Award rendered in lumber conflict between US and Canada

In the latest development in a long-running lumber-exporting conflict between the US and Canada, an LCIA Tribunal chaired by ICCA Member Karl-Heinz Bockstiegel rendered a 2nd Award in March 2009 deciding on remedies for a breach of the Treaty by Canada imposing extra charges on provincial lumber manufacturers. Canada chose to pay the US a lump sum of US$37 million rather than imposing extra charges. This comes after a first award by the same Tribunal on liability rendered last year that cleared British Colombia and Alberta, Canada's two biggest lumber-exporting provinces, of miscalculating quotas.
In April 2009, the United States imposed tariffs claiming that the lump sum is not a sufficient remedy, and a third LCIA arbitration proceeding before the same Tribunal has  in this context started to decide whether the lump sum payment or another remedy is sufficient. See full report.