Canada 'flooding' softwood market while deal delayed - By Gordon Hamilton, Vancouver Sun
American lumber producers have accused Canadian companies of flooding the U.S. market with massive volumes of duty-free wood while they delay implementation of the softwood lumber agreement.
And the Americans are ready to fight back 'with all guns blazing,' one irate Idaho producer said Friday.
'They have killed the market,' said Dick Bennett, chairman of Bennett Forest Industries in Idaho. 'Canadians have been selling lumber at any price just to get it across the border.'
International Trade Minister David Emerson announced Friday that Canada and the United States have agreed to extend the entry-into-force date of the agreement to Nov. 1 in response to lumber producers' concerns here that they need more time to finalize implementation issues. It was to go into effect Oct. 1 with a 10.8 per cent U.S. duty being replaced by a 15 per cent Canadian tax.