As a result of the Trump Administration’s reckless tariff policies, America’s hardwood industry has faced a range of consequences, including lost revenues, cancelled orders and the high costs of diverting shipments already in route to China.
The 125% tariffs that China applied to U.S. imports in response to the staggering 145% tariffs that the Trump administration placed on Chinese goods on April 2 jolted hardwood producers. Immediately, some hardwood prices plummeted, and many lumber processors halted purchases from sawmills, leaving those mills with limited outlets for their lumber. Many hardwood exporters began laying off workers, closing operations and selling rerouted shipments at distressed prices.
For now, the trade war between United States and China has simmered, with tariffs rates on American exports to China now set at 10%. Still, there is much at stake for America’s hardwood producers. In Pennsylvania, which is the nation’s leading producer of hardwood lumber, the stakes are especially high. In the Commonwealth alone, the forest-products industry employs over 60,000 people and has a $21.8 billion direct impact and a $39.1 billion indirect impact on the state economy. The livelihoods of foresters, loggers, sawyers, material handlers, lumber graders and many more well-paying jobs hang in the balance. Fewer ancillary workers, such as truck drivers and dock workers, will be needed if high tariffs are reinstated. The future of Pennsylvania’s global hardwood markets and the environment also remain at risk.
Without stable pricing and a reliable supply of U.S. hardwoods, international producers who covet American hardwoods for their beauty, durability, legality and environmental credentials will consider shifting to European, African, South American or Asian hardwoods. Should those markets be lost, they’ll be hard to win back. Gaining global market share took years of hard work, travel and industry funding to educate architects, designers and importers around the globe on the benefits of choosing American hardwoods. These efforts, as well as America’s credibility as a reliable trading partner, were obviously not part of the Trump administration’s calculus when it enacted the unreasonably high tariffs only to walk them back earlier this week.
When tariffs impair demand from China, the largest importer of American hardwoods, the results are devastating. China is the top destination for Red Oak, the highest-volume species in the Appalachian Forest. Without this market, current East Coast sawmill production capacity, already reduced to its present output of 6 billion board feet annually from over 14 billion annually at its peak — partly due to tariffs Trump imposed in 2018 — will further decline. The responsible forest management practiced here and respected around the globe requires the full and proper utilization of all hardwood species growing in our forests. Uneven demand across hardwood species resulting from lost markets undermines responsible forest management leading to less wood production. Fewer wood products would also mean less carbon sequestration (capturing and storing carbon dioxide to mitigate climate change). Global deforestation rates could also rise if U.S. supplies fewer hardwoods to international markets.
Sadly, these tariffs were implemented by the Trump administration with complete disregard for the Constitutional power granted to Congress “to lay and collect taxes, duties, Imposts and Excises.” Congressional power was circumvented by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a move which is now being challenged in the courts by both private businesses and states alike. The courts will rule on the tariffs’ constitutionality, but the opportunity for elected officials representing working hardwood-forest states to carefully consider the effects of the tariffs on their constituents has passed. Instead, this unchecked move evaded the checks and balances central to our democracy and denied public discourse on actions immensely consequential to so many hard-working Americans.
Pennsylvania is synonymous with top-quality hardwoods and a paragon of responsible forest management. There are family owned, multi-generational sawmills dotting our Commonwealth providing critical jobs to rural areas. These families share a deep respect for and reliance on our forest resources. It is unfathomable and despicable that this historic industry — as well as countless others in our country — whose employees have worked so hard competing in the global marketplace, was not considered by the Trump administration when it decided to tarnish America’s reputation as a reliable trading partner and put so many American companies and jobs at risk.