ITC Ruling: Canadian Lumber Subsidies Harmed U.S. Producers

The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that the U.S. lumber industry is materially injured by Canadian government subsidies of their softwood lumber industry.

Voting 4-0 in favor of the U.S. lumber industry, the ITC ruling follows a U.S. Department of Commerce determination that imports of softwood lumber from Canada are sold in the United States at less than fair value and subsidized by the government of Canada. The antidumping and countervailing duties on imports of Canadian softwood lumber products have been collected pending the final demermination of the ITC.

“The U.S. Lumber Coalition fully supports the enforcement of America’s trade laws. The evidence presented to the ITC was clear – the massive subsidies that the Canadian government provides to its lumber industry and the dumping of lumber products into the U.S. market by Canadian companies cause real harm to U.S. producers and workers,” said U.S. Lumber Coalition Co-Chair and Co-President of Pleasant River Lumber Company, Jason Brochu.

“Now, with a level playing field, the U.S. lumber industry, and the 350,000 hardworking men and women who support it, can have the chance to compete fairly.” Pleasant River stamps each board with a Made in USA label at its Sanford, Maine sawmill.

Under the Trump Administration, the Department of Commerce, which operates the International Trade  Commission, has been ratcheting up pressure on U.S. trading partners over what it sees as subsidies across several industries, beginning the forest products sector. Last week China was hit with a formal determination by the ITC that it subsidized plywood exports to the U.S., effectively dumping low-priced plywood to the detriment of the domestic manufacturers. The Department of Commerce is expected to pursue solar panel manufacturers in China in coming weeks.

From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/canadian-lumber-subsidies-harmed-us-producers-trade-commission-rules?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news,canadian_news

Mass Timber: The Next Great Disruption Of Construction, Wood Products Industries

Mass Timber: The Next Great Disruption Of Construction, Wood Products Industries

The seeds of Andrew Waugh’s great disruption were planted in 2003. “Back then, people were saying we could ‘fix’ climate change by putting a solar panel on top of everything we built,” he remembered. “But we knew that wasn’t even close to enough.”

So Waugh’s East London architectural firm started studying mass timber, knowing it was the truly renewable building material – albeit largely unknown and untested in large-scale developments. “We were entranced by the opportunities this new material could provide,” he said.

It took five years for Waugh Thistleton Architects to hone their ideas – “so we could talk about the economic benefits of this kind of building” – and to bring that vision to reality in the world’s first mass timber tower, Murray Grove. The nine-story apartment complex in London’s Hackney borough was made from cross-laminated timber manufactured by KLH, an Austrian company.

Spruce strips were stacked crosswise three layers thick and glued together, producing horizontal beams and vertical structural wall boards that were harder than steel or concrete, with none of the associated carbon loss. The economic savings came at the construction site. Murray Grove was built in 27 days by four men, without a tower crane.

Using wood saved 1,150 tons of carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere – the equivalent of running a wind turbine on top of the building for 210 years. And 29 families moved into new homes in a country with an overwhelming housing shortage.

From Treesource: treesource.org.

 

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