U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Monday he was imposing 10% tariffs on imported timber and lumber, along with 25% duties on kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities and upholstered furniture, continuing his tariff assault on global trading partners.
The action is the first in three sectors that Trump said last week would get steep new duties as early as Oct. 1, including patented pharmaceutical imports and heavy truck imports. Monday's proclamation sets the start of the lumber and furniture duties two weeks later, at 12:01 a.m. EDT (4:01 a.m. GMT) on Oct. 14.
Trump signed a presidential proclamation outlining his argument that timber, lumber and furniture imports are eroding U.S. national security, justifying the new duties under Section 232 of the Trade Act of 1974.
Trump's increasing use of Section 232 comes as he awaits a Supreme Court ruling on the legality of his broader "reciprocal" tariffs on global trading partners, which two lower courts have struck down.
The proclamation stated that the tariff rates would take effect on Oct. 14, but added that duties would increase from 1% to 30% for upholstered wooden products and from 50% to 30% for kitchen cabinets and vanities imported from countries that had failed to reach an agreement with the U.S.
Trump's proclamation said that wood product imports were weakening the U.S. economy, posing a persistent threat to the closure of wood mills, disruptions to wood product supply chains, and a decline in the utilization of the U.S. domestic wood industry.
"Because of the state of the U.S. wood industry, the U.S. may be unable to meet demands for wood products that are crucial to the national defense and critical infrastructure," the statement said.
The order added that wood products were 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."
Trump's use of tariffs has been a hallmark of his second term, presenting new obstacles to businesses already struggling with disrupted supply chains, soaring costs and consumer uncertainty. His administration has highlighted the surge in duties paid into government coffers.
The action imposes additional tariffs on Canada, the largest supplier of softwood lumber to the U.S., where producers already face combined U.S. anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs of approximately 35% due to a long-standing dispute over timber harvested from Canadian public lands.
Canada, which hopes to negotiate U.S. tariff reductions through a broader revamp of the 2020 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade, has said it will provide up to CA$1.2 billion ($870 million) in aid to its softwood lumber producers to help them cope with the prior duties.
Mexico and Vietnam are emerging as significant suppliers of wooden furniture to the U.S. after Trump imposed tariffs of up to 25% on Chinese furniture products during his first term, starting in 2018 – duties that have since been increased to approximately 55% and could nearly double for cabinets and vanities.
Trump's proclamation offered some countries that have struck tariff-reducing trade deals with the U.S. some relief from the higher duties on wood products.
It said that U.S. 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 in line with the base tariff rate in those framework agreements.
However, Trump's statement made no mention of his trade deal with Vietnam, which included a 20% tariff rate in July, an agreement that has not yet been formally documented.
In April, after the Commerce Department initiated a national security probe into U.S. lumber imports, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced 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 U.S. businesses and home construction, undermine the export success enjoyed by the U.S. paper industry and reduce incomes in many U.S. communities."
