‘U.S. tariffs not really a shock’ says MP Gerry Ritz
Calling it “troubling” and “short-sighted” Battlefords-Lloydminster M.P. and International Trade Critic Gerry Ritz weighed-in on the impending U.S. tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber imports announced on Tuesday.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced the duties could be as high as 24 per cent on Canadian lumber imports and would be retroactive for 90 days.
“This isn’t the first time this has happened,” said Ritz from his office in Ottawa. “We have faced this issue perhaps five times in the past three decades so it’s nothing new. What is new however, is that the president himself is leading the charge on this issue.”
The previous softwood agreement was signed in 2006 and expired in 2015. The Justin Trudeau government was still in its infancy while the Barack Obama administration was coming to an end, so a new deal was never brokered.