North Okanagan officials are closely watching softwood lumber talks with the U.S.
The provincial and federal governments are currently fighting U.S. claims that subsidies to Canadian wood products hurt American producers.
“All of our communities are affected by this,” said Bob Fleming, Regional District of North Okanagan chairperson.
Fleming recently received an update on the trade conflict during a conference call with Steve Thomson, B.C.’s forest minister.
Those on the conference call were told that this is the fifth time the U.S. has taken Canada to a trade panel over softwood lumber and Canada has won all of the cases.
In fact, Fleming says it’s to the U.S.’s advantage not to get into a prolonged dispute.
“The U.S. (market) has a need for 47 billion board feet of lumber and B.C. provides six to nine billion of that,” he said.
American lumber companies only produce about 32 billion board feet.
If the dispute heats up and tariffs are placed on Canadian wood, Fleming says the situation won’t just hurt North Okanagan mills and families.
“The people who will pay are U.S. consumers,” he said of lumber possibly costing more.