Two International Trade Litigation Victories for Canada Clients

Canadian Softwood Lumber Industry and Canadian Wheat Board
October 11, 2005

Steptoe represents the Canadian Softwood Lumber industry in the fourth round of this long-running trade dispute between the United States and Canada.  The Steptoe team persuaded a NAFTA panel to order the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to issue a nega­tive injury determination, and an Extraordinary Challenge Commit­tee convened under NAFTA unanimously dismissed the US challenge to the panel’s decision.  Steptoe is now seeking a ruling from the US Court of International Trade that these NAFTA decisions require the US Government to end duties on softwood lumber and to refund the billions of dollars that the Cana­dian industry has paid in estimated duties since the case began.

Steptoe also secured a major win in the litigation concerning Canadian exports of hard red spring and durum wheat to the United States.  After a successful appeal to a NAFTA binational panel, the ITC reversed its original affirmative injury determination and found that imports of hard red spring wheat do not injure US domestic wheat farmers.  As a result, the United States lifted import duties on Canadian hard red spring wheat.