The U.S. Department of Commerce issued a final determination in the third annual review of softwood lumber imports from Canada and has lowered the duty rate from 17.99% to 8.59%.
Industry associations, including the NAHB and the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association, have been advocating for the tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber to be cut in order to support more affordable housing.
According to Andrew Miller, the CEO of Stimson Lumber and the chairman of the U.S. Lumber Coalition, the new trade duties “will help offset Canada’s unfair trade practices.”
“Trade law enforcement boosts American manufacturing and results in more U.S. lumber being produced by U.S. workers to build U.S. homes,” Miller said in a news release.
According to the U.S. Lumber Coalition—an alliance of large and small softwood lumber producers—U.S. sawmills have invested heavily to expand capacity since the trade cases were first filed in 2016. The domestic industry has produced an additional 15 billion board feet of lumber through 2021, which is enough output to build over 1 million single-family homes, according to the coalition.
The NAHB said lower tariffs could help ease extreme price swings in the lumber market that have added more than $14,000 to the price of the average new single-family home since early 2020. However, the association continues to advocate for a renegotiation of the softwood lumber trade agreement.
Mary Ng, Canadian Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business, and Economic Development, said Canada is “disappointed” that the U.S. “continues to impose unwarranted and unfair duties on Canadian softwood lumber.”
“While the duty rates will decrease from the current levels for the majority of exporters, the only truly fair outcome would be for the United States to cease applying baseless duties to Canadian softwood lumber,” Ng said.
