US President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he would impose 10% tariffs on imported timber and lumber, and 25% duties on imported kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, and upholstered furniture. This move continues his tariff campaign against global trading partners.
Trump signed a presidential proclamation asserting that imports of timber, lumber, and furniture are undermining US national security, thereby justifying the new duties under Section 232 of the Trade Act of 1974.
The proclamation stated that the tariff rates would begin on October 14, with an increase on January 1 to 30% for upholstered wooden products and 50% for kitchen cabinets and vanities from countries that do not reach an agreement with the United States.
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This action marks the first of three sectors that Trump announced last week would see significant new duties as early as October 1, including patented pharmaceutical imports and heavy truck imports. However, Monday’s proclamation sets the start of the lumber and furniture duties two weeks later, at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT) on October 14.
Trump’s proclamation declared that wood product imports are weakening the US economy, posing persistent threats such as the closure of wood mills, disruptions in wood product supply chains, and reduced utilization of the US domestic wood industry.
“Due to the state of the United States wood industry, the United States may be unable to meet demands for wood products that are crucial to national defense and critical infrastructure,” the statement said.
The order further noted that wood products are used for “building infrastructure for operational testing, housing and storage for personnel and materiel, transporting munitions, as an ingredient in munitions, and as a component in missile-defense systems and thermal-protection systems for nuclear-reentry vehicles.”
Who will be affected?
The action increases tariffs on Canada, the largest supplier of softwood lumber to the US, where producers already face combined US anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs of approximately 35% due to a long-standing dispute over timber harvested from Canadian public lands.
Canada, which aims to negotiate US tariff reductions through a broader revision of the 2020 US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, has stated it would provide up to C$1.2 billion ($870 million) in aid to its softwood lumber producers to manage the previous duties.
Mexico and Vietnam are becoming significant suppliers of wooden furniture to the US after Trump imposed tariffs of up to 25% on Chinese furniture products during his first term starting in 2018. These duties have since increased to about 55% and could nearly double for cabinets and vanities.
Trump’s proclamation offered some relief from the higher wood products duties for countries that have secured tariff-reducing trade deals with the US. It noted that US tariffs on wood products from Britain would be capped at 10%, and those from the European Union and Japan would be capped at 15%—rates consistent with the base tariff rate in those framework agreements.
However, Trump’s statement did not mention his trade deal with Vietnam for a 20% tariff rate in July, an agreement that has yet to be formally documented.
In April, following the Commerce Department’s initiation of a national security probe into US lumber imports, the US Chamber of Commerce expressed its opposition to any restrictions on imports of timber, lumber, and their derivative products, including wood pulp, paper, and cardboard.
“Imports of these goods do not represent a national security risk,” the Chamber wrote. “Imposing tariffs on these goods would raise costs for US businesses and home construction, undermine the export success enjoyed by the US paper industry, and reduce incomes in many US communities.”
