International Trade committee  I'm not sure whether the Americans have a specific opinion on a specific province or a specific item in the Canadian industry. I can't answer that question, unfortunately.

International Trade committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Sheehan. As you know, we live in a large country. The forest regime in every province is different. It's a complex issue to start a negotiation. I think the answer to your question here is that the industry has to work very closely with the government on developing a negotiation strategy.

International Trade committee  I believe there have been two roundtables with Minister Ng since last fall. There have been direct consultations with different producers, but also with different associations. We're very grateful for the time and energy the Minister is putting into the file. Our position is that we must continue in this direction.

International Trade committee  Mr. Savard-Tremblay, I can answer your question. I believe you're referring to the duties that are paid on lumber shipments to the United States. Can you confirm that this is indeed the case?

International Trade committee  The countervailing duties have not been redistributed to Canadian producers and cannot be until the committees established under the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, and the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement, CUSMA, have completed their work. We referred to these issues earlier in our presentation.

International Trade committee  We have not had discussions with the government on the return of countervailing duties to Canadian companies at this time. We believe that this should be done in the context of the ongoing legal proceedings under NAFTA and CUSMA. The proceedings are behind schedule, as all the witnesses have said this morning, and are not following the timetable that was originally negotiated.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. My name is Jerome Pelletier. I'm the vice-president of the Sawmills Division at J.D. Irving, Limited, and also chairperson of the New Brunswick Lumber Producers, the NBLP. I'm pleased to appear before the committee today to speak about the softwood lumber agreement and its importance to the lumber producers in the province of New Brunswick.