Prince George, B.C. – The Province of BC’s special envoy  on the Softwood Lumber  file,  David Emerson says the  countervailing duties levied by the U.S. Trade and Commerce Department are a “recycling of the shakedown that the U.S. lumber industry has been empowered to undertake for multiple decades  now and we are going down a path we’ve all seen before.”

The  countervailing duties  are  similar to  those levied in the past  says  Emerson who says  Canada will have to “fight it very, very hard and aggressively through all legal means.”

The duties  announced  yesterday  will see most companies paying  about 20%  on their exports to the U.S.  .

British Columbia  exports a little over half of the lumber it produces to the United States.  Emerson says this  round in the battle is  different in that   remanufacturers   are also being hit “This is really not about  Canadian Forest policy anymore.  This is simply a pressure tactic by an  industry that has probably never been more profitable than it is today,  just wanting a little bit  more on the backs of Canadian companies, Canadian workers,  and  U.S. consumers and homebuilders.”

Emerson  called the  action by the U.S  both egregious and terrible “But it is  what it is.”

He says  he originally thought that with President Trump at the helm,  this  round  would be different “But as I see this unfolding,  it really is pretty  much the same as it always was,  whether it was President Bush, or President Trump or President Clinton in the old days.  I think this dispute is really driven by a very small number of  very influential lumber producers and timber barons in the United States who have  basically captured key members of Congress,  It has always been that way.”

While the large companies may be  financially positioned to continue on  while the legal battle unfolds,  there are  growing concerns about how the smaller producers and remanufacturers will manage.  Emerson says the industry is very “buoyant”  right now, and doesn’t expect to see any real impact  on companies over the next  few months “That could change drastically   if market conditions change and you’ve got a number of  producers who are not cash rich companies, they are small independents and many don’t have  timber tenures and some of those companies are going to feel the pain rather quickly.”   He adds “I think we are a ways away from seeing a blood bath in the woods.”