Vancouver — Canada's lumber industry was left in limbo again Monday after the U.S. Commerce Department said it has agreed to delay a decision on whether to impose costly antidumping duties on Canadian softwood lumber imports. The U.S. Commerce Department said it was postponing the decision by two weeks until Sept. 24 because of a request from the U.S. lumber industry, which wants more time to assess a mountain of data gathered from Canadian producers. "The delay gives us an opportunity to assess that data correctly," said Deborah Burns, spokeswoman for the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, which represents about 300 companies and saw mills in the United States. The coalition is attempting to impose anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood exports amid allegations that domestic producers are dumping wood into the United States at less than what it costs to produce the material. Canadian forestry officials fear that the antidumping duties, which could add about 38 per cent to the cost of about $10-billion (U.S.) worth of shipments into the United States, will be added on top of countervailing duties to be announced Aug. 9. Together, they could amount to a total duty of 80 per cent. "This would be just another nail in the coffin of the Canadian forest industry," said Laurence Cater, publisher of Madison's Canadian Lumber Directory, a Vancouver newsletter that tracks wood prices. Given that the bellwether spruce-pine-fir two-by-four brand is trading at around $273 for 1,000 board feet, Mr. Cater said Canadian mills would have trouble absorbing anything in excess of a 15-per-cent duty. However, a Canadian forest industry representative said the delay in the antidumping decision is no surprise, given that the Commerce Department recently postponed for a second time a preliminary ruling on whether to impose countervailing duties on wood imports from Canada. "I think they are buying more time," said John Allan, President of the B.C. Lumber Trade Council, which represents the majority of producers in British Columbia. At issue is how much of the $36-billion home-building market can be taken by Canadian imports, which the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports says are subsidized by Canada's government. The complaint by the U.S. companies was brought in April after a five-year-old agreement between the countries regulating trade in the commodity expired. Cory Churches, a Commerce Department spokeswoman, said if the agency determines that Canadian lumber imports have surged by more than 15 per cent — creating a so-called "critical circumstance" — it can apply duties retroactively to shipments that occurred 90 days before the duty is set. The Commerce Department said Monday it had the ammunition on which to base any future decision after announcing that Canadian softwood lumber shipments to the United States rose 11 per cent in the second quarter from the same period last year. The shipments were up about 31 per cent from the first three months of this year, the Department of Commerce said. Canadian officials said shipments would have risen even more if domestic mills were not holding back wood to avoid the threat of duties. Meanwhile, the Commerce Department has not announced what periods it will use to judge the critical circumstance issue. Supporters of free lumber trade insist a comparison must be made up of the same quarter in different years, not quarters within a year. "You cannot compare data from January-March against April-June, because the building season doesn't start until April, which means lumber dealers aren't bringing lumber in," said Jenna Morgan, lobbyist at the National Lumber and Building Materials Dealers Association. From Tuesday's Globe and Mail With files from Reuters News Agency and Bloomberg