Canadian timber firms brace for U.S. softwood duties

Hefty U.S. duties could be slapped on Canadian timber exports to the United
States by early 2017 after a one-year standstill period expired on Wednesday in
the long-running softwood lumber dispute between Canada and its biggest trading
partner.This week marked 12 months since a nine-year truce in the perpetual
Canada-U.S. softwood conflict ended – with the federal government and the U.S.
administration unable to clinch a successor pact despite months of
negotiations.

This failure to agree probably means a costly and frustrating new season
ahead for Canadian timber companies, which can expect to pay hundreds of
millions of dollars to the U.S. government in order to keep shipping their
product south of the Canadian-U.S. border.The U.S. lumber lobby behind the dispute with Canada – it alleges provinces
subsidize companies through below-market stumpage rates – now says it has “no
choice” but to launch a trade challenge with …