Pretty good sum-up! Some of the dates cited in the article are incorrect, though. I'm not terribly familiar with the history of the dispute prior to 1996, but since then, it's been a major focus of my firm.
The most recent flare up of this long-running dispute began at the expiration of the SLA in April 2001 (not April 2003). The U.S.-industry "coalition" led by International Paper petitioned the Department of Commerce to initiate simultaneous antidumping ("AD") and countervailing duty ("CVD") investigations, which DOC obligingly undertook that same month.
The preliminary results of the investigations were released in November 2001, at which point deposits were required on all lumber subject to the dumping and CVD investigations imported into the U.S. from Canada.
The final results of the investigation came in April 2002, and were amended shortly afterward. At that point, dumping orders and CVD orders were issued to Customs. Canadian producers and the Canadian government appealed the order, and have won on numerous issues before a bi-national NAFTA panel, as well as a WTO panel.
The first administrative review in the AD proceeding (covering sales between May 2002 and April 30 2003) was finalized in January 2005. Shortly after the final results of the 1st administrative review, DOC issued a redetermination in the original investigation on remand from a WTO panel, in which it abandoned practices established over decades of antidumping investigations, to ensure that the one Canadian producer which would have been excluded from the antidumping order because it had de minimis dumping margins (West Fraser Mills), was not found de minimis.
The preliminary results of the second AD review were published June 1, 2005. The third review period (i.e., May 2004 - April 2005) has just ended, and DOC will likely begin its review of sales in that period later this summer.
The U.S. DOC has filed an "extraordinary challenge" to NAFTA panel findings that U.S. industry was not injured (nor faced threat of injury) by Canadian imports -- rulings that if allowed to stand would preclude the establishment of antidumping and CVD tariffs.
