U.S. duties could do permanent harm to industry (August 01, 2002)

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MONTREAL, Que. – The lumber industry continues to look bleak as thousands of Canadian lumberjacks face an extra long summer vacation.

Abitibi-Consolidated is shutting all of its lumber operations, including 20 mills in Quebec and two in B.C., for two to four weeks affecting some 5,000 workers.

Three mills in northern Quebec, employing 700 people, are closing indefinitely.

Earlier in June, Montreal-based Domtar indefinitely closed two Quebec sawmills employing 210.

The closures are all tied to the 27-per-cent duty the U.S. imposed on Canadian softwood lumber in May. It is believed 10 per cent of Canadian production is at stake.

Ottawa is continuing to search for a negotiated settlement, as it did in the previous rounds of the softwood war, which led to the quota system that was in place between 1996 and 2001.

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