West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. - Decisive Canadian Victory in Softwood Lumber Dispute

VANCOUVER, Aug. 10 /CNW/ - West Fraser is pleased with another decisive
victory in the ongoing softwood lumber dispute as a result of today's ruling
from a NAFTA Extraordinary Challenge Committee (ECC), which unanimously
affirmed the ruling of a NAFTA panel that the antidumping and countervailing
duty orders against Canadian lumber were unlawful.
The ECC upheld a NAFTA panel ruling that evidence relied upon by the U.S.
did not support its finding that Canadian imports threatened to injure the
U.S. industry and further confirmed the panel's specific instruction that the
U.S. find no threat of injury.
"Although today's decision is not unexpected, we are thrilled with the
outcome," says Hank Ketcham, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.
"This is a decisive victory for West Fraser and the Canadian industry, and it
confirms the position we have maintained since this dispute began in 2001."
The U.S. has collected more than $4 billion in deposits from Canadian
producers under these illegal orders. Although the U.S. has said it is not
legally obligated to refund the deposits, another NAFTA panel recently ruled -
in a related West Fraser appeal of the antidumping order - that the U.S. has
no authority to keep deposits collected pursuant to an invalid order.
"We fully expect the U.S. Department of Commerce to respect the NAFTA
panel's direction and return the Canadian industry's $4 billion, including the
approximately $400 million deposited by West Fraser to June 30, 2005."
West Fraser is an integrated forest products company that produces
lumber, LVL, MDF, plywood, pulp, linerboard, kraft paper and newsprint. The
Company has manufacturing operations in British Columbia, Alberta and the
southern United States. West Fraser has approximately 7,300 employees and is
headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia.

West Fraser shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the
symbol: WFT. The Company's web site is: www.westfraser.com.

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