Jim Hilton

The ongoing dispute about Canada dumping lumber into the U.S. has been going on since 1982. …Quotas could be set by Canada or each province or maybe by the companies themselves in consultation with the U.S.officials and would be based on the amount of lumber that has been exported for the past few decades. …Harry Nelson, forestry professor from UBC had the following comments on this idea. …Canada was unable to renew the softwood lumber agreement (SLA) in part because the industry didn’t agree on who should get them. It is not only a within-B.C. problem but across Canada. In theory one gets around the question of who gets it by auctioning it off but that is not usually palatable to the industry. Second is the level. I’d expect the U.S., if it were willing to entertain quota, would set a limit below the current level of exports. …The scope of the dispute now encompasses far more products, so how would you either pull it back to lumber or allocate it across the different types of products now covered.