A North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Panel report released this week found, for the third time, that the
threat of injury determination by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) was inconsistent with U.S. law.
In a strongly worded decision, the NAFTA Panel instructed the ITC to issue a determination
consistent with the Panel's ruling within 10 days.
One panelist wrote: "The (U.S.) Commission has made it plain by its actions and words that it is disinclined to accept the Panel's review authority under
Chapter 19 in this case. Given this situation and the extended amount of time which has already been consumed by this proceeding, for the Panel to postpone finality by issuing yet another open-ended remand instruction
to the Commission would be to allow the Chapter 19 process to become a mockery and an exercise in futility. This is not an acceptable approach."
"This is the third time that this NAFTA panel has ruled
that the International Trade Commission has failed to properly demonstrate that Canadian softwood lumber exports threaten to injure the U.S. softwood lumber industry," said Canadian International Trade Minister Jim
Peterson. "It is clear that duties on Canadian softwood lumber exports are unjustified."
On May 22, 2002, the ITC determined that the U.S. softwood lumber industry was threatened with material injury by
alleged subsidized and dumped imports of softwood lumber from Canada. This threat of injury determination followed U.S. Department of Commerce subsidy and dumping determinations, and resulted in the imposition of
countervailing duties (18.79 percent) and anti-dumping duties(8.43 percent).
Canada also challenged the ITC's threat of injury determination at the World Trade Organization (WTO). On April 26, 2004, the WTO
Dispute Settlement Body adopted a WTO Panel report that found the ITC's threat of injury determination to be inconsistent with WTO rules.
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