The Trump administration is expected to formally declare on Wednesday that it will not extend the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade, starting a decade-long clock to wind down the 32-year-old North American free trade zone. That declaration will kick off a six-year review session, part of a “sunset clause” negotiated by President Trump’s first administration. However, it will do little to alter contentious negotiations over the pact’s future, including sweeping demands to boost US content in automotive production and trade protections to block Chinese goods. …Trade chiefs from the US, Mexico and Canada are expected to meet virtually on Wednesday and declare whether they want to extend the pact for another 16 years. …Failure to reach agreement on revisions to USMCA would keep the trade pact in an indefinite limbo, with similar review sessions annually for the next 10 years. …The review and sunset process is separate from a termination clause that the US could exercise, triggering a withdrawal within six months.
Related coverage by:
- Kelly Malone, Canadian Press: Trade pact set to stay in place as US blows past key deadline
- Daniel Desrochers in Politico: Trump ‘hates’ his own trade deal. But he’ll have a hard time killing it
- Shawn Jeffords in CBC News: Businesses and unions are balancing anxiety and hope for CUSMA
The European Union has formally removed its remaining tariffs on American wood-based industrial products after the European Parliament approved legislation implementing the long-awaited 
Cepi’s 
China remains one of the world’s major importers of softwood logs and lumber, but its 
Japan’s housing starts surged 33.9% yoy in May 2026, sharply accelerating from a 11.4% increase in the previous month and marking the second straight month of expansion. It was also the fastest growth since March 2025, topping market expectations of 31.8%. Growth was broad-based across most segments, including owner-occupied homes (31.8% vs 19.5% in April), rental housing (33.3% vs 17.3%), built-for-sale housing (39.2% vs 3.4%), and two-by-four homes (24.8% vs 64.8%). In contrast, prefabricated housing fell 3.4%, swinging from a 11.1% increase in April.
Russia’s timber exports to China, its largest overseas market, fell sharply in the first four months of 2026 as Beijing’s prolonged property downturn weighed on demand, adding to mounting pressure on an industry already struggling with sanctions, high borrowing costs and weak profitability. Exports of Russian sawn timber to China dropped 30% year on year to 2.6 million cubic meters in January-April, while export revenue declined 26% to $603.7 million, the Vedomosti business daily reported. …China accounted for roughly half of Russia’s sawn timber exports in 2025 after Europe closed its market following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But weakening Chinese construction activity, rising logistics costs and a stronger ruble have eroded demand, leaving Russian producers with fewer alternative markets. Russia’s total sawn timber exports fell 32% year-on-year to around 4 million cubic meters in the January-April period. China imported 11.2 million cubic meters of Russian sawn timber in 2025.
NEW Zealand — Increased trade is key to driving an innovative wood processing and manufacturing sector that will strengthen regional communities, reduce emissions, and build a more resilient and prosperous New Zealand, according to Mark Ross, Chief Executive of the Wood Processors and Manufacturers Association of New Zealand (WPMA). …“This includes supporting trade policies that open markets for high-value wood products, backing programmes such as the Value-Added Wood Exports Growth Accelerator, along with encouraging investment in domestic wood processing to grow the sector,” Mr Ross said. …The policy also highlights leading value-added wood and forestry trade missions into Asia and the Gulf region. The seven priority markets are Brazil, Switzerland, Argentina, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Uruguay and the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). …The Building the Future: New Zealand’s Next Billion Customers’ can be found 
AUSTRALIA — The completion of the 6-Star Green Star Design redevelopment marks the first mass-timber social housing project in New South Wales, and one of the state’s earliest Class 2 timber apartment buildings. Completed in April 2026, the redevelopment delivers 75 new social homes for 130 tenants across two eight-storey towers and a separate three-storey terrace. …Since the initial concept, the project underwent several development application amendments to accommodate the use of mass timber. …One of cross-laminated timber (CLT)’s greatest advantages is speed. At Glebe, the eight-storey apartment floor was erected in as little as two weeks, while the three storey-terraces were fully completed in just three weeks. More than 2500 cubic metres of CLT and glulam were used in the construction. …The integration of a traditional brick façade introduced a slower, labour-intensive layer that disrupted sequencing. …While Australia is not short on sustainable building ambitions, regulatory frameworks have not kept pace with mass timber construction.
Join us for the 16th edition of this flagship event—the only conference of its kind this year offering such a comprehensive view of the Cellulose market, covering the entire value chain from upstream to downstream. CelCo started up the conference Investing in Cellulose in 2011. Since then, it has been running every year in London, in November, the first Monday of the London Pulp Week. Its objective is to gather the entire cellulose value chain: from specialty wood pulp and cotton linters pulp suppliers to all viscose, acetate, ether & MCC, nitrate, cellophane, tyrecord, sausage casings, and sponge applications, as well as final converters up to “Brand levels” (textile, hygiene, pharmaceutical, cigarette, automotive, food, construction industries, etc.). The one-day conference includes a full-day event with 8 speakers, a breakfast, formal lunch, coffee breaks, and a cocktail the previous evening. The event will be held on Monday, November 9, 2026, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the luxurious Waldorf Hotel near Covent Garden. …This event is organized by CelCo, a cellulose consulting company registered in Switzerland, led by Christian Chavassieu, and assisted by its partner, Numera Analytics.
A proposed change to England’s fire-safety guidance could make it much harder to use timber in load-bearing structures above 11 metres. The consultation on changes to Approved Document B, the fire-safety guidance used under the Building Regulations in England, closes on 1 July 2026. Under the draft text, load-bearing elements of structure in buildings with a storey more than 11 metres above ground level should be made from materials or products achieving at least class A2-s3,d2. Most structural timber and mass timber products do not normally meet this reaction-to-fire classification. The proposal would move the debate beyond external walls and cladding. It could affect the structural frame itself in a much wider group of mid-rise residential, commercial and mixed-use buildings. This matters because mass timber and CLT are increasingly used in projects where developers want faster construction and lower embodied carbon compared with concrete or steel.
SINGAPORE — The Alliance to End Plastic Waste today published 
As the Victorian Forestry Transition Program comes to a close, some residents in regions that relied on the timber trade are questioning what has been done to build a replacement economy. The state government’s transition program ends today, two-and-a-half years after Victoria’s native logging industry was brought to an end with the flourish of a pen. The government committed $1.5 billion to support the transition, including $320 million to the Forestry Transition Program to provide financial support for affected workers, businesses and communities. But some residents remain unconvinced enough has been done to replace the jobs lost. …A Victorian auditor general’s 
Nordic, Baltic and Austrian forest industry associations are calling for a realistic and enabling EU climate target for the land-use sector, warning that overly high expectations for forest carbon sinks could place unnecessary pressure on forestry and the bioeconomy. In a joint letter dated 24 June 2026, several European forest industry associations said the EU’s post-2030 climate framework should focus primarily on phasing out fossil emissions, while allowing the land-use sector to continue providing renewable raw materials and climate solutions. The associations argue that forests and the wider land-use sector provide sustainable biomass that can replace fossil-based or carbon-intensive products, materials and energy. They say this role is important for Europe’s transition towards a circular and climate-neutral bioeconomy.
LONDON — The world’s rainforests are to be better protected from deforestation as the government will confirm during London Climate Action Week, that plans to take forward new rules in Great Britain including using powers in the Environment Act alongside legislation strengthening the UK Timber Regulation. Under the proposals UK businesses who trade in commodities sourced from rainforests… will need to check that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation. …UK companies have been at the forefront of global efforts to tackle deforestation within their supply chains, but voluntary action alone cannot tackle this global challenge, and several major supermarkets have been calling for stronger regulation. Rainforests and other forests are vital for storing carbon and sustaining biodiversity, yet they are increasingly threatened by deforestation. … Rules will be enforced using powers in the Environment Act, alongside legislation strengthening existing timber rules.
AUSTRALIA — Tasmania’s public native forestry company has corrected the record in a parliamentary committee after earlier stating that all logs from public native forests were processed in Tasmania. Tasmanian sawmill operator James Neville-Smith confirmed that some logs had been sent to Victoria, where processors had received compensation from the Victorian government as part of its industry shutdown. Mr Neville-Smith said the decision was due to retooling a sawmill to be plantation-only, meaning that hardwood logs needed to be processed elsewhere. Logs displaying stickers from Tasmanian state forests were also spotted at a mill in Powelltown, in the Yarra Valley, that was also a recipient of millions in Victorian compensation payments. Victoria phased out native forest logging in 2024. Since then, environmental groups have raised concerns about large quantities of logs being transported to Victoria on the Spirit of Tasmania, but were told that all were from private forests.
Demand for biofuels has been growing in many parts of the world. …Disruption to oil exports via the Strait of Hormuz this year created a further incentive to switch to biofuels to ensure energy security. While biofuels can’t fully replace petroleum, they can be blended into gasoline and diesel, allowing countries to stretch existing fuel supplies. Many environmentalists contest the idea that biofuels are a sustainable alternative source of energy. And as more farmland is used to produce them, there’s less available to make food, increasing the risk of global food shortages and hunger in the poorest nations. …The priciest biofuel is sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, which uses advanced refining processes to convert waste oils into jet fuel that can be blended for use in aircraft. There’s also so-called advanced or second-generation biodiesel, made from non-food sources such as crop waste, wood chips and even algae, which avoids competing with food crops.
LONDON — The United States accounted for about a third of the rise in global carbon emissions in 2025, as higher gas prices pushed power producers back to coal, an Energy Institute report showed. Highlights from the report include:
The German government has approved a draft law designed to limit the support for electricity generation from woody biomass, aiming the meet the EU requirements. As a result, certain categories of wood will be excluded from subsidisation under Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), such as saw logs, veneer logs, other industrial-grade roundwood and stumps and roots harvested from forests. Electricity generation from these types of wood, however, may still receive support if it is necessary to safeguard Germany’s energy security or if local industry is unable to use the forestry biomass in ways that deliver greater economic and environmental value than energy production. Under the proposed law, industrial wood residues will remain eligible for financing.
A wildfire burning out of control in southwestern France has forced the evacuation of 10,000 people from two dozen small towns and villages near the Spanish border and officials said strong winds on Monday would further fan the blaze. The European Union said on Monday it was sending four waterbombing aircraft to France from Cyprus and Sweden to help firefighters around the city of Perpignan. …The blaze has injured 16 people, including four firefighters, and scorched some 4,600 hectares in the foothills of the French Pyrenees. Early summer heat waves in France and across western Europe in May and June have scorched vast areas of land, making them particularly vulnerable to wildfires this year. The Trevillach blaze was burning near the third stage of the Tour de France, leading to its closure to the public on Monday to allow firefighters easy access to the area, according to Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme.
Hundreds of firefighters have been battling forest infernos in heatwave-scarred Europe, as temperatures are set to rise again on Sunday, local time. The latest wildfires have already devastated more than 17,000 hectares of land across France, Spain and Portugal where temperatures in some places are forecast to reach 40C. Authorities registered