Supply-Build Canada, formerly known as the WRLA (Western Retail Lumber Association) has joined the fight against tariffs misinformation.
Liz Kovach, president of Supply-Build Canada, based in Winnipeg, recently sent a bulletin to her members about the tariffs. “We recently met with various economists along with James Rajotte, special advisor to the Alberta premier on U.S. relations, and his team in Washington,” Kovach said.
Supply-Build Canada also met with Global Affairs Softwood Lumber Division to get their insights and perspective on the issue “and learn how we can support their efforts and, in turn, our membership and partners.”
Kovach said that “Canadian lumber is taking a beating in the media.”
“One of the key reasons behind that is the power of the U.S. Lumber Coalition (USLC). It is an alliance of 19 private timberland owners (all unnamed on their website) who are working to protect their self-interests which are not aligned with the bulk of the industry, including end users. The data they use to back up their claims are either old charts from the pandemic days or snippets of data taken out of context to support their narrative rather than present the facts in context.
“They have also been the largest roadblock to getting a new Softwood Lumber Agreement in place and are why the Canadian industry is currently facing 14.4 percent duties on lumber products exported to the US. As a result of their campaigning, this duty will double to 30 percent in August. The proposed 25 percent tariff on top of the duties will be crippling. We have already seen layoffs in Canadian steel and aluminum and we will begin to see this in lumber as well.
“With input from our members, including mills and remanufacturers, we are developing a strategy to advocate for our industry, combat misinformation and refute USLC’s major claims,” Kovach wrote.
