The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, May 9, edition that Ottawa is asking
the Trump administration to
exempt a wide range of items
subjected to U.S. duties on Canadian
softwood lumber, including
bed-frame components, garage
doors and window frames.
The Globe's Brent Jang writes that the Canadian government's list
of wooden products proposed for
exemption also covers door
frames, clothes hangers, cutting
boards, butcher-block countertops
and certain fence pickets.
Ottawa points out that the vast
majority of exemptions envisaged
are for remanufactured
products made from softwood
boards, versus lumber derived
from trees and sent to U.S. home construction
sites.
Another exemption sought is
for Western Red Cedar exports.
"Western Red Cedar commands a
significant price premium to other
softwood-lumber products and
is not considered by purchasers to
be interchangeable with other
softwood species," the federal
government said in a letter to U.S.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
Ottawa is pressing its case as the
Alberta government steps up its
defence of the forestry sector,
with Premier Rachel Notley naming
Gary Doer as the province's
envoy on the softwood file.
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