U.S. TRADE BILL VERY DANGEROUS FOR CANADA, LOBBY A trade bill before the United States House of Representatives "is a very dangerous bill for Canadian industry," Canadian Forest Industry Council chairman Adam Zimmerman told reporters. By changing the definition of subsidy under U.S. countervailing duty law, House of Representatives Bill 3 removes protection for companies that take advantage of widely used government programs, Zimmerman told a media briefing. "Clearly, any industry to which Canadian governments grant rights to fish, mine, cut timber, or produce power could be vulnerable to a finding of a subsidy under this language," he said. The Canadian forest lobby's Zimmerman also said the House of Representative Bill would adopt a new way of measuring subsidies that would greatly increase the size of any countervailing duties that might be imposed on Canadian resource exports to the U.S. Under the bill, any difference between Canadian prices and U.S. or world market prices would constitute a subsidy, he said. Such a method would make Canadian resource industries vulnerable to similar penalties like a 15 pct export tax imposed last January on shipments of Canadian softwood lumber to the U.S., Zimmerman added. Canadian negotiators agreed to levy the new tax if a U.S. forest industry lobby would drop its request for a countervail duty on imports of Canadian softwood lumber. "We represent the first victim of the move to price other countries' natural resources according to the U.S. system," Zimmerman said. "If we're an example, than other resource industries had better watch out," he added. Zimmerman said the Canadian Forest Industry Council plans to discuss concerns about the U.S. trade bill with lobby groups from other Canadian resource industries.