This article has been corrected from the original posted Oct. 8, regarding the import duty rates in effect for 2021.

B.C. forest companies are heading into a winter of uncertainty as they deal with the B.C. government鈥檚 efforts to preserve more old-growth forest areas, and the latest increase in the U.S. government鈥檚 border duties on Canadian softwood lumber.

The U.S. Commerce Department has extended its deadline for the latest preliminary ruling 鈥渁nti-dumping鈥� duties until Jan. 28, 2022, to provide more time to analyze sales and cost information from Canfor Corp. and West Fraser Mills, two of B.C.鈥檚 largest producers. The new rates will be in effect for 2022.

The postponement of the original Oct. 4 deadline is because the latest round is 鈥渆xtraordinarily complicated,鈥� deputy assistant secretary James Maeder said in announcing the delay in determining the penalties assessed on Canadian lumber sales for 2022. Exporters have faced countervailing duty and anti-dumping tariff rates of more than 21 per cent for Canfor, 11.4 per cent for West Fraser and 18.3 per cent for other Canadian producers, which were reduced in a later decision and are expected to be imposed again later this month.

Producers have to pay the duties into a U.S. government fund on delivery, with the possibility that they could be refunded if appeals and reviews find them excessive. The process has dragged on since 1982, in what the B.C. Council of Forest Industries as a U.S. industry strategy to damage more efficient competitors.

Old-growth deferral areas announced by the B.C. government last week are to seek input from Indigenous communities with land rights. They could affect up to 26,000 square km of forests around the province, and the industry is concerned about the outcome.

鈥淭he B.C. forest sector has been negatively impacted by ongoing constraints on the working forest that have eroded the global competitiveness of our industry,鈥� Canfor CEO Don Kayne said in a statement.

The B.C. First Nations Forest Council objects to the short time frame for its members to assess the latest old-growth deferral area recommendations.

鈥淔irst nations have been given 30 days to review and respond to the proposed old-growth deferrals within their territories, the council said in a statement. 鈥淣ations are being brought into this process after the fact, and now the province is asking nations to hurry up and respond.鈥�

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In the of Truck Loggers Association magazine, forester and industry analyst Jim Girvan says a combination of the end of pine-beetle salvage, a severe 2021 wildfire season and the B.C. government鈥檚 move to split large forest management units into Indigenous-led landscape management areas is likely to have a severe impact on allowable timber cut and pulp wood supply.

鈥淭he B.C. forest industry, once the cornerstone of economic prosperity in B.C., has been beaten to the mat at the hands of pine beetles, softwood lumber, climate change and environmental challenges,鈥� Girvan writes. 鈥淲ith the industry employing fewer than half of the people it did in 2005 and the threat of even more significant job losses as the province tries to balance the needs of the industry against the often unfounded and misinformed calls for increased forest protection, it is time to push back, or the industry will fade and the province will suffer.鈥�

tfletcher@blackpress.ca
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