Party leaders take swing at new U.S. lumber duties

The long-standing softwood lumber trade war between Canada and the U.S. is heating up again with Washington announcing its first batch of duties on imported wood in the neighbourhood of 20 per cent.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced the move Monday to a gathering of conservative media on the eve of the official announcement.

B.C. Liberal Leader Christy Clark said she would consult members of her cabinet and meet with the media Tuesday.

“My message to B.C. forest workers, their families and producers is this: We are here for you,” Clark said in a statement.

Clark called claims made by the U.S. lumber industry unfounded, unwarranted and unfair.

“The forest industry built this province and it has a strong future ahead,” she said. “We will fight and we will win, as we have before.”

NDP Leader John Horgan blamed Clark for the new threats of tariffs.

“B.C. has lost 30,000 forestry jobs under Christy Clark’s Liberals and now her failure to get a softwood deal is putting thousands more at risk,” Horgan said in a statement. “At a time like this, British Columbians deserve a premier who will fight these unfair tariffs with everything they’ve got.”

A U.S. professor who specializes in international trade and is an expert in Canada-U.S. relations said it is time to end Canada’s longest-running trade dispute that predates NAFTA.

“What we’ve done in the United States many times with softwood is we will hit you with a tariff, make you take us to some body — NAFTA or WTO (World Trade Organization) — we lose, we go back and have the option of either accepting your countervail back or make a tweak and do it again,” said Christopher Sands, director of the Centre for Canadian Studies at Johns Hopkins University, who was in Vancouver Monday to speak on a panel about U.S. trade at a Vancouver Board of Trade luncheon.

Last week, Clark blamed greedy American “lumber barons” for the dispute, saying they want to drive up the price of lumber at the expense of the middle class, who would pay more for their homes if Canadian lumber was assessed tariffs.