Nova Scotia Forest Notes

“Still left out in the dark, however, are Nova Scotia’s private wood lots owners”

Well before the American election, our softwood lumber trade with the U.S. (worth circa $85M to Nova Scotia, and $4.6 billion to Canada at large) was on shaky grounds. The last softwood lumber agreement ran out Oct 12, 2015, and the subsequent one-year litigation standstill period ran out a year later. Already the U.S. International Trade Commission has said that Canadian lumber is “subsidized and sold in the United States at less than fair value”, causing harm and the U.S. Commerce Department is conducting anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations. (CBC, Jan 6, 2017).

With Trump’s America First policies, the old arguments of the benefits of trade for both sides hold much less weight; Canadians will have to demonstrate that U.S. imports of Canadian lumber increase jobs in the U.S., e.g. by lowering costs and stimulating U.S. housing and showing that those benefits exceed losses in competing (but more expensive) U.S. lumber suppliers. Continue reading →