Softwood Lumber Agreement likely to expire next month

British Columbia's Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources Operations [Steve Thomson] expects the Canada-United States Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA) will expire next month and enter a one-year standstill period...

“Our current position is consistent with the industry position, which is we would like to see the agreement extended (in its current form),” Thomson said...

The deal, inked in 2006, resolved the latest chapter in one of the largest trade disputes between the two countries.

It will expire one week before the Oct. 19 federal election.

Both countries agreed to a two-year extension in 2012.

In a recent op-ed to the Vancouver Sun, Naomi Christensen of the Canada West Foundation claimed that without the SLA, Canada is left “vulnerable to punishing tariffs at the whim of the protections U.S. industry.”

In spite of the risk, little alarm has been raised about the impending expiry of the current deal, Christensen said.

In 2014, 66 per cent of Canada’s softwood lumber exports were to the U.S.

The B.C. government continues to work with the province’s lumber industry, in concert with the Ministry of International Trade — Canada’s overall lead on the path to a new agreement with its southern neighbour...

This has been excerpted from the 8 September 2015 edition of the Alaska Highway News.