Canadian and U.S. government officials in emails to American Shipper disputed the circumstances leading to circulation of a World Trade Organization panel report on Thursday finding that the United States violated several WTO countervailing duty rules in levying CV duties on supercalendered paper from Canada.
The Commerce Department on Thursday terminated those duties.
But an Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) official said that Canada had prior knowledge that those duties would be lifted, based on “ongoing dialogue” with the United States as well as on statutory deadlines.
“Nevertheless, they chose for the WTO dispute settlement process to proceed, and the panel report was circulated,” the official said.
The WTO’s panel report found that the U.S. violated several provisions of the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures in its application of CV duties on imports of supercalendered paper, or newsprint, from Canada.
But a Canadian government official in an email disputed the USTR official’s characterization.
“Canada had no prior knowledge that duties would be lifted on July 5th, and as such we continued our litigation until that date,” the official said.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer took issue with Canada’s pursuit of the case until the ultimate release of the panel report.
“Canada appears to be more interested in attacking our anti-subsidy laws than in resolving this particular dispute,” Lighthizer said in a statement following circulation of the report. “By pursuing this litigation, Canada is helping non-market countries like China that are more likely to use the type of hidden subsidies at issue in this case. The end result of such policies will be a global trading system that encourages unfair subsidies and puts true market-oriented companies — in both Canada and the United States — at an unfair disadvantage.”
The row occurs amid higher trade tensions between the United States and Canada, as the NAFTA partners are each maintaining tariffs applying to approximately $3 billion worth of each other’s goods, and after the G7 Summit in Charlevoix, Quebec, last month ended with the United States refusing to sign off on the joint communique that resulted from the meeting.