It’s been a tough year for the lumber trade. With US housing starts unusually low, demand and prices for lumber are down — even as trade costs, especially for Canadian producers, keep rising. …The president’s goal is straightforward: to bolster the domestic lumber industry — a move U.S. producers welcome. “This is our market. America first, baby,” says Andrew Miller, chair of the US Lumber Coalition. “I don’t think Canadians get that through their thick head. This is America, not Canada. There’s nothing that obligates us to take dumped subsidized product at the expense of US producers.” …Free market advocates see it differently: They say tariffs hurt consumers and that the added costs will eventually be passed through in the form of higher prices. They also doubt the U.S. lumber sector can replace Canadian boards in a timely fashion. …Even Miller said using national security as a reason was merely a “sideshow.”