Word: softwood
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...though much of that ire is focused on the No. 2 U.S. trading partner, Japan. Without a pact, Ottawa fears, the U.S. Congress will indiscriminately freeze more Canadian goods out of U.S. markets. In the past year, Canada has been bruised in fights over exports to the U.S. of softwood lumber used in housing and other timber products; it is now under pressure to avoid enlarging its nearly 3% share of the $32 billion American steel market. For its part, the Administration sees a deal with Canada as leverage that could be used at the new round of worldwide free...
...become the dominant form of discourse between the U.S. and many of its important friends. The brandishing of threats and deadlines also marred U.S. trade relations with neighbors to the north and south. As the European row erupted, U.S. negotiators announced that they had solved -- almost -- a festering softwood-lumber dispute with Canada. Meanwhile, the Administration postponed for at least six months yet another major trade confrontation, this time with debt-laden Brazil. The trouble: stymied U.S. access to that country's computer and information industry...
...trade squall blew across the northern border last week. In a sudden reversal of position, the Commerce Department declared Canada was unfairly subsidizing exports of softwood lumber to the U.S., an activity that was worth more than $2.8 billion last year. In response, the Reagan Administration said it would impose a 15% countervailing duty, which is expected to cause the cost of new U.S. housing to rise by $1,000 a unit or more...
...decision will mainly benefit lumber companies in the American Northwest, which have chafed as the Canadian share of the U.S. softwood lumber market has risen from 19% in 1975 to 33%. But the tariff announcement stirred resentment in Ottawa, where it was pointed out that the U.S. Commerce Department three years ago found the same Canadian export practices to be acceptable. Canadian International Trade Minister Patricia Carney said the latest decision "cannot be justified" and added that her government would "pursue all avenues available to us to argue against this determination." There were worries that the softwood-tariff announcement would...
Timber men are looking to Congress for relief. If the Monongahela decision is applied nationally, they say, the results would surely include: 1) a 10% drop in production of softwood, 2) the layoff of 130,000 workers, 3) shortages of everything from hardwood railroad ties to toilet paper, and 4) average increases of $2,400 in the cost of wood for a single-family home-enough to hurt the home-building industry, which is finally pulling out of its recession. In addition, the industry and the Forest Service argue that clear-cutting makes good conservation sense. It is little different...