U.S. TRADE BILL VERY DANGEROUS FOR CANADA, LOBBY
  A trade bill before the United States
  House of Representatives "is a very dangerous bill for Canadian
  industry," Canadian Forest Industry Council chairman Adam
  Zimmerman told reporters.
      By changing the definition of subsidy under U.S.
  countervailing duty law, House of Representatives Bill 3
  removes protection for companies that take advantage of widely
  used government programs, Zimmerman told a media briefing.
      "Clearly, any industry to which Canadian governments grant
  rights to fish, mine, cut timber, or produce power could be
  vulnerable to a finding of a subsidy under this language," he
  said.
      The Canadian forest lobby's Zimmerman also said the House
  of Representative Bill would adopt a new way of measuring
  subsidies that would greatly increase the size of any
  countervailing duties that might be imposed on Canadian
  resource exports to the U.S.
      Under the bill, any difference between Canadian prices and
  U.S. or world market prices would constitute a subsidy, he
  said. Such a method would make Canadian resource industries
  vulnerable to similar penalties like a 15 pct export tax
  imposed last January on shipments of Canadian softwood lumber
  to the U.S., Zimmerman added.
      Canadian negotiators agreed to levy the new tax if a U.S.
  forest industry lobby would drop its request for a countervail
  duty on imports of Canadian softwood lumber.
      "We represent the first victim of the move to price other
  countries' natural resources according to the U.S. system,"
  Zimmerman said.
      "If we're an example, than other resource industries had
  better watch out," he added.
      Zimmerman said the Canadian Forest Industry Council plans
  to discuss concerns about the U.S. trade bill with lobby groups
  from other Canadian resource industries.
  

