Trade Law and Duties

With its system of government subsidies and associated unfair trade practices, Canada is continuously displacing U.S. production and U.S. jobs through its sales of subsidized, below market-value softwood lumber to the United States. Canada’s unfair trade practices cause lost sales and revenues leading to mill closures and job cuts in communities across America.

Strong enforcement of the U.S. trade laws is critical for American lumber manufacturers and timberland owners. In their current system, Canadian producers receive advantages due to their unfair subsidies. Rules-based trade is essential to ensuring that all parties compete on a level playing field, and duties are a purposeful and WTO-consistent action that achieves this goal, giving U.S. lumber producers a fair opportunity. Full enforcement of U.S. trade laws allows the U.S. industry to invest and grow to its natural size without being impaired by unfairly traded imports. How trade law duties are determined and implemented.

Latest From The U.S. Lumber Coalition

Showing 1 - of articles

Story

U.S. Lumber Industry and Workers Letter to President Trump

Press Release

U.S. Lumber Coalition and American Loggers Council Disappointed by CNBC Inaccurate Reporting on U.S. Softwood Lumber Cost, Import Duties and Housing Affordability

Press Release

U.S. Lumber Coalition Applauds President Trump’s America First Focus on Trade Law Enforcement

Video

Canada Seeks to Avoid Accountability

Press Release

Canada Seeks to Avoid Accountability

Press Release

Canadian Excess Lumber Capacity at the Root of Unfair Trade Practices

Press Release

Escalation of Harmful Canadian Softwood Lumber Subsidies Confirmed by the U.S. Department of Commerce

Video

Community Voices: Canada’s Unfair Trade Practices Harm American Lumber Mills

Press Release

U.S. Lumber Coalition Applauds Trump Administration’s Strong Enforcement of the U.S. Trade Laws Against Egregious Levels of Unfair Trade by Canada In Softwood Lumber

Press Release

U.S. Lumber Coalition Applauds President Trump’s Additional Measures to Investigate Unfair Trade Practices

Press Release

U.S. Lumber Coalition Letter to President Trump Highlights Success of Trade Law Enforcement

Press Release

U.S. Lumber Coalition: Dumped and Subsidized Canadian Lumber Import Forcing American Lumber Companies to Reduce Hours of Operations   

Press Release

U.S. Lumber Coalition: Duties on Unfairly Traded Canadian Softwood Lumber Have A Near Zero Impact on the Price of a New Home

Press Release

U.S. Lumber Coalition Comments on British Columbia Creation of ‘Advisory Council’ to Counter U.S. Trade Law Enforcement Duties

Press Release

U.S. Lumber Coalition Rebuts Canada’s Offensive To Dismantle U.S. Measures Against Unfairly Traded Softwood Lumber Imports

Press Release

U.S. Lumber Coalition Applauds President Trump’s Strong Stance on U.S. Trade Law Enforcement — Will Maximize Lumber Output by U.S. Workers in U.S. Mills to Build U.S. Homes

Resource

Trade Cases Undeniable Success for U.S. Lumber Manufacturing

Press Release

U.S. Lumber Coalition Supports Commerce Department Continued Enforcement of Trade Laws and Continued Growth of American Made Lumber to Build American Homes

Story

Softwood Lumber Across Generations

Press Release

WTO Panel Affirms U.S. Department of Commerce Antidumping Duty Measures Applying the Differential Pricing Methodology to Softwood Lumber Products from Canada

Resource

How Duties are Determined and Implemented

Press Release

Congressional Letter Contains Inaccurate Facts Regarding Softwood Lumber Trade with Canada

Press Release

USLC: ITC Finds Canadian Subsidies Harm U.S. Producers and Workers; Restores Fair Trade in the Softwood Lumber Industry

Press Release

Final Determination of AD and CVD a Positive Step Forward for the U.S. Lumber Industry

Press Release

U.S. Lumber Coalition Statement on ITC Hearing to Determine Injury Caused by Canadian Dumping

Press Release

U.S. Lumber Industry Applauds Commerce Department Finding of Canadian Dumping

The meet-and-greet Tuesday between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and President Donald Trump undoubtedly included a discussion of tariffs between the two countries.

Earlier in the day, Trump had ruminated on Truth Social about why, from his perspective, America was subsidizing Canada. “We don’t need their Cars, we don’t need their Energy, we don’t need their Lumber, we don’t need ANYTHING they have,” Trump wrote.

When it comes to wood imports, that is certainly the position of the U.S. Lumber Coalition, which has maintained that the U.S. timber industry can supply virtually all of the U.S. housing industry’s lumber needs, but it is being crippled by cheap imports from Canada.

The coalition, an alliance of softwood lumber producers, argues that Canada has long been dumping softwood lumber on the U.S. market and selling it below the cost of production, or below their home sales market price.

In response, the U.S. Department of Commerce has investigated the complaints, and the U.S. International Trade Commission has heard the cases. Only after much deliberation are duties placed on the lumber imports. For instance, after more than a year of investigations into industry complaints about Canadian subsidies given to their lumber industry, the U.S. increased the existing duty to 14.56%.

Those duties could increase to 34.5% later this year, after more dumping charges were leveled at Canadian producers. The final determination is set for August or September.

Earlier this year, tariffs were set to be added to the duties to be added on top of the 34.5% duties, greatly increasing the cost of Canadian lumber. But lobbying by some groups, including the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), helped Canadian softwood avoid being placed on the list of imports facing tariffs from the Trump administration.

NAHB has argued that Canadian softwood imports account for about 30% of the wood used in building homes in the U.S. Without the Canadian imports, the housing construction industry would be hit by shortages and higher construction costs at a time when housing construction costs are near record highs.

Zoltan van Heyningen, executive director of the U.S. Lumber Coalition, maintained in an interview with Scotsman Guide that the Canadian lumber industry has increased its excess lumber capacity by threefold since 2016 and now has 8.7 billion board feet of excess production capacity. Much of that wood is coming into the U.S. market and undercutting American lumber producers, he claimed.

Read the full article here.