Weyerhaeuser Co president and CEO Steve Rogel is trying to broker a deal to negotiate a truce in the Canada-US softwood lumber dispute.
He says the countervailing duties have backfired against the US, with companies suffering “unintended consequences” which have led to near-record low prices rather than the higher prices US producers hoped for.
Mr Rogel is asking the two sides to work together and end US import duties on Canadian softwood lumber. Instead, he suggests, Canada should adopt its own export tax, with a sliding scale of fees. And he says both sides should drop their complaints to the World Trade Organisation and instead negotiate a solution that includes restructuring the way Canada values its uncut timber to bring production costs there into parity with those in the US.
Canada’s international trade minister Pierre Pettigrew and British Columbia’s Lumber Trades Council have largely dismissed Mr Rogel’s proposal – but he is undaunted. He intends to take it to parties including the US Department of Commerce, Canadian national and provincial governments, timber companies and others.
