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SNOWE PRAISES IMPLEMENTATION OF U.S. CANADIAN SOFTWOOD LUMBER AGREEMENT
October 16, 2006
WASHINGTON D.C. - U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) today praised the implementation of Canadian export taxes agreed to as part of a September 12th settlement reached between the United States and Canada over a long running softwood lumber trade dispute. The terms of the agreement were implemented today, October 13th, 2006.
The terms of the agreement, which were originally scheduled to begin on October 1st, had been delayed following requests from Canadian lumber producers seeking more time to comply with the agreement’s requirement that private lawsuits filed against the United States be dropped. Snowe had called for the terms of the agreement to be implemented as soon as possible, and joined ten Senate colleagues in a written request to US Trade Representative Susan Schwab to pursue retroactive back payment of export taxes.
“The implementation of the softwood lumber agreement this morning brings a successful resolution to a long and often difficult dispute,” Senator Snowe said. “This agreement levels the playing field for the softwood lumber industry and brings an end to the unfair subsidizing of the Canadian lumber industry that had threatened thousands of softwood lumber industry jobs in Maine.“
The September agreement, which resolved the long standing softwood lumber trade dispute between the two countries, calls for the replacement of U.S. corrective duties totaling 10.8% with a Canadian export tax of approximately 15%. U.S. and Canadian industry observers had indicated that the one month delay of implementation of the September 12th agreement had enabled Canadian lumber exporters to unload larger than usual amounts of lumber on the U.S. market before the export taxes took effect, resulting in drastically lower prices.
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