Ontario's forest industry warns 20 per cent of the province's sawmills will close under the federal government's tentative softwood deal with the US.

The Ontario Forest Industries Association says the deal also threatens jobs in other softwood producing regions. It says the government must hammer out a commercial agreement -- not a political one.

The proposed seven-year deal replaces US lumber duties with a Canadian border tax or quotas and returns about 80 per cent of the duties collected since 2002.

Critics say too many Canadian jobs are at risk and the deal gives Washington a say in Canadian lumber policy from now on.

Lumber industry officials say the Harper government's tentative softwood deal with the United States will actually impede free trade. They also say it will cost Canadian jobs unless the Conservatives slow down and hammer out a better arrangement. Carl Grenier of the Free Trade Lumber Council told an all-party Commons trade committee that the deal will guarantee that there will be no free trade in lumber for the next seven to nine years. His group represents softwood producers across the country. Many fear the proposed deal, reached on April 27 to end a four-year trade war with Washington, is being rushed for political reasons. Some suspect Prime Minister Harper wants to sign a final deal when he meets with US President Bush in Washington on July 6.