Both BC Forests Minister Steve Thomson and Council of Forest Industries president Susan Yurkovich said January 13 that British Columbia no longer expects to simply renew the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement, according to Business in Vancouver Tuesday.
Thomson and Yurkovich met with Canada’s international trade minister, Chrystia Freeland, earlier that week to exchange views on the softwood file.
Softwood Lumber Discussions
“I think the Canadian industry recognizes that this won’t be a straight rollover or renewal of the existing agreement in its current form,” Thomson said in an interview with Business in Vancouver. “We will need to negotiate. The key point is the agreement will have to be one that works for the Canadian and BC industry. It won’t be an agreement at any cost. And that will have to be part of the negotiations.
“If we aren’t able to achieve it we are prepared to defend our market-based forest policies should the US choose to bring a legal challenge against Canada and BC.”
The discussions now underway are not formal negotiations. Rather, Thomson said, they are to develop the principles for negotiation. Asked if currency rates would be included, he said a number of elements will be on the table.
“We know there is interest in caps, interest in trigger mechanisms, rates, surge protection. All of those kinds of factors will be part of the discussions.”