Canada Welcomes End of CVD Case on Supercalendered Paper

Canada's foreign ministry said July 10 that it welcomes the Department of Commerce's decision to revoke countervailing duties on Canadian supercalendered paper, as announced by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on July 6. The World Trade Organization circulated a panel report a day earlier that said the U.S. was not following international trade law in the way it had calculated the duties.

Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland issued a statement: "No two nations depend more on each other for their mutual prosperity than the United States and Canada. Our relationship supports millions of middle-class jobs on both sides of the border. The WTO panel report supports fair and due process for the Canadian forestry industry and for Canadian workers." Freeland is chief negotiator on NAFTA for Canada. Her U.S. counterpart, Lighthizer, blasted Canada in his July 6 statement (see 1807090025), saying that Canada's refusal to drop the case emboldened China, which subsidizes many industries. Canada did not directly engage with Lighthizer in its response.