b'20American Journal of Transportation ajot.comThe Misery Whip: The ongoing US-Canada lumber dispute just doesnt cut itIn the United States the two-man crosscut saw used for logging in the old days was nicknamed the misery whipaptly dubbed as day-long sawingforest with the device resulted in muscle-aching misery. And the four-decade old dispute between the U.S. and Canada is a lot like two lumberjacks pulling and pushing a crosscut saw on a tree to no avail a peculiar diplomatic purgatory for both nations. A recent WTO decision found in favor of Canada but the US is likely to file an appeal pushing the whole dispute into limbo. This is happening against the backdrop of soaring lumber prices driven byproductsincreased demand and falling supplies.By George Lauriat, AJOTInlate August,aWorldAs a result, Canadian lumberfortimberongovernment-TradeOrganization(WTO)exportershavereportedlyproperty was artificially low panelrulingonthefour- paid close to $3.9 billion incompared to the market and2020decadeoldlumberdisputeduties to the US.causedmaterialinjuryto betweenCanadaandtheInAugust,theWTOsUS lumber companies. With UnitedStatescamedownthree-personpaneldeter- the WTO announcement, US in favor of Canada on mostminedthatthecountervail- Trade Representative Robert ofthesubstantiveissues.ing duties designed to offsetLighthizer proffered a bitter Naturally, the Trump admin- Canadiansubsidieswererebuttal, This flawed report istrationinstantaneouslyillegalastheUShadnotconfirmswhattheUnited expressed a desire to appealshown that the prices paid by(DISPUTEcontinued on theWTOdecisionwhichCanadian lumber companiespage 21)hastakensomethingofa backseat to the recent WTO declaration that some of the U.S.301tariffsplacedon Chinese goods are illegal. www.spliethoff.com | [email protected] NorthAmericanbackdrop,THE FIRST AND ONLY YEAR-ROUND LINER SERVICE lumber prices are soaring as domestic housing is booming.BETWEEN EUROPE AND THE GREAT LAKESLumberdemandoverseas issoaringwhilewildfires intheWesthavedestroyedNOT LOCKED DOWN ! ANTWERPthousands of acres of forest, cutting into supplies. How long the lumber price boom will last is at this juncture an open question as demand in theCovid-19economicenvi-ronmenthasbeennotablyCLEVELANDfickle and the US-Canada deci-sion itself could become a polit-ical firestorm given the Trump Administrationsabsolutedis-tain for the WTO and with the newly minted USMCAs unity still untested. t heu.s.-c aNadaW hiPs aWFor the better part of four WE ARE decades the US and Canada,STRONGlike two old grizzled lumber-jacks working a whip saw on a mammoth tree, have gone back and forth trying to cut adealonCanadianlumber exports to the US. A deal is important to both Canada and the United States as the US is the largest market for Cana-diansoftwoodandfromthe USperspective,Canadais the largest supplier. Yet as of August, the two sides look as far apart as at any time during the lumber disputes long his-tory with little chance of res-olution in sight. This new round of talks began in 2017, when the last Canadian-Americanlumber agreement expired. The U.S. DepartmentofCommerce leviedcountervailingdutiesQuick transit time to Cleveland in about 15 days Line-supplied containers, project, heavy lift, steel, on Canadian softwood lumberThrough bills of lading forest products and bulkimports,arguingCanadasOnward connections using Spliethoffs Calling various Great Lakes ports, incl. Valleyfield lumberindustryisunfairlyEuropean and Americas logistics network and Rameys BendsubsidizedbytheCana-dian government, as most of Canadas lumber comes from publicly-ownedforests,as opposed to the predominately private operations in the US.'