Idaho Senators Mike Crapo and Jim Risch along with Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and 21 other Senators sent a letter to President Barack Obama and called for a new softwood lumber deal with Canada.
The senators wish to protect the timber jobs and communities throughout the United States, according to Clearwater Tribune.
“Hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs and thousands of U.S. rural communities depend on fairness in trade in softwood lumber. That is why we will continue to urge you, and any future Administration, to seek a fair, effective, and sustainable agreement with Canada on softwood lumber trade, and in the absence of such an agreement, to fully enforce U.S. trade laws,” the senators wrote.
The goals that the US President and Canada’s Prime Minister marked in June 2016 weren’t reached by Canada’s latest proposals. The senators claim that Canada’s government hasn’t been willing to consider the proposals consistent with that statement.
As reported by Clearwater Tribune, Wyden, Risch and Crapo led a coalition of 25 senators who called on any new softwood lumber agreement with Canada to include strong protections for American lumber jobs and mills, in July.
The senators added that the U.S. government has submitted detailed proposals to the Canadian government that would establish an agreement consistent with the terms of the Joint Statement. These proposals are designed to ensure that Canadian lumber imports would enter the U.S. market at or below an agreed U.S. market share and to provide appropriate flexibility for the Canadian government to administer such a program.
