Tuesday, December 2, 2008

CBP: No Rounding of Quantities under U.S.-Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA 2006)

(CBP)

Under the U.S.-Canada softwood lumber agreement of 2006, CBP is charged with working with the Canadian government to reconcile the export permit data collected by Canada with the entry summary data collected by CBP. The results of the quarterly reconciliations are closely scrutinized by several trade groups and reviewed by other U.S. government agencies. Therefore, it is important that the reconciliations’ results show data that is as consistent as possible.

As such, we are requesting that importers do not round the quantities reported on the 7501, but instead report out to two decimal places. This will ensure that, when U.S. quantities are converted into board feet, they will more closely match the quantities reported to Canada.

We appreciate your attention to this matter.

Questions regarding the softwood lumber agreement requirements can be directed to the International Coordination Branch, Office of International Trade attention Ms. Heather Sykes at 202-863-6099.