Canadian Lumber Tariff Hurts Consumers, Group Clai

Washington, D.C., December 6, 2002--American Consumers for Affordable Homes (ACAH) today called on the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to focus on how border taxes, quotas, price controls and other trade distorting measures, particularly the 27% duties recently imposed on Canadian lumber imports, are hurting consumers. The ITC today held hearings on the competitiveness of the U.S. structural building components industry, which includes structural beams, arches, trusses and other wood products needed for home construction. In response to a request for this assessment by Senators Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and the Senate Finance Committee, the ITC has surveyed home builders, lumber dealers and other interested parties on the market for U.S. wood for structural building components and non-wood substitutes, and its impact on U.S. production and housing construction. The Senate request for the study was issued under Section 332 of the Tariff Act of 1930. In connection with the study, Senators Baucus and Grassley also directed the ITC to examine the effect of tariffs and other border measures on the domestic home building industry and U.S. homebuyers. The most significant of these is the 27% countervailing and anti-dumping duties on Canadian lumber imports imposed by the U.S. Commerce Department last spring "While we believe this study can provide useful information about lumber users, we hope that the ITC also will take into consideration the burden placed on consumers forced to pay the 27 percent duties on Canadian lumber imports," said Susan Petniunas, ACAH spokesperson. "The impacts are not just on lumber users; the current duties amount to a federally imposed sales tax on new home construction, remodeling and other applications for lumber. It is a tax on home buyers and home owners." Petniunas pointed out that even though current lumber costs have dropped, the duties add to the instability and volatility of the housing market. "Without trade-distorting border taxes or other interferences such as quotas, the cost of lumber would be dictated by the free market, allowing for longer term stability," she added. "Removal of border taxes benefits lumber dealers, home builders and, ultimately, consumers and the economy." According to Petniunas, these duties are particularly devastating for consumers because the U.S. cannot produce sufficient lumber to meet its needs. Approximately one third of its lumber for building homes must come from imports, primarily from Canada. "The 27 percent countervailing and anti-dumping duties imposed on finished lumber for framing homes and remodeling, can increase the average cost of a new home by as much as $1,000," she said. "Based on information from the U.S. Census Bureau, that additional $1,000 prevents as many as 300,000 families from qualifying for home mortgages." This past summer, the World Trade Organization found that the Department of Commerce action imposing preliminary countervailing duties more than a year ago on Canadian softwood lumber imports was contrary to U.S. obligations under U.S. trade rules and should be overturned. Similar WTO challenges have been made by Canada on the final countervailing and anti-dumping duties imposed last spring. Challenges to the U.S. tariffs are also pending before dispute panels convened under the North American Free Trade Agreement.