U.S. Lumber Coalition: U.S. Commerce Department Takes Enforcement Steps Against Harmful Canadian Subsidies While Canada Escalates Unfair Trade Practices with New Massive $1.2 Billion Subsidy Announcement for Canada's Lumber Industry

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Department of Commerce today announced the final anti-subsidy rate of 14.63% in the sixth annual review of unfairly traded Canadian softwood lumber imports into the United States. The review covers lumber imported in calendar year 2023.

Meanwhile, over the last 72 hours, Canada has once again demonstrated its willingness to flout U.S. trade laws by announcing a massive $1.2 billion subsidy package to its softwood lumber industry:

• Canadian Prime Minister Carney unveils $1.2B aid package for softwood lumber industry, while visiting B.C. – CBC News
  
  
• Canada's softwood lumber industry gets federal help to deal with U.S. anti-dumping duties – Global News
  
  
• 'Great News – But Not Enough': B.C. Leaders Weigh In on Federal Lumber Aid – Radio NL

"Canada's arrogant and abusive unfair trade behavior knows no bounds," stated Zoltan van Heyningen, Executive Director of the U.S. Lumber Coalition, adding that "Canada has once again demonstrated that it feels entitled to its access to the U.S. market for its massive excess lumber capacity and has gone as far as stating that Canada does not think that the U.S. trade laws should apply to their unfair trade."

"Canada's latest $1.2 billion subsidy announcement for its softwood lumber industry will result in job losses in the U.S. forestry sector, plain and simple," stated Andrew Miller, Chair/Owner of Stimson Lumber Company. "We urge President Trump to respond forcefully to this latest Canadian defiance of our trade laws by imposing substantial new tariffs under Section 232. In order to realize continued growth of the U.S. lumber industry, Canada's flagrant trade law violations must be stopped now."

"Canada would not tolerate these unfair trade practices under its own trade laws by any foreign country, yet it feels entitled not only to violate U.S. trade laws, but now also to make a public mockery of them by providing a massive new subsidy that compensates Canadian lumber producers who have repeatedly violated U.S. trade laws," stated van Heyningen.

"Canada has been escalating its dumping practices significantly every year since 2021 in an attempt to maintain its market share in the United States at the expense of U.S. lumber producers, U.S. workers, and U.S. communities. We applaud President Trump's laser focus on enforcing U.S. trade laws, and we urge the President to send a clear message to Canada that there will be a response to this latest egregious U.S. trade law violation," stated Miller.

Addressing today's findings by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Miller stated that "the combined anti-subsidy and antidumping duty rate of 35.19% calculated by the Commerce Department confirms in no uncertain terms just how bad an actor the Canadian lumber industry is when it comes to unfair trade," adding that "these numbers tell the tale of the enormous amounts of lost sales and lost revenue for American lumber manufacturers."

"And it doesn't stop there," added Miller, "Canada's egregious unfair trading affects the entire softwood forestry industry, from landholders, to loggers, to truckers, to mill workers, and of course the entire communities in which they operate. All are severely affected by Canada's unfair trade."

"Canada is quick to shamelessly denounce any border measures against their unfairly traded lumber, but let's not forget: the duties simply offset the subsidies that Canadian producers receive from their governments and the Canadian producers' unfair trade practices, nothing more," added Miller. "And Canadian exporters are just now having to face the consequences of the unfair trade they engaged in during 2023, even as the effects of their unfair trading were felt every single day in the market. U.S. producers are the ones who should be screaming from the rooftops, not the Canadian exporters who knowingly accepted unfair subsidies and knowingly dumped their injurious excess production in the United States."

The U.S. lumber industry established its right to the imposition of antidumping and countervailing duties in the face of unfair competition from Canada in 2017 (following decades of unfair trade practices going back to the 1980s), and the industry continues to vigorously defend the existence and enforcement of those duties in all appropriate fora.

Increased U.S. capacity through the enforcement of the U.S. trade laws means that today the United States can supply the vast majority of its own lumber needs. U.S. mills have added 8.8 billion board feet of capacity since 2016 in the form of new mills and expansions of existing mills. The U.S. industry has produced 30 billion additional board feet of softwood lumber during this period. These increases have more than offset any decline in unfairly traded Canadian imports and are enough lumber to build two million new single-family homes.

"We applaud President Trump for firmly enforcing our trade laws against all unfair trade, including against unfairly traded Canadian lumber imports. This commitment to enforcing our trade laws not only saves American jobs but also will continue to build up the U.S. lumber industry and allow it to grow to its natural size to supply the American market with American product," concluded Miller.

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