The US Department of Commerce today announced the final anti-dumping duty rate of 20.56% in the sixth annual antidumping review of unfairly traded Canadian softwood lumber imports into the United States. The review covers lumber imported in calendar year 2023. If the Department’s forthcoming determination in the countervailing duty review is consistent with the preliminary results, the combined rate will be well over 30%.
Council of Forest Industries (COFI):
COFI strongly condemns today’s decision by the US Department of Commerce to once again increase anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood lumber. These unjustified and punitive trade actions continue to harm workers, families, and communities across British Columbia and Canada—and have gone unresolved for far too long. We call on the Government of Canada to make resolution of the softwood lumber dispute a top national priority. But this latest escalation also underscores a hard truth: we cannot wait for the US to act. To keep forestry workers employed and communities strong, BC must urgently strengthen the conditions to succeed here at home. That starts with treating forestry as a major project to reach a target harvest of 45 million cubic metres and taking immediate action to restore wood flow, protect jobs, and stabilize the sector—while laying the groundwork for long-term competitiveness.
US Lumber Coalition:
The US Lumber Coalition applauds Trump Administration’s strong enforcement of the US trade Laws against egregious levels of unfair trade by Canada in softwood lumber. “20.56% – that is the enormous extent to which Canadian producers dumped their lumber in the US market. …Andrew Miller, Chairman of the Coalition said., “The Commerce Department has once again proven the severity of market disruption caused by Canada’s unfair trading. Time has come for Canada to reconcile the size of its industry with market realities. The United States will no longer absorb Canada’s massive excess capacity in lumber at the expense of US mills and communities.” …US lumber industry and workers letter to President Trump. Enforcing U.S. trade laws helps increase the U.S. supply of lumber to build American homes, all without impacting the cost of a new home, as demonstrated by data from the NAHB and Fastmarkets Random Lengths.
BC Lumber Trade Council (BCLTC):
The BCLTC is deeply disappointed by today’s final determination by the US Department of Commerce to raise anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood lumber to 20.56%. This decision represents yet another example of ongoing US protectionism at a time when cross-border cooperation should be a shared priority. “These duties are both unjustified and harmful,” said Kurt Niquidet, President of the BC Lumber Trade Council. “They unfairly penalize forestry workers and families across British Columbia, while further increasing costs for American homebuilders and consumers. Niquidet emphasized the need for a lasting resolution: “Rather than prolonging this decades-old dispute through costly litigation, we urge both governments to pursue a fair and durable agreement that delivers long-term certainty in the softwood lumber trade.”
As trade talks intensify between the US and Canada, those in the forest industry await what will happen with that long-term irritant of a trade file – softwood lumber. The US Lumber Coalition’s (USLC) July 2, 2025 press release, “
BC’s independent wood product makers say hundreds of small- and medium-sized manufacturers may be forced to shut down in light of the latest decision from the US to raise anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood… [which] includes a requirement for Canadian companies to retroactively remit duties for products shipped to the US since Jan.1, 2023. Association chair Andy Rielly says that requirement could not only force small BC producers to shut down, but may also threaten operators’ personal assets as they may have to risk using their homes as collateral to secure bonds to pay. …Association executive director Brian Menzies describes independent wood product producers as “collateral damage” in the trade war.” …“We acquire logs and lumber at ‘arm’s length’ from various suppliers on the open market, just like claims made by members of the US Lumber Coalition, and yet our Canadian companies along with U.S. consumers must pay these unfair and costly duties.”
VANCOUVER, BC – Canfor announced today that its 77%-owned subsidiary, Vida AB, has entered into an agreement to purchase AB Karl Hedin Sågverk from Mattsbo Såg AB and certain minority shareholders for a purchase price of $164 million, including working capital of ~$39 million. AB Karl Hedin Sågverk operates three sawmills located in Central Sweden and will add approximately 230 million board feet to Vida’s annual production capacity. Following completion of this acquisition, Vida will have annual production capacity of approximately 2.1 billion board feet. Annual synergies of approximately $15 million are expected to be achieved within three years as a result of this transaction principally related to alignment of marketing programs as well as log procurement and operational practices. …These operations have access to exceptionally high-quality timber and are well positioned to complement Vida’s high-value product offering,” said CEO Susan Yurkovich. …The transaction is expected to close over the next several months.
Northern Pulp is abandoning its plans in Nova Scotia, but the province is still counting on the company to decommission its old mill and clean up the site in Pictou County that was used for heavy industrial activity for more than half a century. Environment Minister Tim Halman says his department is waiting for the company to file a reclamation plan. …Northern Pulp had been pursuing a new mill in Liverpool, and had said it would maintain the old mill for “potential logistics operations.” But the plan for a new mill was abandoned earlier this month. In a settlement agreement, Northern Pulp agreed to pay up to $15 million to the province for the mill’s closure and any necessary cleanup. …(However), it must first pay off hundreds of millions of dollars owed to its creditors as part of an insolvency process being handled in a BC court.
SPRINGFIELD, Illinois — The US Department of Agriculture will move thousands of employees out of the nation’s capital in a reorganization the agency says will put them closer to customers while saving money, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Thursday. Around 2,600 workers — more than half the Washington, D.C. workforce — will be moved to five hubs stretching from North Carolina to Utah, Rollins said. The union representing federal workers immediately criticized the plan as a ploy to cut federal jobs, pointing out that some 95% of the department’s employees already work outside Washington. The move is part of President Donald Trump’s effort to make the federal government slimmer and more efficient, which received a Supreme Court boost this month. Sen. Amy Klobuchar demanded that department officials appear before the Senate to explain their thinking.” …In the Washington region, the department will vacate three buildings and examine the best use of three others.
Lumber futures traded above $680 per thousand board feet, approaching the two-and-a-half-year peak of $685 recorded on March?24th, driven by a squeeze on supply meeting unfaltering construction demand. On the demand front, US housing starts held surprisingly steady at an annualized 1.6?million units in June even as existing-home sales slipped 2.7% to a nine-month low, ensuring that framing requirements remained robust. At the same time, US softwood lumber tariffs on Canadian imports continue to add roughly 9% to landed costs, while Pacific Northwest mills have withdrawn nearly 20% of regional capacity for mid-season maintenance, sharply curtailing shipments to distributors. Internationally, imports from Europe and New?Zealand are throttled by 25% duties on Russian lumber and persistent ocean-freight bottlenecks, collectively depleting distributor inventories to their lowest levels in more than two years and reinforcing today’s sharp advance in futures prices. [END]
Lumber markets remained flat this week as vacation time, industry gatherings, sweltering heat and general economic uncertainty contributed to sluggish sales. Minimal immediate needs limited replenishment purchases to modest volumes while a lack of clarity regarding near-term prospects stifled speculative trading across North American framing lumber markets. 2×4 led gains in many species, but the increases were modest. Seasonal factors, including unusually heavy rainfall and normal summer heat, contributed to the ongoing sluggish pace across the South. Mills worked hard to capture modest premiums. The coming hike in duties on Canadian shipments to the US did little to alter the ongoing lack of urgency among buyers. …Sales of Western S-P-F were governed by tepid demand and uncertainty regarding the timing and scope of higher duties and potential tariffs. …Sales in the Coast region were lukewarm with most lumber markets trends holding. 
A CUSMA Chapter 10 binational panel remanded [for further explanation] two statistical methodologies in the US Department of Commerce’s Administrative Review 1 antidumping duty determination on Canadian softwood lumber, requiring Commerce to reassess its use of the Cohen’s d test and to apply weighted pooled variances in its meaningful-difference analysis according to the panel’s Decision and Order. …The panel affirmed all other aspect of the results challenged in this appeal…The review stems from a December 22, 2020 request by Resolute Forest Products and the Ontario Forest Industries Association. …The panel remanded Commerce’s application of Cohen’s d because the Federal Circuit’s decision in Marmen Inc. v. United States Wind Tower Trade Coalition requires that the test’s key assumptions, normal data distribution, equal variances and adequate sample size, be demonstrated before use. …The panel also remanded Commerce’s pooling of variances, directing the Department to use weighted pooled variances that reflect differing sample sizes. …Commerce must respond by October 20, 2025.
VANCOUVER, BC
President Trump’s tariffs could have an unintended side effect: making homeownership even less affordable for many Americans. A new report from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce estimates that the average cost of building a US home could rise by an additional $14,000 by the end of 2027 if tariffs on Canadian imports remain in place, even as many experts estimate that America needs millions more affordable homes. In 2023 alone, Canada accounted for 69% of US lumber imports, 25% of imported iron and steel and 18% of copper imports, all key construction materials, the report said. The White House pushed back on the assertion that tariffs would increase costs for Americans. …The report underscores that Trump’s tariff policy, intended to support American industry, may instead worsen housing affordability. Taking into account tariffs first imposed during Trump’s first term, the total added cost from tariffs could reach $20,000 per home by 2027, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce found.
During April’s election campaign, the Carney government promised to double the pace of homebuilding in Canada by 2035—an unlikely outcome in light of Canada’s shortage of construction workers and investment dollars. But even if homebuilding were miraculously doubled, it would not solve Canada’s housing affordability crisis. That’s the sobering conclusion of a recent 
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An earlier post described how the top 10 builders
A contractor’s appeal of a B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS) order to pay more than $1.8 million in compensation and penalties will be heard after a May 22 decision by the Forest Appeals Commission. Panel chair Ian Miller found “special circumstances” led to last summer’s two-day delay in filing a notice to appeal and granted the extension to Jaikle Contracting. “The delay was brief, the explanations and reasons are reasonable and credible, and there would be substantial prejudice to the appellant if the right to appeal is denied,” said Miller’s ruling. On July 12, 2024, designated decision maker Laurence Bowdige of BCWS issued a contravention order against Jaikle, under the Wildfire Regulation, for harvesting timber near Mackenzie in August 2021. “Specifically, that the appellant did not keep an adequate fire suppression system at the activity site while carrying out a high-risk activity within 300 metres of forest land,” said the Miller ruling.
America’s public forests are under assault. We have already seen the massive timber harvests called for by President Trump’s executive order, the elimination of the Roadless Rule, and the gutting of wildlife protection efforts. Those are the broad stokes, but there are also finer maneuvers underway, such as abandoning the traditional practice whereby forest personnel paint-mark the trees selected for cutting, handing those decisions over instead to the timber companies themselves. Or the various subsections that keep popping up in the “Big Beautiful Bill” — for example, giving timber companies an option to pay for hastened environmental review and defunding endangered species recovery efforts. It also arbitrarily requires the Forest Service to increase harvests by 250 million acres annually for nine years. This is the context within which we must now view the Fix Our Forests Act, a logging-in-the-name-of-fire-prevention bill, stuffed with provisions that significantly override scientific and citizen review.
The Trump administration aims to end the prohibition on logging on tens of millions of acres of roadless areas in national forests by the end of next year, according to a draft schedule at the Forest Service. The draft timeline… sets a schedule for drafting the new policy, conducting public comment sessions and consulting with tribes before making a final decision in November or December of 2026. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has already said she’s decided to rescind the roadless-area protections, which have blocked road construction, timber harvesting. The rule applies on 58.5 million of the forest system’s 193 million acres, with Alaska’s Tongass National Forest having the most in any one place. In a June 23 statement, Rollins said, “Once again, President Trump is removing absurd obstacles to common sense management of our natural resources by rescinding the overly restrictive roadless rule.” [to access the full story an E&E News subscription is required]
A deadly wildfire in Seyitgazi, Türkiye that killed 10 forestry workers was the result of a lack of training and institutional expertise, a senior union leader has claimed. The accusation was made by Yusuf Kurt, president of the Agriculture and Forestry Workers Union, who said unqualified personnel were deployed to the scene, while experienced staff had been reassigned due to internal rotation policies. Kurt criticized the practice of assigning staff who had never responded to wildfires before, simply as part of internal rotation policies. “Fire has no school, but the institution used to train its own staff through in-house training centers,” he said. “Now those centers are being shut down. Sending untrained personnel into active fires leads to fatal consequences.” Emphasizing the complexity of fire management, Kurt warned that theoretical knowledge is not enough. “Fire has a language. If you cannot read it, you cannot control it,” he said. 
100 MILE HOUSE, BC — West Fraser Mills (WFM) had just cause to fire a worker who violated a safety policy on May 13, 2024, and tried to minimize the risk involved,