A Canadian forestry research centre that has led efforts to expand the use of mass timber in British Columbia and Quebec is being accused by the U.S. lumber industry of receiving unfair federal and provincial subsidies.
The complaint, citing FPInnovations’ financial reporting from the 2021-22 fiscal year, says the Canadian government provided more than $21-million in funding to the research centre. It notes that FPInnovations also had partnerships with the governments of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, the Northwest Territories and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Last month, the Department of Commerce opted to defer a decision on whether to launch an investigation into FPInnovations until its next administrative review, later this year. It also deferred decisions on three other claims from COALITION: one about alleged unfair subsidies provided by the Alberta government for carbon capture, utilization and storage; and two about training programs, one in Alberta and the other in Saskatchewan.
The Department of Commerce has the authority to adjust U.S. lumber tariffs on Canadian softwood, after reviewing submissions from a range of interested parties. In recent decades, the U.S. has repeatedly levied duties on Canadian softwood in retaliation for what it has deemed to be unfair provincial subsidies. The dispute stretches back to the early 1980s.The last time Canada and the U.S. reached an agreement on softwood trade was in 2006.
In the Department of Commerce’s latest assessment, it announced last month that the combined countervailing and anti-dumping duty rates will rise by this autumn to 13.86 per cent for most Canadian softwood producers, compared with 8.05 per cent currently.