A North American Free Trade Agreement (NS) forum has confirmed the U.S. softwood lumber industry`s recent trade complaint against Canadian coniferous wood, reports the surrey Now leader. Considerable uncertainty for North American entrepreneurs was resolved today when Canada, the United States and Mexico signed the new CUSMA trilateral trade agreement. Full details will be announced shortly and the new agreement will come into effect on January 1, 2020. On April 20, 2020, the U.S. Court of International Trade upheld the U.S. Department of Commerce`s decision to exclude cedars and shingles from U.S. compensation and anti-dumping duty provisions on coniferous wood. On May 27, the World Trade Organization issued a non-binding ruling in favour of Canada with respect to U.S.
anti-dumping duties. The decision was appealed to a legally binding NAFTA body. [15] On August 13, the panel found that while the Canadian lumber industry may be considered subsidized, doC miscalculated tariffs based on stump prices in the United States: there is no “world price” for lumber, as the DoC has claimed, and it is therefore inappropriate for the DoC to calculate tariffs based on lumber prices. in the United States and not Canadian market conditions. [10] [16] As a result, it appealed to the DoC to reassess its method of calculating customs duties. In April 2006, the United States and Canada announced that they had reached a preliminary agreement to end the dispute. The Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA), known as the Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA), came into effect in October 2006. The conditions stipulated that the duration of this agreement would be between seven and nine years. Both countries authorized a two-year extension in 2012.
[7] Under the provisional conditions, the United States would lift countervailing and anti-dumping duties, provided that timber prices remain above a certain range. Below the indicated range, a mixed regime of export taxes and quotas for Imports of Canadian Timber would be put in place. On Canada`s side, the country has agreed to impose regulations, for example in the form of taxes on softwood lumber exports to the United States. In particular, Canadian provincial governments have been encouraged to make changes to their pricing systems. Such changes would allow for a non-subsidizing system. Under the agreement, more than $5 billion in customs bonds collected would be refunded. The SLA establishes a dispute settlement mechanism based on the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), a non-governmental institution. Both countries can initiate the resolution of disputes arising from the SLA or its implementation.
The hearings will be public, as will briefs and other documents. [8] The agreement provides that hearings must take place either in the United States or in Canada (jurisdiction is chosen by the arbitral tribunal). The SLA also provides that decisions of an arbitration panel are binding on both parties. [9] In November 2016, CNN received a leaked memo from Donald Trump`s transition team stating that Trump was advised to include the coniferous timber dispute in the renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement and to obtain more favorable terms for the United States. [34] On September 28, 2020, the United States appealed the August 2020 WTO Panel Report on Canada`s U.S. Countervailing Duty Challenge on Coniferous Timber. 20-04-2020 – The U.S. Court of International Trade upholds the U.S. Department of Commerce`s decision that Canadian cedars and shingles are outside the scope of the United States. Coniferous Duty Injunctions On January 2, 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the second administrative review (AR2) of the anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations applicable to imports of certain coniferous products from Canada [48] The second administrative review was initiated on March 10, 2020.
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