(Bloomberg) — US President Donald Trump is ordering the Commerce Department to launch an investigation into the national security harm posed by lumber imports, laying the legal groundwork for new tariffs he’s pledged.
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The investigation will examine whether exporters like Canada, Germany, and Brazil are dumping lumber into US markets at the expense of American economic prosperity and national security, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity.
Officials will examine the impact of foreign government subsidies, predatory trade practices, and derivative products — and particularly if countries like China are artificially depressing the price of goods like kitchen cabinetry. Trump has previously said he is eyeing 25% tariffs on lumber in the near future, but the official said the investigation could also result in regulatory changes to ease harvesting of timber.
Trump is simultaneously signing an executive order, titled “Freeing our Forests,” that will focus on streamlining the regulatory permitting process, allowing more harvesting of timber salvage.
The official declined to say how long the investigation is expected to take, but indicated that the Commerce Department would move quickly. The official also declined to say if eventual tariffs that resulted from the probe were additive to Trump’s existing plans to impose so-called reciprocal tariffs on other countries, or a 25% levy on Canada and Mexico slated to hit next week.
The movement on lumber serves dual political purposes for the president. Trump has long blamed forest maintenance rather than climate change for a spate of wildfires in California, including the recent blazes that decimated large swaths of the Los Angeles area.
And softwood lumber has been a decades-old irritant in the trade relationship between Ottawa and Washington, with the American industry accusing Canadian producers of dumping low-priced wood over the border. The US argues Canada subsidizes its loggers by charging cheap fees for harvesting, and has repeatedly slapped duties on Canadian softwood over the years.
Last summer, the US hiked levies on Canadian lumber to 14.54%, a level that has already put pressure on production there and raised concerns over the future viability of some northern sawmills.
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