US softwood producers are pressing U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer to dismantle the controversial USMCA Binational Panel Review process during the next round of trade talks with Canada and Mexico, which they warn hands an international tribunal sweeping authority over matters that should remain within the jurisdiction of U.S. courts.
Wood Central understands that the panel system allows an exporting country to challenge another nation’s trade‑remedy actions through a special dispute process rather than through U.S. judicial review, which producers say places decisions about U.S. trade law in the hands of foreign‑appointed panellists who are not subject to constitutional oversight or democratic accountability.
In a letter to Ambassador Greer, the U.S. Lumber Coalition said its concerns escalated after a recent Canadian submission to a USMCA panel that, in its view, sought to expand the authority of these tribunals. According to the group, Canada argued that panel review replaces not only the jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of International Trade but also appellate review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
“The Government of Canada pushing the idea that a USMCA binational panel is not bound by a U.S. Court of Appeals precedent is, quite frankly, outrageous and incorrect as a matter of USMCA and U.S. law,” said Zoltan van Heyningen, executive director of the U.S. Lumber Coalition. “The mere fact that the Government of Canada made this argument reveals Canada’s aggressive view that it can achieve through USMCA binational panel review that which it cannot achieve in U.S. courts.”
Van Heyningen said the logic of Canada’s argument would effectively place USMCA panels in the position of the U.S. Supreme Court: “The absurd but unavoidable extension of Canada’s argument that USMCA binational panel review replaces U.S. ‘judicial review’ in its entirety is that USMCA binational panels also stand in the shoes of the U.S. Supreme Court,” he said. “That is plainly untenable and not something to which the United States agreed, nor should it ever do so.”
“Canada is seeking to dramatically expand the power of an already flawed and Constitutionally challenged USMCA panel system in an attempt to evade U.S. trade laws, and if allowed to do so, there is no end to the damage USMCA panels might do to U.S. trade remedy enforcement with rulings that are contrary to U.S. law,” he said.
The Coalition has called on President Trump to eliminate the binational panel review system entirely during the USMCA review. “The U.S. Lumber Coalition urges President Trump to scrap the USMCA binational panel review system in its entirety during the USMCA review process, and as such regain full U.S. sovereign control over the application of U.S. trade laws,” van Heyningen added.
