Wyden Calls for Full Enforcement of Trade Laws on New Softwood Lumber Trade Cases

WASHINGTON – Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., issued the following statement in response to new trade cases filed today about unfairly traded imports of softwood lumber from Canada.

“Sawmill workers and communities devastated by unfairly traded softwood lumber demand full enforcement of U.S. trade laws and nothing less,” Wyden said. “As negotiations to address the underlying market distorting policies continue, it is incumbent on the administration to enforce the law fully and fairly to the cases filed today. American workers and forestry communities need relief from unfair trade and they need it now, on everything from today’s softwood lumber case to the recent case filed against Chinese producers of hardwood plywood.”

On Friday, November 25, the U.S. Lumber Coalition filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission alleging that Canada provides subsidies to its lumber producers and that Canadian mills dumped softwood lumber in the U.S. market.  Negotiations between the United States and Canada to address the impact of the underlying Canadian policies on U.S. producers have been underway for two years and are ongoing.

Separately, a consortium of U.S. producers of hardwood plywood filed a complaint on November 18 regarding unfairly subsidized and dumped hardwood plywood being sold by Chinese producers in the U.S. market.

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