Canada hails “beginning of the end” for US lumber dispute

A trade panel has set a 100-day deadline for the US to prove that Canadian softwood exports threaten its industry.

The panel, set up under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), set the deadline after ruling that the US-based International Trade Commission (ITC) had failed to show that Canadian timber pricing threatened US producers.

Canadians hailed the ruling as “the beginning of the end” of the rumbling dispute, which has so far put thousands of people out of work.

NAFTA’s panel said the ITC had failed to follow its own rules and ignored evidence, relying on “considerable speculation” to determine that US companies were threatened by Canadian imports.

The ruling follows an earlier NAFTA deicision which said the US commerce department had set its levies incorrectly.

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