Retailers,Builders Protest Trade Pact

Claiming the Canadian softwood trade agreement has created havoc in lumber markets, sending lumber prices and homebuilding costs soaring, retailers and home builders are urging the Clinton Administration to scrap or at least renegotiate the deal immediately.

During a recent joint press conference by the National Lumber & Building Material Dealers Association, National Association of Home Builders and National Retail Federation in Washington, D.C., NAHB pres. Randy Smith said, "We think the whole deal should be ripped up. We think it's inappropriate."

The U.S. Trade Representative's Office vowed to make no changes in the pact, which allows 14.7 billion bd. ft. of lumber to be shipped free into the U.S. from the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario and Alberta. Shipments above that level receive import tariffs of $50 to $100 per 1000 bd. ft.

The fallout, say lumber dealers, has been the recent spike in lumber prices. "The increase in the price of the lumber retailer's bread and butter items such as 2x4s and 2x6s is over 60Vo when compared to the same time period a ye^r ago," said NLBMDA chairman Carl Tindell, Tindell's Inc., Knoxville, Tn. "Government intervention in the lumber market causes volatile prices that are impossible to predict. (Retailers) are often forced to sell lumber at a loss when these spikes occur."