Canadian mills are laying workers off following the US Commerce Department‘s preliminary decision to impose countervailing duties on softwood lumber imports.
Weyerhaeuser has temp-orarily closed three of its British Columbia cedar mills, laying off 1,000 workers for two weeks or longer. Doman Industries has shut down six of its nine British Columbia mills, with 700 workers temporarily out of work, while International Forest Products Ltd (Interfor) also closed a cedar mill with about 200 workers. Industry experts say the numbers laid off could top 14,000.
The US Commerce Department has decided on a 19.3% duty on Canadian wood saying it is ‘unfairly subsidised’. If the duties receive final approval on December 8, it could cost Canadian producers between C$1-2bn a year.
Weyerhaeuser and other lumber producers are lobbying the Canadian national and provincial government to exempt cedar exports from duties, as they were three times the value of normal structural timber at which the duty was aimed.
