber negotiations with the United States even if it does not revoke 21 percent antidumping and countervailing duties on Canadian imports. Peterson said Canada remained interested in negotiating a durable, long-term solution to the softwood lumber dispute as an ultimate objective. Asked if Canada would resume negotiations even if the orders remain in place, he replied that "at...

The legal twists and turns in the softwood lumber fight reflected in the U.S. victory at the World Trade Organization yesterday (Aug. 30) illustrate that only negotiations will ultimately solve the dispute between the U.S. and Canada, a U.S. trade official said today. This official said the two countries need to return to the negotiating table and divorce their talks from the complex web of litigation still running through the WTO, North American Free Trade Agreement panels and U.S. domestic...

A World Trade Organization panel has ruled in favor of the U.S. and its lumber producers, rejecting Canadian arguments that a 2004 finding by the U.S. International Trade Commission failed to bring the U.S. into compliance with an earlier panel decision, according to sources. In an Aug. 29 statement , Canada expressed disappointment with the interim compliance panel decision released earlier that day, and suggested it may appeal when the decision becomes final this October. A source with the U.S...

The Canadian federal government and lumber industry next week will file a challenge against the so-called Byrd law as a violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement in the U.S. Court of International Trade, according to John Allan, president of the British Columbia Lumber Trade Council. Allan, who said he expressed support for such a case to Trade Minister Jim Peterson weeks ago, said the case would be filed jointly by the government and Canadian industry. He said the...

The U.S. will pursue an extraordinary challenge of a North American Free Trade Agreement panel decision that ordered the International Trade Commission to reverse its finding that U.S. lumber producers had not been injured by Canadian imports of softwood lumber, a U.S. trade official said today (Oct. 13). As a result of this finding, the U.S. would have to lift trade remedy duties on Canadian softwood lumber if the extraordinary challenge is unsuccessful. "In remanding the International Trade Commission's affirmative...