WASHINGTON – Members of Maine’s congressional delegation are lobbying the incoming U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick, to level the playing field between U.S. and Canadian producers of softwood lumber.

Rep. John E. Baldacci, D-Maine, will send a letter Friday to Zoellick, co-signed by Rep. Darlene Hooley, D-Ore., encouraging him to “act quickly to renew the U.S.-Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement,” according to Baldacci’s spokesman, Doug Dunbar. The trade agreement expires March 31.

Established in 1996, the U.S.-Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement imposed fees on shipments from the four leading lumber-producing provinces in Canada when those shipments exceed 14.7 billion board feet during the course of a year. Some of the Canadian provinces not covered by the agreement have doubled their imports to the United States in the last five years, according to a statement by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

On Wednesday Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, introduced a resolution urging renegotiation of the softwood lumber agreement. The list of co-sponsors for the legislation is growing, reflecting its relevance to the western, southern and northeastern United States.

In addition to Collins, the bipartisan list of cosponsors includes senators from Idaho, Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina and Montana.

“Our lumber industry in Maine and nationally is at risk because of ongoing Canadian subsidies from the four provinces of Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and New Brunswick,” Snowe said.

More than 100 lumber mills have closed around the country in the past three months and lumber prices have dropped by a third, according to Scott Shotwell, executive director for the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, based in Washington, D.C.

In a statement, Snowe said that the Canadian government timber is used to subsidize lumber production at a fraction of the timber market’s value. The subsidy results in record-high imports of Canadian lumber to the U.S., accounting for more than one-third of the U.S. softwood lumber market.

Legislators who signed on to Snowe’s resolution and Baldacci’s letter hope that U.S. trade officials will take every possible action to end the practice of Canadian government subsidies to the lumber industry. Zoellick has told Snowe that he recognizes that the U.S.-Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement is in need of renegotiation.

Shotwell said he expects the domestic rivalry between home-builders and the lumber industry to slow efforts to renegotiate the trade agreement. He said homebuilders would oppose any renewal of the agreement.

If significant renegotiation of the agreement is not accomplished by the expiration date, Shotwell said his organization is prepared to initiate a lawsuit to challenge the government subsidies and dumping of goods by Canada.