U.S. Weighs New Canada Softwood Complaint – Kirk

(Reuters – Emma Ashburn and Roberta Rampton)

The United States is weighing lumber producers’ complaints that Canada is not living up to its end of a softwood lumber trade deal, and will announce its decision on what to do in the next month, Trade Representative Ron Kirk said on Friday.

After touring a Maine paper mill and meeting with state labor leaders, Kirk told reporters he is “acutely aware of the concerns” with competition from Canadian lumber companies, something he said he discussed with Canada’s Trade Minister Peter Van Loan two weeks ago.

“We have spent the last eight months or so digging into this, doing our fact-finding to make a determination (on) exactly the right way forward,” Kirk said during a conference call. “We do expect to make some announcement on our intentions within the next 30 days or so on that,” said Kirk. Read more here.