U.S. trims Canadian lumber duty
The U.S. Commerce Department has preliminarily cut Canadian softwood‑lumber duties by about 10%, but the headline change doesn't wipe out heavy levies. (Wood Central reports the duty rate was set at 24.83% while the effective combined rate stays at 34.83% until August 2026.) (woodcentral.com.au) (Lesprom likewise says Commerce preliminarily set combined duties at roughly 25% while the current 35% rate remains in effect until a final determination.) (lesprom.com)
The United States has preliminarily lowered one layer of its softwood-lumber duties on Canada, but most shipments still face a combined rate near 35% for now. (trade.gov, woodcentral.com.au) The shift starts with the anti-dumping review, where the Commerce Department on March 4, 2025 set a preliminary 20.07% rate for non-selected Canadian companies, up from 7.66% in the prior review. On April 9, 2025, Commerce separately published preliminary countervailing-duty results covering 2023 shipments. (trade.gov, federalregister.gov) Those two cases are the core of the dispute: anti-dumping duties punish sales judged below fair value, while countervailing duties target government subsidies. In the softwood fight, U.S. producers say Canadian provincial stumpage systems amount to subsidies because many timber-cutting fees are set by governments rather than open markets. (congress.gov, federalregister.gov) The headline about a lower rate reflects the new preliminary combined figure of about 24.83%, reported by trade publications after Commerce’s latest review. But the cash deposits actually being collected do not fall immediately, because the older combined rate remains in force until the final results take effect. (woodcentral.com.au, lesprom.com) Commerce’s last completed review pushed the non-selected countervailing-duty rate to 14.63% in final results announced on August 8, 2025. The final anti-dumping review published later that month found margins ranging from 9.65% to 35.53%, leaving the current combined burden well above the new preliminary figure. (trade.gov, federalregister.gov) The stakes reach beyond sawmills because softwood lumber is a basic framing material in U.S. homebuilding and remodeling. A January 2025 Congressional Research Service report said the dispute remains one of the longest-running trade fights between the two countries, and Canadian officials argue the duties raise costs for producers and consumers on both sides of the border. (congress.gov, congress.gov) Canada is still deeply exposed to the U.S. market. Statistics Canada said more than 58% of Canada’s softwood lumber exports went to the United States in 2024, and the National Association of Home Builders said Canadian shipments accounted for about 74% of U.S. softwood-lumber import value that year. (publications.gc.ca, nahb.org) The political split is familiar. The U.S. Lumber Coalition says Canadian subsidies and dumping hurt American mills and jobs, while homebuilders and Canadian officials say higher duties feed through to construction costs and housing affordability. (marketwatch.com, congress.gov, cnbc.com) This fight has outlasted the 2006 softwood lumber agreement, which expired in 2015, and Canada has kept challenging U.S. duties through trade panels. The next key date is the final determination that replaces today’s cash-deposit rate with whatever Commerce sets after the review closes. (congress.gov, international.gc.ca, lesprom.com)
