On Saturday, President Trump began an investigation on whether wooden imports threaten US national security, a step that is likely to increase relations with Canada, the largest exporter of wood to the United States.
The President of Trade, Howard Lottenic, directed the investigation. The results of the investigation can allow the president to apply definitions to wood imports. A White House official refused to determine the time it would take.
An executive note signed by Mr. Trump has ordered the investigation and accompanied another document that White House officials said would broaden the size of the wood offered for sale every year, which increases the supply and assistance in ensuring that the prices of wood are not high.
The commercial investigation is likely to increase Canada. Some of its citizens have called Boycott American products On Mr. Trump’s plans to impose a tariff on all Canadian imports that start on Tuesday. The president, who is also planning to strike Mexico with similar definitions, says the fees are a punishment for failing to stop the flow of drugs and migrants to the United States.
Many Canadians have been competing Mr. Trump’s assertion that fentanel is flowing from his country to the United States.
Canada and the United States It has turned On the protection of the wood industry for decades. The two countries have protected their own industries with definitions and other commercial measures, and argued over the legitimacy of these measures in conflicts under the Free Trade Agreement in North America and the World Trade Organization.
Canada provided $ 28 billion from wood to the United States in 2021 – The last year’s statistics were available from the American International Trade Committee – or nearly half of the US wood imports. Canada follows China, Brazil and Mexico as import sources.
The United States has also exported nearly $ 10 billion of wood to Canada in 2021, in addition to $ 6.5 billion for Mexico.
White House officials said the wood was an industry in which the United States should be almost self -sufficient based on its resources, but American wood factories were undermined through cheap imports of bad actors, some of which were supposed allies.
Peter Navarro, the chief adviser to trade and manufacturing, said in a call with journalists on Friday that the “catastrophic” wood and wood policies “raise the costs of building, housing and dismissing America through a major trade deficit resulting from exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil in the market in the American market.
He said: “This day stops with a pair of Trumpian works designed to enhance the offer and demand for American wood and wood.”
If they are not compensated by matching increases in the supply, it is possible that the wood tariff will be raised from the price of imported wood and raised prices for various industries, especially construction. The American investigation will include derivative wood products, such as kitchen cabinets.
The investigation is also likely to raise questions and retreat about whether wooden imports really pose a threat to national security.
The President also started investigations into national security in steel, aluminum and copper, but these minerals are used directly by the army to make aircraft, ships and weapons. When asked about the justification for national security, the White House official said that the army was a major wood consumer.
Alan Rapeport The reports contributed.
