“Slightly perplexed”- that’s the sense among Alberta’s forestry leaders following the announcements out of the US that tariffs on the already highly disputed softwood lumber export industry are not considered “off the table.”
Senior Vice President of the Alberta Forest Products Association Brock Mulligan says the province’s forest industry continues to operate with a “wait and see” mood, with the understanding that additional duties or tariffs could pose a “major concern” for Alberta’s forest product producers.
“We’ve already seen lumber duties- which are at 14 per cent right now, projected to increase to over 30 per cent, effective late summer or fall and that’s a major concern for our industry,” he says. “Our industry has been subject to US trade barriers in various forms since the early 1980s, we’ve started to see things escalate recently with duties that are already on our lumber ramping up, more than doubling, effective late this year.”
“Then there’s also the uncertainty caused by the possibility of general tariffs, and when you combine the two, it’s a real major threat to the viability of our industry.”
Still, Mulligan maintains that there are solutions to protect the province’s forest industry. To start, he says maintaining a line of communication between the service providers in Alberta and the customers across the border, while recognizing the mutual benefits of the relationship, will help avoid any less than desirable consequences down the road.
“We need to talk to Americans about the value of forest products, not only do they help build homes affordably in that country, but also pulp is a feed stock that creates tens of thousands of jobs for Americans,” he says. “We buy a lot of equipment and machinery in the forest industry that’s manufactured in the US, so this is a mutually beneficial relationship.”
It’s not just American consumers the AFPA is calling on either. Mulligan is calling on developers maple-side to consider utilizing more domestic wood products in an effort to keep prices low, as long as the threat of increased prices continues to loom.
“We also should be building more with our own wood here at home, that’s a great way to shelter our products from tariffs,” he says. “We should be thinking about keeping Alberta’s forest industry as competitive as possible from a regulatory standpoint in keeping costs low, because there’s so much sensitivity to costs in this type of environment.”
The most recent announcements out of the US did not include any additional tariffs or duties on softwood lumber; however, provincial officials suggest figures of 20 to 25 per cent could mean “terrible” consequences for the lumber industry.
