Trump orders investigation into suspected dumping of wood in the U.S. market

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Donald Trump has ordered an investigation into the U.S. timber market dumping, laying the foundation for the industry to join the commodity basket targeted by the global trade war in Washington.

The president directed the Commerce Department on Saturday to investigate whether imports of wood and timber products posed a risk to U.S. national security days after ordering a similar review of the copper industry, which undermined domestic loggers.

If the investigation finds evidence of dumping, the president can take retaliation measures, including quotas and tariffs. Canada is by far the largest source of U.S. timber imports and will be the biggest blow.

“Obviously, something is happening here. We know that these exporters are taking advantage of our market,” White House officials said before the order.

“But it depends [Commerce] Secretary Howard Lutnick conducted the investigation and returned to the president through the report. ”

While Canadian timber imports have imposed a 14.5% tariff, the announcement marks the first step in dragging the industry into Trump’s global trade war. Any new tariffs will be supplemented except for pre-existing Canadian taxes.

It comes on the eve of the 25% tariffs that will be imposed next week in Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10% imposed on Chinese imports as Trump escalates on U.S. trading partners.

The president also tried to target specific industries, and he believed imports were destroying domestic industries. After a similar investigation into the industry during his first term, he will impose a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports starting March 12.

On Tuesday, he announced an investigation into copper imports, sparking concerns that metals will be the next area of ​​taxes, with the above taxes.

The United States has had a long dispute with Canada over wood imports. It imported about 340,000 cubic feet of cork wood in 2023. The vast majority of them (more than 28Mn cu ft) are from Canada. The second largest German and Sweden shipped less than 3.5 million cubic feet.

Forestry is a big business for Canada. In 2022, the industry contributed $33.4 billion to Real GDP, or about 1.2%. According to government data, Canadian forest products exports were worth 45.6 billion CAD in the same year, and most people were destined to be the United States.

The province of British Columbia, where there is a highly concentrated Canadian forestry industry and companies have spent decades fighting our tax and anti-dumping duties in court.

In 2016, the U.S. timber industry launched a recent round of lawsuits urging the Department of Commerce to act as “unfair subsidies for Canadian timber and dump them onto the U.S. market,” according to a statement from the British Columbia government.

The dispute depends on the practice of the Canadian forestry industry to source timber from Crown Land, or parks operated by provinces, so production and administration costs are lower than that of the U.S. forestry companies that rely on private land.

Trump has repeatedly raised the issue since becoming president and threatened tariffs on timber imports.

Derek Nighbor, president of the Canadian Forest Products Association, said any increase in tariffs on timber would harm forest department employees on both sides of the border, as well as American families seeking affordable housing.

“We should focus on strengthening our competitive advantage, building more affordable housing, working together to address the worsening of wildfire risks and bringing more North American timber to the world,” he said in a statement last month.

But, Andrew Miller, owner of Stimson Lumber and chairman of the American Timber Alliance, said: “Canadian unfair trade is directly paying for U.S. companies and workers.”