U.S. Lumber Coalition: Canada and NAHB Ramping Up Campaign Against U.S. Self-Reliance in Lumber Supply

CONTACT: Zoltan van Heyningen

[email protected] | 202-805-9133

U.S. Lumber Coalition: Canada and NAHB Ramping Up Campaign Against U.S. Self-Reliance in Lumber Supply  

Canada and the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) “Team Lumber” are in overdrive attacking President Trump’s strong trade law enforcement and the President’s commitment and plan to push the United States towards being fully self reliant for its softwood lumber needs.

“Not a day goes by without Canada and their Canada First allies pushing the false narrative that trade law enforcement against Canada’s massive excess lumber capacity and unfair trade practices would cause housing prices to skyrocket,” stated Zoltan van Heyningen, Executive Director of the U.S. Lumber Coalition.

“The problem with the Canadian and NAHB false and misleading narrative is that their rhetoric has never withstood the test of time or facts,” continued van Heyningen, adding that “the single biggest obstacle to continued domestic lumber capacity growth for U.S. producers and workers is the massive oversupply of Canadian softwood lumber that is being dumped into the U.S. market on a daily basis.”

Canada currently maintains a massive oversupply of lumber production capacity that they must ship into the U.S. market by any method necessary – which means by dumping into the U.S. market. Canada strives to maintain a market share above its current market share in order for its industry to operate at their desired capacity utilization rate. The result is predictably detrimental, Canada pushes its excess capacity into the U.S. market at the expense of U.S. production, U.S. jobs, and a stable U.S. homegrown lumber supply chain.

“It is not lost on us that the National Association of Homebuilders does not want to lose its access to dumped Canadian lumber imports, as Canada pushes to maintain a disruptive U.S. market share to the benefit of those seeking to purchase unfairly traded lumber at below market price,” stated van Heyningen, adding that “this is simply trying to generate some short term additional profit at the expense of U.S. workers and President Trump’s goal of U.S. self reliance for its softwood lumber needs.”

“President Trump is absolutely right that the United States has the natural resources and the capability to be completely self reliant for its softwood lumber needs, and that we do not need a single stick of unfairly traded Canadian lumber imports,” stated Andrew Miller, Chair/Owner of Stimson Lumber and Chair of the U.S. Lumber Coalition.

“It is unfortunate that Canada continues to enjoy such strong support from the National Association of Homebuilders to fight against the President’s plan to further increase the supply of Made in the U.S.A. lumber by U.S. workers to build U.S. homes,” continued Miller, adding that “the enforcement of the U.S. trade laws against Canada’s massive excess lumber capacity and unfair trade practices has been an incredible success, adding over 6.7 billion board feet of U.S. lumber capacity and the production of over 30 billion board feet of lumber cumulatively since 2016 – enough to build two million U.S. homes.”

“We must now build on this success by taking the necessary steps to address the problem of Canada’s massive excess capacity which is at the core of the U.S. – Canada softwood lumber trade dispute,” concluded Miller.

“In the meantime, we call on Canada and NAHB to stop running their campaign to attempt to scare the public with their misleading messaging regarding the impact of lumber on housing costs,” stated van Heyningen, adding that “NAHB and Canada tried the same trick during the COVID period only to be proven wrong once again when the facts caught up with their misinformation.”

Enforcing the U.S. trade laws helps increase the U.S. supply of lumber to build American homes, all without impacting the cost of a new home, as demonstrated by data from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Fastmarkets Random Lengths.

U.S. lumber community voices on American infrastructure and resources to supply the U.S. market: https://vimeo.com/1067420168?share=copy#t=0