A message from your Tradewin friends in Canada:
What is softwood lumber? It is lumber from coniferous trees such as pine, spruce, and Douglas fir.
The top six uses for Canadian softwood lumber are:
- Decking
- Flooring
- Paneling
- Framing
- Furniture
- Not hockey sticks
And now, it looks like it’s going to cost American importers as much as an extra 25% if they buy Canadian softwood lumber.
I have nothing against the mighty oak and the majestic maple, but it appears that our neighbors have a problem with Canadian pine.
So, the US government has fired the first shot in a trade war with Canada.
What’s next?! Expensive milk? Maybe the end of NAFTA?
How can Canada fight back? Well, to start, we could recall all of our hockey players. Or maybe stop sending good beer south of the border, but that’s not our way.
Let’s all just get along! There’s plenty of lumber, beer, and milk to go around.
After all, it is knotty pine. Not naughty pine. A tariff that averages 20% on Canadian softwood lumber may just drive the prices up in the US and strain the relationship between such longtime friends. Certainly more to come.
We will post more information about the Canadian Lumber tariff as soon as we know more. Make sure to subscribe to TradeLane to get all of the updates straight to your inbox as soon as we post them.
