BURST
Premier David Eby assured an audience of forest industry leaders on Friday that he will keep pressure on Ottawa to make resolving the Canada-U.S. softwood lumber dispute a top priority as the federal government approaches renegotiation of the Canada, U.S., Mexico trade agreement.
Those duties were in the news this week because the U.S. Department of Commerce published its preliminary anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duty rates at just under a combined 25 per cent, which, if confirmed, would take effect later this year.
The new rate would be a break from the combined 35 per cent rate set in 2025, but Eby told the Council of Forest Industries convention in Vancouver that the dispute is still damaging the forest industry and consumers on both sides of the border.
“When the Americans are ready to sit down with us, our expectation in British Columbia is that resolving the softwood lumber dispute should be a priority for the federal government and one of the first sectors addressed (in renegotiating CUSMA),” Eby added.
The discussion about Canada-U.S. trade was included in Eby’s remarks to the industry, which were wide-ranging and touched on topics from his government’s ongoing efforts to streamline regulations, increase the industry’s access to timber, and diversify trade.
On trade, Eby said he is planning a trip to China, where selling B.C. forest products “will be one of the key promotional pieces.”
That will follow Eby’s January trade mission to India , where the premier said the province made ground in its argument for its government to drop the 10 per cent tariff it puts on Canadian wood.
Potential buyers in India told his delegation that reduction in the tariff would “have a material impact upon the amount of wood that they were able to import and sell in India,” Eby said. “So we will continue to do that work.”
Resolving the Canada-U.S. trade dispute, however, remains key, Eby said, considering how important the industry is to B.C.
“In this province, (forestry) is bigger than steel,” Eby said. “It is bigger than auto parts, both in terms of impact on Canadian GDP and employment across the country.”
Eby added that a resolution would be a “win” for the U.S. too, which doesn’t produce enough lumber for its own market, and builders have turned to more expensive imports from Europe “and from Russia, of all places.”
In the meantime, Canadian lumber producers have paid out some $8 billion in duties “that are sitting in bank accounts right now,” Eby said.
“That (money) should be used to develop the sector on both sides of the border.”