Trade relations are already rocky because of disputes over Canadian softwood lumber and wheat. Even if the war ends quickly, trade experts are worried Canada's position on Iraq may be used by a handful of U.S. politicians who already have issues with Canada.
U.S.-Canada Softwood Lumber Dispute
After meeting with Canada's International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew this week, four unions in the lumber industry in North America and the two central labour bodies issued the Joint Statement.
The president of the Ontario Forest Industries Association yesterday took a swing at the latest U.S. proposal for ending the softwood lumber dispute, saying the presentation unveiled in Washington last week "is not a road forward, it's an obstacle course."
USA: lumber industry misses the boom - timber suffers from glut largely of its own making as housing
The U.S. lumber industry is laboring under a glut of supply brought on by a number of factors - the most prominent of which is partly of the industry's own making. A controversial tariff that U.S. officials slapped on Canadian lumber imports last year, at the urging of many U.S. producers, has had the paradoxical impac...
Even as Canada's troubled lumber industry struggles under the weight of U.S. duties and slumping prices, shrewd investors are circling.
Canadian forestry officials say they need more time to study U.S. proposals that aim to resolve the softwood lumber dispute by forcing some provinces to dramatically reform their timber management practices.
In response to punishing U.S. softwood duties and slumping lumber prices, Canfor Corp. announced it will close two sawmills in British Columbia, moving the lost production to other mills.
All the players in a contentious trade fight between the United States and Canada are being called to Washington to try to end a dispute over softwood lumber, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Tuesday.
The U.S. lumber industry lobby is harming efforts to reach a solution to the Canada-U.S. softwood lumber dispute by misrepresenting the state of the B.C. forest industry, particularly lumber production in BC's Interior.
Canada has started campaign designed to convince George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress that the steep import duties on softwood lumber are undermining a historic trading relationship.
The Canadian forest industry has teamed up with U.S. consumer and homebuilding groups in an advertising campaign designed to end the softwood lumber dispute.
Several months of punitive US duties against lumber from Canada have not dented shipments needed for booming US housing construction, much to the dismay of the U.S. wood products industry. A long US Canada fight over lumber trade resulted, last spring, in duties averaging 27 percent on Canadian spruce, pine, fir and ot...
The United States was set to impose duties on Friday against Canadian lumber used for home building, the second time in less than a month that Washington will take action to shield a domestic industry from foreign competition.
U.S. and Canadian trade negotiators were to meet on Thursday in a last-ditch effort to settle a $6 billion lumber dispute, but officials said the chances of a deal were slim as the U.S. Commerce Department (news - web sites) prepared to slap Canadian shipments with punishing duties.
All softwood lumber exports from Canada to the US now face a crushing combined duty of 31.88% as a result of the new 12.58% anti-dumping rate added to the arbitrary provisional countervailing rate of 19.3% announced on August 10, 2001.
A key Canadian forestry official said on Thursday he saw progress being made in talks with the United States to end the countries' trade fight over softwood lumber.
The United States agreed on Friday to delay a decision on new penalties on imports of Canadian softwood lumber, another sign the countries are moving to resolve the latest flare-up in a long-running trade fight.
The U.S. Commerce Department imposed the tariff after agreeing there was evidence Canadian lumber is subsidized through low provincial timber-cutting fees.
Canadian timber executives gave an upbeat assessment on Thursday of talks in the Canada-U.S. softwood lumber trade dispute, but said a permanent settlement was still a long way off.
Canada and the United States will go ahead with planned talks next week to discuss the two countries' worsening dispute over Canadian softwood lumber exports, a U.S. embassy spokesman said on Friday.