The U.S. will charge more than double the IT taxes and fees in imports of cork timber from Canada, with its planned new interest rate set at 34.45%, up from the top 14.54%.
While the preliminary decision was not immediately issued to the U.S. Federal Gazette, it was confirmed in a statement from the British Columbia Prime Minister’s Office and the U.S. Lumberjack Alliance in the trade industry.
New cork timber jobs have long been harsh in the growing trade war between Canada and the United States, which will be the latest blow to the troubled forestry industry in BC, where thousands of workers have laid off over the past few years.
British Columbia Prime Minister David Eby condemned the planned hike as an “attack on forest workers and British Columbians” in a statement Saturday.
Watch | EBY drives the cork industry to drive:
“In Canada, there are ongoing unreasonable cork timber tariffs, coupled with other U.S. tariffs and other trade lawsuits,” he wrote.
“We have friends and family in the United States who need Canadian timber to build or rebuild the house, and both Canadians and Americans need to end this trade dispute.”
Under the U.S. Tariff Act, the Department of Commerce determines whether the sale of goods is below fair value or whether it benefits from subsidies provided by foreign governments.
In Canada, the provinces of timber-producing harvested so-called pillar fees for timber harvested from crown land, a system of American producers (forced to pay market prices) that considered it unfair subsidy.
New Brunswick's new wood royalty system is designed to rise and fall with markets like wood. However, the amount collected so far this year on cork under new systems is lower than traditional levels
U.S. timber producers believe Canada's penalties cost is harvested on the crown of unfair government subsidies. (Michel Nogue/Radio-Canada)
Indeed, the American Timber Alliance (the cork producer representing the country) welcomed the planned responsibilities in a statement Friday.
“These unfair trade practices were designed by Canada to maintain the artificially inflated U.S. market share of Canadian products and force U.S. companies to reduce production, thereby killing U.S. jobs,” the statement said.
EBY meets PM
CBC News has contacted Canada Global Affairs to find out if the federal government plans to countermeasures the program's ongoing application.
In August 2024, when tariffs rose from 8.05% to 14.54%, the federal government said it would fight tariffs from the U.S. Court of International Trade and the World Trade Organization.
Watch | British Columbia's forest industry is threatened:
Ebby said the BC government will work with the forest department and the federal government to fight responsibilities “through all the avenues available to us.”
“I meet with the Prime Minister on Monday…I plan to raise this question directly with him,” the Prime Minister said.
“BBC workers and their families rely on the targets of these tariffs, and we want to see the same Canadian team protecting them, just as the automotive and steel industries in Ontario and Quebec do.
The United States has long been the largest market for BC wood exports, representing more than half of the industry of about $10 billion.
But amid a series of challenges in the province’s forestry industry – including the infestation of mountain pine beetles that killed hundreds of thousands of trees – Mills has closed in recent years near the province, while large forestry companies are opening new factories in the U.S.
In 2023, Statistics Canada’s number shows that BC has lost more than 40,000 work in the forest sector since the early 1990s.
