The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) published its plans to lower antidumping and countervailing duties on Canadian softwood lumber. This comes as a scheduled review process of existing tariffs. The DOC presented a decrease of antidumping duties by nearly 10%, from 20.56% to 10.66%. While the countervailing duties are only expected to decrease by less than half a percent from 14.63% to 14.17%, the combined rate would decrease from 35.16% to 24.83%.
DOC will likely issue final results of the plans in 120 days, around when lower duties would take effect.
The USTR Comments Portal, the National Lumber & Building Material Dealers Association (NLBMDA) urged the United States to prioritize negotiating a new, long-term SLA with Canada and incorporating it into the USMCA framework.
Additionally, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) expressed support for the decline of lumber duties. “With housing affordability already near a historic low, NAHB continues to call on the Trump administration to suspend tariffs on Canadian lumber imports and other building materials into the United States and to move immediately to enter into negotiations with Canada on a new softwood lumber agreement that will eliminate tariffs altogether,” wrote the association.
