FACT SHEET
Committee Overseeing Action for Lumber International Trade Investigations or Negotiations (“COALITION”) Files Petitions for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Investigations of Imports of Softwood Lumber Products from Canada
- On November 25, 2016, the COALITION initiated legal action seeking enforcement of existing U.S. trade laws to offset the harmful effects of imports of Softwood Lumber from Canada in the U.S. market.
- The filing of the antidumping and countervailing petitions follow four separate prior countervailing duty proceedings and one antidumping proceeding on Softwood Lumber from Canada since 1982.
- The Petitioner is the COALITION. Members of the COALITION include: U.S. Lumber Coalition, Inc., Collum’s Lumber Products, L.L.C., Hankins, Inc., Potlatch Corporation, Rex Lumber Company, Seneca Sawmill Company, Sierra Pacific Industries, Stimson Lumber Company, Swanson Group, Weyerhaeuser Company, Carpenters Industrial Council, Giustina Land and Timber Company, Sullivan Forestry Consultants, Inc.
- Antidumping duties are intended to offset the amount by which Canadian softwood lumber products are sold at less than fair value in the United States (i.e., the amount by which the product is sold below production costs or at a price that is below the price charged in a comparable market). The antidumping duty petition describes the sale of softwood lumber by Canadian producers at less than fair value in the U.S. market.
US Petitions for AD and CVD Investigations of Imports of Softwood Lumber Products from Canada
- The petitions also detail the injury to the U.S. softwood lumber industry caused by unfairly traded Canadian imports, which has resulted in negative price effects and the decline of several key trade and financial indicators for the U.S. domestic industry. Examples of such declines include the loss of market share, lost sales and lost revenues, mill closures, curtailments, and lost manufacturing jobs.
- Countervailing duties are intended to offset financial assistance from the Canadian government that benefit the production of Canadian softwood lumber products and are limited to specific enterprises or industries, or are contingent either upon export performance or upon the use of Canadian goods over imported goods.
- The countervailing duty petition alleges a variety of Canadian federal and provincial government programs that provide countervailable subsidies with respect to the export, manufacture and production of softwood lumber.
- The filing of the petitions starts the process by which Commerce will determine whether imports are being dumped and unfairly subsidized, and the U.S. International Trade Commission will determine whether the U.S. softwood lumber industry has been materially injured, or is threatened with injury, by reason of these imports.
- Once Commerce makes affirmative determinations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will require importers to pay cash deposits or post bonds equal to the estimated amounts of dumping and unfair subsidies.