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Lumber group urges appeal of NAFTA ruling

By Bloomberg News

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The U.S. International Trade Commission on Friday ruled that the U.S. timber industry faced no "threat of injury" from Canadian competitors, reversing an earlier decision. A panel of judges, set up under the North American Free Trade Agreement, forced the reversal.

U.S. timber makers charge that subsidies Canadian companies receive allow them to export $4.6 billion of lumber to the U.S. at depressed prices, a dispute that has bedeviled the world's biggest trading relationship for two decades. The NAFTA panel ruled that Canadian subsidies aren't leading to more imports into the U.S. and hasn't led U.S. companies to curb production.

"The U.S. lumber industry demands our government correct this injustice," said Rusty Wood, chairman of the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, which represents companies such as Temple-Inland and International Paper.

U.S. producers "should not be forced to compete against unfairly traded imports due to a NAFTA kangaroo court," Wood said in a statement.

Under NAFTA's rules an appeal must be lodged within the next 40 days. While those appeals run their course, the U.S. tariffs on timber imports — imposed in 2002 — will continue, said Richard Mills, a spokesman for the U.S. trade office.

"We'll be reviewing the case and making a decision at the appropriate time," Mills said, when asked if the U.S. planned to appeal to a NAFTA appeals court, called an Extraordinary Challenge Committee.

The tariffs have cost Canadian producers more than $2.5 billion. U.S. homebuilders, lumber retailers such as Home Depot and furniture retailers such as Bombay Co. announced this month that they banded together to lobby against the Canadian tariffs.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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