Angie Craig: “I would like to talk today briefly about an issue that affects hundreds of American companies and tens of thousands of…”

“I would like to talk today briefly about an issue that affects hundreds of American companies and tens of thousands of American workers, and that is, of course, the proper enforcement of the 1996 U.S./Canadian Softwood Lumber Agreement. On several occasions I have stood before this body to express disappointment at our trading partners who are violating trade agreements with the United States. Generally, the problem arises abroad and requires aggressive efforts by the administration to insist on compliance by other countries to ensure that our products and our workers can compete on a level playing field. But the foremost problem for the Lumber Agreement is action by the U.S. Customs Service that is affirmatively undermining the current softwood agreement that I am speaking to. As many of us who are from lumber-producing States are so keenly aware, the 1996 Lumber Agreement is our largest sectorial trade agreement with our largest trading partner, Canada. It is a very moderate response to a massive Canadian subsidizing of lumber. Unlike United States lumber mills which must buy timber at market prices, Canadian mills are provided timber by the Provinces at prices that are oftentimes one-quarter to one-third the market value of real timber on the stump. Those subsidies amount to $4 billion Canadian dollars a year. Subsidized imports have cost the United States thousands of jobs and have injured and constrained a pivotal U.S. industry.”