On June 26, 2017, the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) announced its affirmative preliminary  determination of dumping in the antidumping duty (AD) investigation of imports of softwood lumber from Canada. The AD investigation has been proceeding alongside a countervailing duty (CVD) investigation. The CVD investigation resulted in an affirmative preliminary determination of subsidization on April 24^th and the imposition of preliminary countervailing duties ranging from 3-24% on imports of softwood lumber from Canada. The latest determination imposes an additional layer of antidumping duties ranging from 4.59% to 6.87% on those imports.  Thus, the combined duties applied to imports of Canadian softwood lumber now range from approximately 7% to 31%.

Similar to the CVD investigation, Commerce also made a preliminary finding that “critical circumstances” exist with respect to companies subject to the “all others rate” (i.e., all companies other than Canfor, Resolute, Tolko, and West Fraser, the four mandatory respondents). Consequently, the provisional AD duties will be imposed retroactively on entries of softwood lumber from Canada going back 90 days prior to the publication of the preliminary determination in the Federal Register (i.e., back to the end of March).

Finally, Commerce made a preliminary determination that certain softwood lumber products certified by the Atlantic Lumber Board as being first produced in the Provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, or Prince Edward Island (the Atlantic Provinces) from logs harvested in these three provinces should be excluded from both the AD and CVD investigations.

Additional details on the softwood lumber investigation can be found at:

http://enforcement.trade.gov/download/factsheets/factsheet-canada-softwood-lumber-ad-prelim-062617.pdf