The impact of regulatory change on the international competitiveness of the Canadian softwood lumber industry

The decade of the 1990s have seen the introduction of several regulatory ch anges in international markets that have had a dramatic impact on the compe titiveness of the Canadian softwood lumber industry. These regulatory chang es have occurred in virtually every major market to which Canadian softwood lumber manufacturers export, including Europe, the US, and Japan. The obje ctive of this paper is to describe the regulatory changes that have been im plemented in the major markets for Canadian softwood lumber and provide an objective discussion of the impact of these changes on the international co mpetitiveness of Canadian softwood lumber.