Joanne Osendarp

Partner

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

Current

Current

Government of Canada Softwood Lumber Litigation Until the entry into force of the Softwood Lumber Agreement described above, the International Trade Group represented the Government of Canada and led the multi-firm defense team representing all Canadian interests in Softwood Lumber IV -- one of the largest, most complex, and most political international trade disputes in history, involving over $5.5 billion in duties and $6 billion in annual Canadian exports. Although most of the 50-plus proceedings came to a close shortly after the SLA took effect, critical litigation continued. In particular, the US Government and the petitioners sought to vacate the judgment and decision of a three-judge panel of the US Court of International Trade, in which the Court unanimously ruled that the antidumping and countervailing orders on softwood lumber had to be revoked ab initio and all duties refunded ,and confirmed that NAFTA binational panel review invalidating an order will lead to the same complete relief as review before US courts. While the Court of International Trade (CIT) vacated the judgment in light of the SLA 2006 and the resulting refund of duties, in an important victory for Canada, the Court refused to vacate its decision interpreting US law to require that NAFTA panel review be given full effect. The US Government’s and petitioners’ appeals of the CIT judgment to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) were subsequently dismissed. more

Current

Government of Canada Arbitration Pursuant to the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement The Weil Gotshal team is representing the Government of Canada in a multi-million dollar dispute with the U.S. Government over the interpretation of certain provisions of the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA) between the two countries. Canada and the United States have had a long-running disagreement over trade in Canadian softwood lumber and Weil Gotshal has consistently represented Canada in the multitude of proceedings that have been initiated, as a result, over the last 15 years. These have included U.S. administrative agency proceedings, appeals of agency determinations to US domestic courts, NAFTA binational panels, and the World Trade Organization, and a series of arbitrations under a former agreement on lumber between the parties. Differences between the countries were most recently settled by the 2006 Agreement, which entered into force in October 2006. Under the terms of the Agreement, the United States agreed to refrain from initiating trade actions of any kind against Canadian exports for the duration of the Agreement and Canada agreed to impose export charges and volume restraints on its export of softwood lumber. The United States has now alleged that Canada has breached the Agreement by failing to collect the proper amount of export charges from lumber producers and set the proper limits on the export of lumber from Canada. Given that this is the first dispute to arise under the 2006 Agreement, the tribunal's decisions on the matters of interpretation of several key provisions will be of major importance to the operation of the Agreement over the next 7 years. The arbitration is being conducted under the London Court of International Arbitration ("LCIA") Rules. The LCIA is a premiere institution in the field of private international commercial arbitration, and this dispute appears to be the first time two nation-states have consented to arbitrate their differences in a private commercial forum. more

University of Ottawa

LL.B.

1986

York University

M.A.

1983

York University

B.A.

1981