Americans Say No to Lumber, but Yes to Logs

Since the imposition by the U.S. government of 29 percent tariffs on the import of Canadian softwood lumber, Canadian lumber sales to the U.S. have plummetted, lumber mills have closed and thousands of Canadian workers have been thrown out of work. The tariffs were imposed in response to claims by American lumber companies that low stumpage fees on Canadian trees constitute an unfair subsidy to the Canadian softwood lumber industry.

However, the American companies appear to have no problem with importing those same trees as raw logs, rather than as finished lumber. There are no tariffs on raw logs and no demands from the U.S. lumber industry for the imposition of such tariffs, despite the fact that stumpage fees are applied on the logs, not on lumber. As a result, the export to the American market of raw logs, which used to constitute less than one percent of softwood exports, is now booming.

Workers, industry officials and politicians in British Columbia are demanding that the federal government impose an export tax on raw logs to stop this practice, which they argue constitutes an export of Canadian jobs.