U.S. set to significantly hike softwood lumber duties against Canada

Akshay Kulkarni · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 05, 2025 6:55 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

The U.S. is acceptable to much than double the work it charges connected softwood lumber imports from Canada, with the planned caller complaint acceptable astatine 34.45 per cent, up from the erstwhile 14.54 per cent. 

While the preliminary determination was not instantly posted to the U.S. Federal Register, it was confirmed successful statements from the B.C. premier's bureau and the U.S. Lumber Coalition, a commercialized manufacture body.

New softwood lumber duties were long-feared amid the increasing commercialized warfare betwixt Canada and the U.S., and would beryllium the latest stroke to B.C.'s beleaguered forestry industry, which has seen thousands of workers laid disconnected implicit the past fewer years.

B.C. Premier David Eby condemned the planned work hike arsenic an "attack connected wood workers and British Columbians" successful a connection connected Saturday.

WATCH | Eby to propulsion for softwood lumber industry: 

"In Canada, the continued unjustified softwood lumber duties, combined with further U.S. tariffs and different commercialized actions, person agreed Canadians," helium wrote.

"We person friends and household successful the United States who request Canadian lumber to physique oregon rebuild their homes, and some Canadians and Americans request an extremity to this commercialized dispute."

Under the U.S. Tariff Act, the Department of Commerce determines whether goods are being sold astatine little than just worth oregon if they're benefiting from subsidies provided by overseas governments.

In Canada, lumber-producing provinces acceptable alleged stumpage fees for timber harvested from Crown land, a strategy that U.S. producers — forced to wage marketplace rates — see an unfair subsidy.

Indeed, the U.S. Lumber Coalition — which represents softwood lumber producers successful that state — welcomed the planned spike successful duties successful a connection connected Friday.

"These unfair commercialized practices are designed by Canada to support an artificially inflated U.S. marketplace stock for Canadian products and unit U.S. companies to curtail production, thereby sidesplitting U.S. jobs," said Andrew Miller, the president of the coalition, successful the statement.

Eby to conscionable with PM

CBC News has reached retired to Global Affairs Canada to find retired if the national authorities plans to instrumentality countermeasures against the planned hike in duties.

In August 2024, erstwhile the duties were hiked from 8.05 per cent to 14.54 per cent, the national authorities had indicated it would combat the tariffs astatine the U.S. Court of International Trade and astatine the World Trade Organization.

WATCH | B.C.'s wood manufacture nether threat: 

Eby said the B.C. government would enactment with the wood assemblage and the national authorities to combat the duties "through each avenues disposable to us."

"I americium gathering with the Prime Minister connected Monday ... and I program connected raising this contented with him directly," the premier said.

"B.C. workers and their families beryllium connected the jobs that these tariffs are targeting, and we anticipation to spot the aforesaid Team Canada attack to protecting them, conscionable similar with the automotive and alloy manufacture jobs successful Ontario and Quebec."

The United States has agelong been the azygous largest marketplace for B.C. lumber exports, representing implicit half the marketplace for the approximately $10-billion industry.

But amid a bid of challenges for the province's forestry manufacture — including a upland conifer beetle infestation that killed hundreds of thousands of trees — mills person been closing astir the state successful caller years, and large forestry companies are opening up caller mills successful the United States.

In 2023, numbers from Statistics Canada showed B.C. had mislaid much than 40,000 forest-sector jobs since the aboriginal 1990s.