Canadian Softwood Lumber Duty Rates Jeopardized by Court Ruling

The Commerce Department may have exceeded its legal authority in lowering U.S. antisubsidy duty rates on certain imports of softwood lumber from Canada, the U.S. Court of International Trade said Thursday.

The U.S. imported an estimated $5.66 billion worth of softwood lumber from Canada in 2016, according to Commerce, and the product has long been a source of trade tensions between the two countries. The Trump administration imposed antidumping and countervailing duties on Canadian softwood lumber products in 2018.

Canadian producers and exporters which weren’t individually examined in the investigation were originally assigned a CVD margin and corresponding duty rate ...