OTTAWA -- A NAFTA dispute panel has delayed a ruling expected yesterday in Canada's multibillion-dollar softwood lumber dispute with the United States. The NAFTA panel decision on Canada's challenge of antidumping duties imposed by Washington on softwood exports was expected yesterday, but has been put off until July 17.

The panel said it needed more time to review the complex and controversial case.

"(The) review involves an unusually large number of disputed issues, many of which are highly complex," it said in an order yesterday.

"Additional time is required for the panel to finalize its options."

A second decision from a separate NAFTA panel is also expected in two weeks on the much larger countervailing duties that have also been applied to softwood exports.

Since last spring, Canadian lumber companies have been labouring under punishing 27 per cent combined duties on their exports to the United States.

Those duties -- including both anti-dumping and countervailing penalties -- have threatened the future of about $10 billion in annual softwood exports and tens of thousands of lumber jobs.

Canada has been challenging the U.S. actions at both the NAFTA and the World Trade Organization, where it claimed victory in an important decision last May.

Authorities in the U.S. also claimed a win in the May WTO ruling, which focused on countervailing duties.

The ruling expected yesterday would have been the first in a series due from the NAFTA panel.