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Strong views on lumber tariffs

U.S. Lumber Coalition unloads on what it calls 'Canada-first talking points.'
1/29/2025

Recently, the Wall Street Journal's editorial board published a piece titled "Trump's Lumber Tariffs and Disaster Recovery," which, among other assertions, claimed that "border taxes on imports from Canada will slow rebuilding in Los Angeles and North Carolina."

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That notion did not sit well with the U.S. Lumber Coalition. The group, which describes itself as an "alliance of large and small softwood lumber producers from around the country, joined by their employees and woodland owners, working to address Canada's unfair lumber trade practices," quickly fired back at WSJ. 

In a press release, the coalition writes: "Canada overproduces softwood lumber for the sole purpose of maintaining employment in Canada, and they unload their oversupply of lumber into the U.S. market at the expense of American jobs, companies and their communities."

It continues:

"The U.S. does not need to import a third of the softwood used in home construction, as the Wall Street Journal states, and Canada's share of the U.S. market is at its lowest level in decades," according to Andrew Miller, chairman of the U.S. Lumber Coalition and CEO of Stimson Lumber Company Miller. "Since 2016, U.S. mills have added eight billion board feet of production capacity and produced 30 billion additional board feet of softwood lumber, more than offsetting the decline in unfairly traded Canadian imports."

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WSJ, meanwhile, argued: "The U.S. doesn’t produce enough lumber to meet domestic demand and thus imports about a third of the softwood used in home construction, mostly from Canada." It goes on to make the case that slapping tariffs on Canadian lumber, which President Trump has vowed to do (to the tune of 25 percent), would exponentially raise prices on homes and rebuilding efforts that are already experiencing spiraling costs.

This view of tariffs aligns with the NAHB, which shares:

"For years, NAHB has been leading the fight against tariffs because of their detrimental effect on housing affordability. In effect, the tariffs act as a tax on American builders, home buyers and consumers. Widespread tariffs would have an inflationary impact. Before enacting tariffs, the potential effects of placing additional tariffs on building materials should be carefully considered, as doing so could add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of a home and price families out of the American dream of homeownership."

The American Building Materials Alliance is also calling on the Trump administration to exempt Canadian lumber from any new tariffs.

The U.S. Lumber Coalition sees the situation quite differently. It claims there's an easy fix here—and that's for Canada to "trade fairly." The coalition explains: "If Canada and Canadian companies do not like antidumping and countervailing duties, then all they need to do is stop subsidizing their industry and stop dumping their product into the U.S. market at the expense of American companies and workers. It is as simple as that."

It also disputes the claim that imposing tariffs on Canadian lumber would raise homebuilding prices.

"The cost of lumber only makes up about 1.3 percent of the total cost of an average new construction home, and even less in higher priced homes," stated Zoltan van Heyningen, U.S. Lumber Coalition executive director, "so the idea that longstanding antidumping or countervailing duties or President Trump's proposed tariffs on unfairly traded Canadian lumber imports would cause lumber prices to dramatically increase home prices is nonsensical."

Additionally:

"From 2019 to the first three quarters of 2024, the median new house price increased by 32 percent, the hourly earnings of U.S. construction workers increased by 24 percent, and the profits of the five largest U.S. homebuilders increased by 49 percent. By comparison, softwood lumber prices increased by only 8.8 percent over this period."

The coalition ends its rebuttal with a rebuke, stating:

"We urge the Wall Street Journal to truly study and understand a subject matter before writing and publishing an Editorial Board Opinion. This American industry of hard-working men and women who provide a stable supply of American-made lumber to build America's homes deserves better from such publications. Merely repeating talking points from Canadian officials and pro-Canada interest groups is not sufficient to publish a credible opinion piece."
 

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