U.S. Lumber Coalition Applauds Senate Letter Supporting Negotiations for a Strong Agreement with Canada on Softwood Lumber Trade

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Jul 19, 2016, 11:19 ET

WASHINGTON, July 19, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Lumber Coalition applauds today's letter from 25 United States Senators commending United States Trade Representative Froman and his team for the ongoing efforts to negotiate an effective, sustainable solution to the longstanding challenge presented by unfairly traded softwood lumber from Canada.

The letter co-sponsored by Sens. Wyden (D-OR) and Crapo (R-ID) welcomes the outcome of the most recent discussions between Canada and the United States, and specifically the recognition that any new agreement be designed to maintain Canadian exports at or below an agreed U.S. market share.

The Senate letter underlines that a strong lumber industry is essential to the U.S. economy, and securing fair trade in lumber is of critical importance to domestic lumber manufacturers and their workers, as well as tree farmers and landowners, and the communities they support.

The Senate letter also recognizes that subsidized and unfairly traded lumber imports continue to severely harm United States mills, workers and communities, and that to fully address these impacts, any new agreement must establish border measures that are effective in all market situations to disallow further divergences between U.S. and Canadian timber costs created by Canadian subsidies.

Should Canada and the United States be unable to reach an effective agreement, the Senators highlight in their letter the importance of the U.S. trade laws, and that these be fully enforced against unfairly traded imports, including softwood lumber.

The U.S. lumber industry's overarching goal is to restore an environment in which it can invest, grow to its natural size, and better be able supply the U.S. market – which will help restore the thousands of jobs lost to unfair trade, and can only happen if the domestic industry is not being impaired by unfairly traded imports.

About the U.S. Lumber Coalition
The U.S. Lumber Coalition is an alliance of large and small lumber producers from around the country, joined by hundreds of thousands of their employees, and tens of thousands of woodland owners. The Coalition is united in opposition to Canada's unfair lumber-trade practices, including the gross under-pricing of timber on government-owned lands. For more information, please visit the Coalition's website at www.uslumbercoalition.org.

SOURCE The U.S. Lumber Coalition