The U.S. Commerce Department on Thursday announced it will impose finalized softwood lumber import duties on several Canadian firms. The U.S. government said Canadian producers were selling into the U.S. market at less than fair value, and said Canada was providing "unfair subsidies" to domestic producers. In a joint statement, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland and Minister of Natural Resources Jim Carr called the U.S. decision against Canada's softwood lumber producers "unfair, unwarranted and deeply troubling." "We will forcefully defend Canada's softwood lumber industry, including through litigation, and we expect to prevail as we have in the past," Freeland and Carr said. The U.S. Commerce Department said imports of softwood lumber from Canada in 2016 were valued at an estimated $5.66 billion US.

Source: CBC News November 02, 2017 16:13 UTC