Trent Lott: “I thank Senator Craig for his leadership on this issue, and also Senator Baucus and Senator Crapo, and a number of…”

“I thank Senator Craig for his leadership on this issue, and also Senator Baucus and Senator Crapo, and a number of others whose States are being severely impacted by very unfair Canadian softwood lumber practices. Forestry is the second largest crop in my State of Mississippi and represents $1.25 billion annually. But what we are dealing with is the dumping of this Canadian softwood into our region of the country. ``Dumping'' is when a company sells a product for less than the cost of production. But the Department of Commerce currently does not consider countervailing duties, which offset subsidies, as a cost of production when evaluating and calculating the amount of dumping and the requisite antidumping duties. The Department's policy of ignoring these countervailing duties when calculating antidumping duties undervalues the amount of the dumping of the products. Let me just say, I have been working on this issue actually for years now. I have worked with the previous administration and have been working with this administration. Our Customs officials have tried to be helpful. And certainly the current Secretary of Commerce has been paying close attention to this issue, and I really appreciate it. But there are limits to what they can do without additional legislation that will make it clear how we will deal with these countervailing duties. So that is why this legislation has been introduced.…”