U.S. set to significantly hike softwood lumber duties against Canada
U.S. set to significantly hike softwood lumber duties against Canada
32 comments
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They already need to rebuild (checks notes...) all of LA. This year's wildfire season should be interesting....
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No disagreement about the wildfire season coming up, but "all of LA" didn't burn down. Bit of hyperbole. Definitely some structure loss (especially in Palisades fire) and lots of burn scar in the wilderness areas adjacent, but LA is huge.
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Frankly we should have been putting export taxes on lumber all along. Or we could just charge higher stumpage fees, but at least we can justify that as minimizing input costs on housing. It's insane that we blindly leave all profit to private business harvesting public resources in a manner optimized for volume.
We effectively are subsidizing our forestry sector just so it can undercut a U.S. private forestry industry that is, as far as I can tell, healthier in both ecological and market terms.
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I don't understand how this works.
So America imports wood from Canada. Does Canada have to pay the 34% tariff on the wood Canada exports to America?
Wouldn't this stop Canada from exporting its wood to the States because it's now more expensive? America needs the lumber for building.
America would have to start harvesting its own wood or pay more for Canadian wood?
Wouldn't the tariff hurt America more than it hurts Canada?
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So America imports wood from Canada. Does Canada have to pay the 34% tariff on the wood Canada exports to America?
Americans pay the tariff when importing the wood.
Wouldn't this stop Canada from exporting its wood to the States because it's now more expensive? America needs the lumber for building.
It will be more expensive for Americans.
America would have to start harvesting its own wood or pay more for Canadian wood?
They do harvest their own wood. The problem is that our wood is better for building homes with, because our wood has tighter growth rings (due to shorter growing seasons). That means the wood is structurally stronger and less likely to warp or twist.
Wouldn't the tariff hurt America more than it hurts Canada?
Yup, but Trump is an idjit, so ...
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No, the American importer would pay the taxes. It's why people have been saying "tarrifs are a tax on your own people" for months now. They know the American people will hurt the most.
It affects Canada because then American businesses have less money to buy goods with. Lose-lose situation for everyone except for the rich getting the tax cuts elsewhere.
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Well that's too bad.
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I don't understand how this works.
Actually, you understand how it works just fine. It’s they who misunderstand.
The system of getting cheap materials from Canada (and more) for their industries was a tremendously good system for the US.
Likewise being the recipient of a “brain drain” where educated and trained people from Canada and other countries was insanely good for the US. I worked for a major US tech company and well over half of their technical staff was educated outside the US.
Their greed and idiocy is our gain. We can use our own timber, our own oil and hydro power, our own minerals. We can invite the Canadians and other foreigners who want to leave the US to found and join innovative firms here instead.
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The company which is importing the lumber will last the tariffs. Yes it will hurt them.
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That's too bad. Especially for anyone who planned to build this year.
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Put an export tariff on potash already.
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If Murican clowns want to log their national parks instead of buying our lumber - fine!! JFC Muricans are stupid. Yet another epic self own! Add it to the pile!
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More surprised it took this long for lumber. We've been fighting to get lumber tariffs down for decades.
That said, the US is going to find everything to have to do with wood, especially for building houses, to skyrocket. Even the smaller tariff increase a few years ago added something like 10-20% to all housing projects the same year.
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Didn't the Americans just declare 50% of their national parks fit for logging which is a tragedy in itself but would solve the problem? If they have enough machinery, personell and manufacturing for the steps beyond killing a tree
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I haven't heard specifics, but it entirely depends on where it is. A lot of US national parks are literally in the middle of nowhere, so if there isn't any accessible roads to them, the entire idea is pointless. No logging company will make the trip offroad since doing so will be most costly than the logging areas they already use.
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Welp, there goes the quality of the wood in the US!
32 comments