U.S. Lumber Coalition: Softwood Lumber Prices Tumble Following Doubling of Duties Against Canada; How Did Canada and NAHB Get Their Rhetoric So Wrong?

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Reality continues to catch up with the extended campaign of scare tactics and misinformation promoted by Canada and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). The U.S. Lumber Coalition has always allowed the facts to speak for themselves, and those facts are once again undermining efforts by Canada, the NAHB, and other "Canada First" talking heads to attack President Trump's enforcement of America's trade laws.

The stark reality is this:

- Canadian softwood lumber imports are subject to antidumping and anti-subsidy duties, not policy tariffs, because of Canada's persistent abuse of the U.S. market through massive government subsidies to Canadian lumber producers and the pervasive and harmful dumping practices by those producers as they desperately try to maintain U.S. market share as an outlet for their massive excess lumber production capacity.

- The U.S. International Trade Commission and a binational NAFTA dispute panel have confirmed that Canada's abusive and unfair softwood lumber trade practices actively harm U.S. lumber producers, U.S. workers, and their communities – suppressing the growth of the U.S. industry.

- Canadian softwood lumber producers, not U.S. consumers, pay nearly all of these import duties, and Dr. Peter Navarro is absolutely correct that lumber import duties have no inflationary effect, especially in today's low housing demand environment.

- In fact, softwood lumber amounts to less than 2 percent of the cost of an average new-build house. Lumber simply is not, and never has been, a driving factor in housing costs.

- The U.S. Department of Commerce, under the leadership of Commerce Secretary Lutnick, recently concluded its latest review of Canada's unfair trade practices and doubled the duties imposed on Canadian imports as a direct and proportionate response to the severity of those unfair practices. As Secretary Lutnick has stated many times, the United States will no longer tolerate foreign countries and foreign industries who abuse the U.S. market and thus the United States of America.

- Notwithstanding these critical enforcement measures, softwood lumber prices have tumbled because (1) a weak housing market reduces the demand for lumber, and (2) Canada continues to push its massive excess lumber capacity and production into the U.S. market well beyond what the market actually needs.  Canada's recent pledge to pump more than $1 billion into its lumber industry in an effort to undermine the Department of Commerce's enforcement measures will only worsen these conditions.

- Canadian companies have paid over $7 billion in duties to the U.S. government that now belong to the American taxpayer.

"We applaud President Trump's goal of increasing U.S. softwood lumber production, which will increase U.S. jobs and support the men and women of the American softwood lumber industry," stated Andrew Miller, Chair/Owner of Stimson Lumber Company. "What we need today is a robust response, in the form of a Section 232 tariff, to Canada's escalation of its unfair trade practices through its relentless dumping of its excess lumber production into the U.S. market at below fair market prices as well as the recent announcement of its latest massive and harmful subsidy program to the tune of $1.2 billion."

"By asking for a new softwood lumber agreement, Canada is asking for a massive U.S. taxpayer-funded bailout to support Canadian jobs at the direct expense, and to the devastation, of American workers and their jobs," stated Zoltan van Heyningen, Executive Director of the U.S. Lumber Coalition. "If Canada does not want to pay import duties, then all it needs to do is to stop its egregious and harmful unfair trade practices."

"Until Canada stops engaging in its unfair softwood lumber trade practices, and while it maintains and indeed seeks to grow its massive 8 plus billion lumber production capacity, the U.S. Lumber Coalition will continue to press aggressively for the full and effective enforcement of the U.S. trade laws," added van Heyningen.

"Canada is currently escalating its unfair trade practices in the softwood lumber market through over a billion dollars in new subsidies and aggressive dumping practices into an already declining lumber market while simultaneously asking President Trump to stop enforcing our trade laws against them. I am not sure why Canada has such an enduring sense of entitlement, nor why it assumes it can continue to abuse its access to the U.S. market with impunity. Since his confirmation, Commerce Secretary Lutnick has made it clear that the United States won't stand for such abusive behavior by our trading partners anymore, and we applaud him for his strong stance," concluded van Heyningen.

More Information

U.S. lumber industry and workers sent a letter to President Trump on the need for continued strong enforcement of the U.S. trade laws to keep expanding U.S. lumber manufacturing and availability to build more American homes with American lumber. https://uslumbercoalition.org/story/u-s-lumber-industry-and-workers-letter-to-president-trump/

Enforcing U.S. trade laws helps increase the U.S. supply of lumber to build American homes, all without impacting the cost of a new home, as demonstrated by data from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Fastmarkets Random Lengths.

About the U.S. Lumber Coalition
The U.S. Lumber Coalition is an alliance of large and small softwood lumber producers from around the country, joined by their employees and woodland owners, working to address Canada's unfair lumber trade practices. Our goal is to serve as the voice of the American lumber community and effectively address Canada's unfair softwood lumber trade practices. The Coalition supports the full enforcement of the U.S. trade laws to allow the U.S. industry to invest and grow to its natural size without being impaired by unfairly traded imports. Continued full enforcement of the U.S. trade laws will strengthen domestic supply lines by maximizing long-term domestic production and lumber availability produced by U.S. workers to build U.S. homes. For more information, please visit the Coalition's website at www.uslumbercoalition.org.

CONTACT: Zoltan van Heyningen
[email protected] | 202-805-9133

SOURCE The U.S. Lumber Coalition