Barry Ruttenberg, representing the 225,000 member-firms of the National Association of Home Builders who collectively employ more than eight million workers nationwide, told the committee that home builders cannot meet the need for new homes and improvements to existing homes without lumber imports from Canada.

"Restrictions on Canadian softwood lumber do little or nothing to increase the use of U.S.-produced lumber in home construction because the vast majority of the domestic timber supply is unsuitable for framing walls in homes. We must import this type of lumber from Canada because there are not enough trees available in the U.S. to produce the lumber needed for home building," he said. "Therefore, current lumber duties, and any potential negotiated settlement that would result in quotas, tariffs or an export tax, would do nothing to increase the use of U.S. lumber in home construction. Lumber trade restraints only serve to penalize and tax American home buyers and consumers. U.S. policy with regard to this issue should reflect the interests of consumers and the overall economy, not the special interests of the domestic lumber lobby."

The duties also have impacted a wide range of other industries using Canadian Softwood lumber, such as truss manufacturers, pallets, cabinets, furniture and box springs, manufactured housing, as well as lumber wholesalers and retailers. These industries employ more than 6.5 million workers, 25-to-1 when compared with those in the forestry industry.

Serving 70 million homeowners, Bruce Hahn, president of the American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance (AHGA), also called for the Committee to ask the Bush administration to end the duties. "The Committee should resist pressure from U.S. forestry companies and landowners that support the tariffs," he said. "Those companies currently receive large subsidies from the U.S. government, and state and local tax incentives as well." He added that AHGA is "very disappointed by the support of the U.S. Commerce Department for tariffs."

Shawn Conrad, president of the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association (NLBMDA), said that government intervention into the softwood lumber market has created tremendous volatility that threatens the ability of building material suppliers to compete and survive in today's market. NLBMDA represents more than 8,000 lumber and building material companies with over 500,000 employees.

The duties were imposed after timberland owners and forestry companies, including International Paper, Potlatch, Plum Creek, Sierra Pacific, and Temple Inland, members of the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, charged that Canadian lumber is unfairly subsidized, and being dumped at lower prices in the U.S. Not all U.S. forestry companies support the Coalition's position or cases.

The U.S. has lost its extensive litigation in NAFTA, which has ruled unanimously that the duties are illegal, the Canadian imports are not a threat of injury to the U.S. forestry industry, the duties should be ended, and that the duties collected be returned, under NAFTA rules, to Canada.Susan Petniunas, spokesperson for the American Consumers for Affordable Homes (ACAH), a 17 member alliance of National organizations that opposes the duties, pointed out that the lumber duties, based on U.S. Census Bureau data, add at least $1,000 to the cost of a new home, pricing more than 300,000 families out of the housing market since the small amount prices them out of a mortgage. ACAH represents more than 95 percent of U.S. lumber consumption.

The U.S. can not produce enough lumber to meet its needs, and has to import a third of it from Canada.

ACAH does not oppose constructive negotiations to resolve the long standing dispute, but opposes any agreement that imposes a border measure that would increase costs to consumers or add volatility to the lumber market.

More than 100 bi-partisan members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have called on the Bush Administration over the past three years to end the duties and to not impose any export taxes, duties or quotas on lumber that is essential to the U.S. housing market and economy.

This is cache, read story here

login or register to post comments