Free Trade Lumber Council
August 26, 2005


The Ontario Forest Industries Association, The Ontario Lumber
Manufacturers Association, and the Free Trade Lumber Council, joined
today with the Canadian Lumber Trade Alliance, the Canadian Wheat
Board, Norsk Hydro Canada, Inc., and the Government of Canada in
asking a federal judge in the United States to rule that the
so-called “Byrd Amendment,” which distributes antidumping and
countervailing duties collected by the United States to U.S.
companies, does not legally apply to Canadian goods. This challenge
goes to the heart of the U.S. position on softwood lumber.
The World Trade Organization ruled over two years ago that the Byrd
Amendment is contrary to the international obligations of the United
States and called on the United States to repeal it. The United
States has refused, saying that the WTO cannot dictate U.S. law.
Now, Canadians directly affected by the Byrd Amendment are raising
another objection that comes directly under U.S. law.

When NAFTA was implemented in U.S. law in 1994, a specific provision
forbade the United States from changing its trade laws to Canada’s
detriment unless Canada were named in any amendment and Canada were
warned in advance. When the United States Congress passed the Byrd
Amendment in 2000, Canada was not named, and Canada was not warned.
According to U.S. law, the Byrd Amendment therefore cannot apply to
Canadian goods.

Over the last three years, U.S. Customs has handed over to U.S.
companies competing with Canadian companies tens of millions of
dollars. Potentially, billions of dollars, mostly collected as cash
deposits on softwood lumber, could be handed over to American lumber
companies, depending on the outcome of other legal battle. Because
of the Byrd Amendment, American companies have insisted that the
billions collected so far will be turned over to them, and that they
are entitled by law to that money.

Today’s motion for summary judgment in the United States Court of
International Trade says otherwise. “This lawsuit says that the U.S.
companies will never receive any of this money, and that the money
handed out already must be given back,” reported Jamie Lim,
President and CEO of OFIA. “The U.S. lumber interests may have been
banking on this money, but they were not familiar enough with their
own laws.”

Carl Grenier, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the
FTLC, said, “Today’s motion and the detailed and persuasive brief
presented to the court should change the whole dynamic in the
softwood lumber dispute. U.S. companies have to forget about getting
their hands on our money. The law is not only against them in every
other aspect of this case. It is against them even under the Byrd
Amendment.”

According to Dave Milton, President and CEO of the Ontario Lumber
Manufacturers Association, this is not just another episode in the
long legal battle. “Some events inevitably are more important than
others, and we still have to be patient and let the legal process
unfold. This filing, however, is especially important. Under U.S.
law, our American competitors are not entitled to this money, and
today’s filing proves it.”

The Government of Canada and the various affected industries,
including above all the forest industries impacted by the softwood
lumber cases, are confident of victory in this case, and hope to
have a decision from the court by the end of this year.


Free Trade Lumber Council
Ontario Forest Industries Association
Ontario Lumber Manufacturers Association