Prince George-Mackenzie MLA Pat Bell is expecting U.S. negotiators will have proposed an "outlandish number" that will be whittled down to something more reasonable when they submit their claim to an arbitrator over the latest round of the softwood lumber dispute.
"In the billions," Bell said Tuesday.
"That's a historical strategy that the Americans have used so, regardless of what it is, I don't think anyone should panic over it."
As examples, Bell, the B.C. jobs, tourism and innovation minister, pointed to cases settled in January with Ontario and Quebec, where the outcome was an additional export charge of 0.1 and 2.6 per cent respectively, compared to U.S. requests of 20 and 17.6 per cent.
The U.S. Trade Representative was scheduled to present a brief to the London Court of International Arbitration on Tuesday but details were not expected to be known until today at the earliest.
The move follows on a complaint filed in January in which the U.S. claims British Columbia is subsidizing wood damaged by the mountain pine beetle and breaking the 2006 softwood lumber agreement by selling the province's timber at artificially low prices.
The U.S. accused the proivncial government of "dramatically" increasing the amount of beetle-infested timber it was selling at a cut-rate price of 25 cents per cubic metre, giving B.C. mills an unfair advantage.
A U.S. trade publication last week suggested the Americans could seek a penalty of $4 billion.
- with files from Canadian Press
